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The Upanishads

Book Overview: 

The word Upanishad (upa-ni-shad) consists of, "Upa" means "near;" "ni" means "down;" "shad" means "to sit." Thus, Upanishad is to sit down near the teacher to discuss, learn, practice, and experience. There are some 200 or more Upanishads. Some are lost and are only known about because of being referenced in other Upanishads.

The Chandogya-upanishad belongs to the Sama-veda. It ranks among the oldest Upanishads

Katha literally means "distress". Katha Upanishad uses words that symbolically embed and creatively have multiple meanings. For example, a closely pronounced word Katha (Sanskrit: कथा) literally means "story, legend, conversation, speech, tale". All of these related meanings are relevant to the Katha Upanishad.

The Mundaka-Upanishad is embedded inside the Atharva-vedha. Mundaka literally means "shaved (as in shaved head)". The word as title of the Upanishad possibly refers to "knowledge that shaves, or liberates, one of errors and ignorance". It is a poetic verse style Upanishad, with 64 verses, written in the form of mantras. However, these mantras are not used in rituals, rather they are used for teaching and meditation on spiritual knowledge. It contains three Mundakams (parts), each with two sections.

Prasana means question in Sanskrit. This Upanisahad contains six questions posed by six pupils to Pipplalda and answers to them by Pipplada.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .n a man performs actions clinging blindly to his lower desires, then his actions bind him to the plane of ignorance or the plane of birth and death; but when the same actions are performed with surrender to God, they purify and liberate him.

III

After leaving their bodies, they who have killed the Self go to the worlds of the Asuras, covered with blinding ignorance.

The idea of rising to bright regions as a reward for well-doers, and of falling into realms of darkness as a punishment for evil-doers is common to all great religions. But Vedanta claims that this condition of heaven and hell is only temporary; because our actions, being finite, can produce only a finite result.

What does it mean "to kill the Self?" How can the immortal Soul ever be destroyed? It cannot be destroyed, it can only be obscured. Those who hold themselves under the sway of ignorance, who serve the flesh and neglect the Atman o. . . Read More