The Upanishads

By (author) Easwaran Eknath
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Among the oldest of India''s spiritual texts, the Upanishads are records of intensive question-and-answer sessions given by illumined sages to their students.

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Among the oldest of India''s spiritual texts, the Upanishads are records of intensive question-and-answer sessions given by illumined sages to their students - in ashrams, at family gatherings, in a royal court, and in the kingdom of Death. The sages share flashes of insight, extraordinary visions, the results of their investigation into consciousness itself. The Upanishads have puzzled and inspired wisdom seekers from Yeats to Schopenhauer. In this best-selling translation, Eknath Easwaran makes these challenging texts more accessible by selecting the passages most relevant to readers seeking timeless truths today. This book includes an overview of the cultural and historical setting, with chapter introductions, notes, and a Sanskrit glossary. But it is Easwaran''s understanding of the wisdom of the Upanishads that makes this edition truly outstanding. Each sage, each Upanishad, appeals in a different way to the reader''s head and heart. For Easwaran, the Upanishads are part of India''s precious legacy, not just to Hinduism but to humanity, and in that spirit they are offered here.
Table of contents

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Introduction 13

ISHA 51

     The Inner Ruler

KATHA 61

     Death as Teacher

BRIHADARANYAKA 93

     The Forest of Wisdom

CHANDOGYA 119

     Sacred Song

SHVETASHVATARA 153

     The Faces of God

MUNDAKA 179

     Modes of Knowing

MANDUKYA 197

     Consciousness & Its Phases

KENA 207

     Who Moves the World?

PRASHNA 219

     The Breath of Life

TAITTIRIYA 239

     Ascent to Joy

AITAREYA 263

     The Unity of Life

MINOR UPANISHADS  Beads of Wisdom

     TEJOBINDU 283

     ATMA 286

     AMRITABINDU 288

     PARAMAHAMSA 291

Afterword 295

    A Religion for Modern Times

    by Michael N. Nagler

Glossary 337

Notes 345

Index 377

Review quote
“No one in modern times is more qualified – no, make that ‘as qualified’ – to translate the epochal Classics of Indian Spirituality than Eknath Easwaran. And the reason is clear. It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and he did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless.” – Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions
Biographical note

Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999) brings to this volume a rare combination of credentials. Trained from a young age in one of the purest Sanskrit traditions in India, he had a deep intuitive knowledge of his own Hindu legacy. He also had a great love of Western literature and was chairman of the English department at a major Indian university when he came to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship in 1959.

From the 1960s onwards, Easwaran held classes on mysticism and practical spirituality for a primarily American audience. A gifted teacher, he was able to anticipate the problems that Western readers may have with the concepts underlying the classics of Indian spirituality, and to explain them in fresh and profoundly simple ways.

In 1961 Easwaran founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in California, and in 1967, at the University of California, Berkeley, he taught the first academic course on meditation ever offered for credit at a major American university. He continued to teach passage meditation and his eight-p