KATHA UPANISHAD KATHA UPANISHAD FIRST CYCLE : FIRST CHAPTER Vajashravasa, desiring, gave all he had. Now Vajashravasa had a son named Nachiketas. As the gifts were led past, faith took possession of him who was yet a boy unwed and he pondered: “Cattle that have drunk their water, eaten their grass, yielded their milk, worn out their organs, of undelight are the worlds which he reaches who gives such as these.ˮ He said to his father, “Me, O my father, to whom wilt thou give?ˮ A second time and a third he said it, and he replied, “To

KENA UPANISHAD THE KENA UPANISHAD FIRST PART By whom missioned falls the mind shot to its mark? By whom yoked moves the first life-breath forward on its paths? By whom impelled is this word that men speak? What god set eye and ear to their workings? That which is hearing of our hearing, mind of our mind, speech of our speech, that too is life of our life-breath and sight of our sight. The wise are released beyond and they pass from this world and become immortal. There sight travels not, nor speech, nor the mind. We know It not nor can distinguish how one should teach of

ON TRANSLATING THE UPANISHADS On Translating the Upanishads THIS translation of a few of the simpler and more exoteric Upanishads to be followed by other sacred and philosophical writings of the Hindus not included in the Revealed Scriptures, all under the one title of the Book of God, has been effected on one definite and unvarying principle, to present to England and through England to Europe the religious message of India only in those parts of her written thought which the West is fit to hear and to present these in such a form as should be attractive and suggestive to the Occidental intellect. The first branch o

FOUR Maya: The Principle of Phenomenal Existence Brahman then, let us suppose, has projected in Itself this luminous shadow of Itself and has in the act (speaking always in the language of finite beings with its perpetual taint of Time, Space and Causality) begun to envisage Itself and consider Its essentialities in the light of attributes. He who is Existence, Consciousness, Bliss envisages Himself as existent, conscious, blissful. From that moment phenomenal manifestation becomes inevitable; the Unqualified chooses to regard Himself as qualified. Once this fundamental condition is granted, everything else follows by the rigorous l

A NOTE ON THE CHHANDOGYA UPANISHAD A NOTE ON THE CHHANDOGYA UPANISHAD first adhyaya OM is the syllable (the Imperishable One); one should follow after it as the upward song (movement); for with OM one sings (goes) upwards; of which this is the analytical explanation. So literally translated in its double meaning, both its exoteric, physical and symbolic sense and its esoteric symbolised reality, runs the initial sentence of the Upanishad. These opening lines or passages of the Vedanta are always of great importance; they are always so designed as to suggest or even sum up, if not all that comes afterwards

ANALYSIS PREFATORY Plan of the Upanishad THE Upanishads, being vehicles of illumination and not of instruction, composed for seekers who had already a general familiarity with the ideas of the Vedic and Vedantic seers and even some personal experience of the truths on which they were founded, dispense in their style with expressed transitions of thought and the development of implied or subordinate notions. Every verse in the Isha Upanishad reposes on a number of ideas implicit in the text but nowhere set forth explicitly; the reasoning also that supports its conclusions is suggested by the words, not expressly conveyed to the intelli

AITEREYA UPANISHAD AITEREYA UPANISHAD chapter one : section I Hari OM. In the beginning the Spirit was One and all this (universe) was the Spirit; there was nought else moving¹ The Spirit thought, “Lo, I will make me worlds from out my being.ˮ These were the worlds he made; ambhaḥ, of the ethereal waters, marīcīh, of light, mara, of death and mortal things, āpah, of the lower waters. Beyond the shining firmament are the ethereal waters and the firmament is their base and resting-place; Space is the world of light; the earth is the world mortal; and below the earth are the lowe

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD SHIKSHAVALLI CHAPTER ONE Hari OM. Be peace to us Mitra. Be peace to us Varuna. Be peace to us Aryaman. Be peace to us Indra and Brihaspati. May far-striding Vishnu be peace to us. Adoration to the Eternal. Adoration to thee, O Vayu. Thou, thou art the visible Eternal and as the visible Eternal I will declare thee. I will declare Righteousness! I will declare Truth! May that protect me! May that protect the speaker! Yea, may it protect me! May it protect the speaker. OM! Peace! Peace! Peace! CHAPTER TWO OM. We will expound Shiksha, th

                                   

COMMENTARY 1 1 THE twelve great Upanishads are written round one body of ancient knowledge; but they approach it from different sides. Into the great kingdom of the Brahmavidya each enters by its own gates, follows its own path or detour, aims at its own point of arrival. The Isha Upanishad and the Kena are both concerned with the same grand problem, the winning of the state of Immortality, the relations of the divine, all-ruling, all-possessing Brahman to the world and to the human consciousness, the means of passing out of our present state of divided self, ignorance and suffering into the unity, the truth, the divine beatitude. As the Isha closes wit