THE UPANISHADS

Rendered into simple and rhythmic English


(Comprising six Upanishads namely the Isha, Kena, Katha,

Mundaka, Prashna and Mandukya)


Svalpamapyasya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt

Bhagavadgita

Even a little of this Law delivereth one out of great fear.

Quel chʼella par quando un poco sorride,

Non si pò dicer né tenere a mente,

Si è novo miracolo e gentile.

Dante


What she appears when she smiles a little,

Cannot be spoken of, neither can the mind lay hold on it,

It is so sweet and strange and sublime a miracle.



First page, typewritten by Sri Aurobindo of the manuscript containing

the above six Upanishads

The rooted and fundamental conception of Vedanta is that there exists somewhere, could we but find it, available to experience or self-revelation, if denied to intellectual research, a single truth comprehensive and universal in the light of which the whole of existence would stand revealed and explained both in its nature and its end. This universal existence, for all its multitude of objects and its diversity of forces, is one in substance and origin; and there is an unknown quantity, X or Brahman to which it can be reduced, for from that it started and in and by that it still exists. This unknown quantity is called Brahman.