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Most of these are found towards the ends of the Brahmana and Aranyaka texts. According to the muktika tradition or the Muktopanishad, there are 98 other Upanishads aside from the chief ones, totaling Later, from the th centuries, other texts were composed and were claimed to be Upanishads.
This resulted in different books giving varying numbers for the Upanishads, some running up to Generally though, the number is accepted as Each of the Upanishads belong to different periods of Indian history and are the works of different authors. The earliest of the Upanishads are known to be pre-buddhistic, written within 1, B.
The Mauryan period was in fact a golden age when many of the ancient Indian texts were put down in writing, probably in reaction to the rise of Buddhism and Jainism. The Bhagavad Gita, the epics the Ramayana and Mahabharat, and the Brahmanas, and the four Vedas were put into writing in this period, the culmination of a hoary millennia-long oral tradition which was passed down from Guru to Shishya or Master to disciple. This little article is an attempt to place the main the principal Upanishads within the reach of every man and woman.
The Upanishads are magnificent movements of ancient Indian wisdom, being the grand outpourings of the spiritual experiences of those unique seekers of truth who, having risen above the chaos of ritualism and word spinning of scholastic philosophy, saw the truth directly through intuitive insight and thus gave to the thinking world what no philosophy based merely on logical reasoning could possibly give.
The aim of the authors in writing these scriptures was not, however, so much propagation of their metaphysical findings as to bring peace and freedom to anxious and struggling humanity through right living based on spiritual experiences. Who can doubt the fact that spiritual inheritance of the Hindus is as great, if not greater than, that of any living nation of the world?
And yet no people are so poor in truly religious life as Hindus are at the present time. Is it not tragic that with such a treasure house as the as the Upanishads at our disposal, we are still weltering ignominiously in the quagmire of gross materialism and superstitious rituals. It is just this truth which has so long been ignored by the Hindu society with regard to the religious life of most of its members.
Instead of broadcasting the sublime ideas and ideals of our ancient seekers, we had kept them confined in books which only a few could understand and had taught them in institutions to which still fewer could find access.
Our greatest need at the present time is, therefore, the dissemination of those noble teachings of our sacred scriptures which when reduced to practice can enrich human life and can, at the same time, make life thus enriched subservient to the achievement of social ends. It will, indeed, be strange, if the spirit of supreme wisdom of our Rishis which could at one time touch the deepest springs of human personality to such fine issues, should have lost its power of regenerating the present generations.
Let us then go back without any farther delay to our ancient and ever-fresh springs of spiritual vitality which have always been and can still be the best restoratives of our lost vigour. The message of the Upanishads, as given in this article, is meant neither for scholars nor for philosophers. It is a book written by a layman for laymen. The idea is simply to bring home to an average English knowing man and woman the importance and use of those principles of spiritual import which are indispensable both for daily worship and all round uplift.
Thanks to the selfless and unremitting labours of Rishi Dayanand and other founders of modern Hindu religious movements, there is a noticeable and increasing interest everywhere in the study of classical religious literature of ancient India. If the present humble effort in the form of this little article can tend to stimulate this interest even to a small extent, the author will have been amply rewarded. Any reader of the Upanishads must acknowledge their debt of gratitude to Dr.
Radhakrishnan, Professor Robert Ernest Hume, Professor Joseph-Nadin Rawson, and others upon whose scholarly writings modern translations of the original Sanskrit texts draw so amply. Moksha or Mukti Salvation VI. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death. The Great Riddle The questions, how and why the universe and life have come into being and what will be their destiny, have been the enigma of ages.
Whence do we originate? By what do we live and on what established? Thank-you so much Kamala. Very informative… it was a great experience in reading your blog… though m a college student… bsy in exams,assignments,classes still i try to fetch some time to learn something about all this… and your post helped me a lot.
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