The Upanishads

Introduction

The Upanishads are the knowledge-section of the Vedas, their philosophical summit. Rising above the fire-rites and rituals of the karma-section, here the sages raise the question directly: what is Brahman, what is the atman, what remains beyond death. These very questions would in time become the whole edifice of Vedanta.

Tradition counts one hundred and eight Upanishads, though ten among them are held to be the principal ones, the ten on which Shankaracharya wrote his commentaries: Ishavasya, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chandogya, and Brihadaranyaka. Within these lie the four great sayings, the mahavakyas, that ground all of Advaita: the Chandogya’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 milk drawn from the Upanishads. On every page the original Sanskrit, a guide to its pronunciation, and an English commentary sit together. Ishavasya is the best place to begin, the briefest, complete in only eighteen mantras; or Kena, whose question is the most direct of all.