The Upanishads

Introduction

The Upanishads are the knowledge-portion of the Vedas, their philosophical summit. Rising above the yajnas and rituals of the karma-kanda, here the rishis raise the question directly: what is Brahman, what is the atman (self), what remains beyond death. These very questions later became the whole edifice of Vedanta.

Tradition counts one hundred and eight Upanishads, but ten among them are held principal, the ones on which Shankaracharya wrote his commentaries: Ishavasya, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya, and Brihadaranyaka. In these lie the four mahavakyas on which all of Advaita rests, the Chhandogya’s “तत्त्वमसि”, the Brihadaranyaka’s “अहं ब्रह्मास्मि”, the Aitareya’s “प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म”, and the Mandukya’s “अयमात्मा ब्रह्म”.

On lulla.net we read eight of these Upanishads mantra by mantra, and alongside them the Bhagavad Gita, held to be the milked essence of the Upanishads. On every page the original Sanskrit, its Devanagari pronunciation, and the Hindi commentary sit together. For a beginning, the Ishavasya is best, the most compact, complete in only eighteen mantras; or the Kena, whose question is the most direct of all.