THE TEN PRINCIPAL UPANISHADS

Category Philosophy & Religion
Format Paperback
Imprint Rupa
Price 195

ISBN: 978-8129100740
Pages: 158 pages
Date: 2003

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Upanishads are a group of texts in Hindu sacred literature that are considered to reveal the ultimate truth and whose knowledge is considered to lead to spiritual emancipation. In the Upanishads, we find the finest flowering of the Indian metaphysical and speculative thought. They are utterances of seers who spoke out of the fullness of their illumined experience. 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. There are over 200 Upanishads but the traditional number is 108. Of them, only 10 are the principal Upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Tattiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka. This book is a forerunner in introducing these primary Upanishads to the uninitiated.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Shri Purohit Swami translated selected passages from the 10 principal Upanishads from Sanskrit. Fluent in both Sanskrit and English, Shri Purohit Swami was instrumental in popularising the wisdom of Indian spirituality and philosophy through his translations of ancient Indian texts. His other books include The Geeta: The Gospel of the Lord Shri Krishna, An Indian Monk, The Song of Silence, In Quest of Myself, Harbinger of Love, Honeycomb, and Gunjarao. This book carries an introduction by the noted Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)