The Upaniṣads (the name suggests “sitting near”, the student at the teacher’s side) are the concluding, philosophical portions of the Vedas, composed over centuries from roughly 800 BCE. They are not treatises but transcripts: kings questioning sages, sons teaching fathers, a woman (Gārgī) holding her own in debate.
The core discoveries
Behind the world’s variety lies one reality (Brahman); behind the individual’s shifting experience, one self (Ātman), and these two, the texts keep concluding, are identical; tat tvam asi, “you are that”. Liberation (mokṣa) is not earned but recognized.
Where to start
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya (the oldest, longest); the Kaṭha (the boy Naciketās and death itself); the Māṇḍūkya (twelve verses on the syllable Oṁ). Easwaran’s translation reads like what they are, conversations.
Related entries
- Bhagavad Gītā , The 700-verse dialogue between prince Arjuna and his charioteer Kṛṣṇa, the most beloved scripture of the Indian tradition and the seedbed of every path on this site.
- Mokṣa , Liberation, the fourth and highest aim of life; not a place reached but a case of mistaken identity corrected.
Mentioned in
References
- The Upaniṣads , translation by Eknath Easwaran
- The Principal Upaniṣads , translated & edited by S. Radhakrishnan