Upanishads

June 26, 2023

PM gifted a first edition print of book “The Ten Principal Upanishads” (from 1937) to US President.
The book is translated from Sanskrit by Shri Purohit Swami and Irish poet WB Yeats (won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923).
Upanishads are one of the four texts that together compile each of the Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva).
Upanishad is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and sad (to sit). Hence, the term implies the pupils, intent on learning, sitting near the teacher to acquire knowledge and truth.
They serve to explore the fundamental principles of the religion.
Dated to roughly 800-500 BC, Upanishads discuss concepts such as transmigration.
There are over 200 Upanishads, of these, only 10 are the principal Upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Tattiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka.
The Upanishads are the most sacred late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts which are considered to contain the ultimate truth and the knowledge that leads to spiritual emancipation.