Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Today I would like to share excerpts from this monumental work by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (India’s 2nd President), this classic book was first published in 1953.
Also as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
It still remains in print and you can buy your book from the link below or from any bookstore near you or on-line portal accessible to you:
Excerpts:
Brahmanas:
The elements of the ritualistic cult found in the Vedas are developed in the Brahmanas into an elaborate system of ceremonies. Many of the Brahmana texts are devoted to the exposition of the mystic significance of the various elements of the ritual.
Aranyakas:
The Aranyakas do not give us rules for the performance of sacrifices and explanations of ceremonies, but provide us with the mystic teaching of the sacrificial religion. They are meant for the study of those who are engaged in the vow of forest life, the Vanaprastha.
Isha Upanishad:
The Ish, also called Ishavasaya Upanishad, derives its name from the opening word of the text Ishavasya or Isha. It belongs to the Vajasaneyi school of the Yajur Veda. The Vajasaneya Samhita consists of forty chapters of which this Upanishad is the last. Its main purpose is to teach the essential unity of God and the world, being and becoming. It is interested not so much in the Absolute in itself, Parabrahman, as in the Absolute in relation to the world, Parameshvara. It teaches that life in the world and life in the Divine Spirit are not incompatible.
Kena Upanishad:
The Upanishad derives its name from the first word Kena, by whom, and belongs to the Sama Veda. It is also known as the Talavakara, the name of Brahmana of the Sama Veda to which the Upanishad belongs. It has four sections, the first two in verse and the other two in prose. The metrical portion deals with the Supreme Unqualified Brahman, the absolute principle underlying the world of phenomena and the prose part of the Upanishad deals with the Supreme as God, Ishvara.
Katha Upanishad:
Katha Upanishad, also called Kathakopanishad which belongs to the Taitirriya school of the Yajur Veda, uses the setting of a story found in ancient Sanskrit literature (Taitiriya Brahmana). A poor and pious Brahmana, Vajasravasa, performs a sacrifice and gives as presents to the priests a few old and feeble cows. His son, Nachiketas, feeling disturbed by the unreality of his father’s observance of the sacrifice, proposes that he himself may be offered as offering (dakshina) to a priest. When he persisted in his request, his father in rage said, ‘Unto Yama I give thee.’ Nachiketas goes to the abode of Yama and finding him absent, waits there for three days and nights unfed. Yama on his return offers three gifts in recompense for the delay and discomfort caused to Nachiketas. For the first, Nachiketas asked, ‘Let me return alive to my father.’ For the second, ‘Tell me how my good works (ishta-purta) may not be exhausted’; and for the third, ‘Tell me the way to conquer re-death (punar mrtyu).’
There are some passages common to the Gita and the Katha Upanishad.
Invocation at the beginning of this Upanishad
Sa ha nav avatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha viryam karavavahai:
Tejasvi nav adhitam astu: ma vidvishavahai; aum shantih, shantih, shantih.
May He protect us both; may He be pleased with us both; may we work together with vigour; may our study make us illumined; May there be no dislike between us. Aum, peace, peace, peace.
(The teacher and pupil pray for harmonious co-operation in keen and vigorous study.)
Prashna Upanishad:
The Prashna Upanishad belongs to the Atharva Veda and has six sections dealing with six questions put to a sage by his disciples who were intent on knowing the nature of the ultimate cause, the power of aum, the relation of the Supreme to the constituents of the world. The Upanishad is so called as it deals with prashna or question.
Mundaka Upanishad:
The Mundaka Upanishad belongs to the Atharva Veda and has three chapters, each of which has two sections. The name is derived from the root mund, ‘to shave,’ as he that comprehends the teaching of the Upanishad is shaved or liberated from error and ignorance. The Upanishad states clearly the distinction between the higher knowledge of the Supreme Brahman and the lower knowledge of the empirical world. It is by this higher wisdom and not by sacrifices or worship that one can reach Brahman.
Mandukya Upanishad:
The Mandukya Upanishad belongs to the Atharva Veda and contains twelve verses. It is an exposition of the principle of aum as consisting of three elements, a,u,m, which refer to the three states of waking, dream and dreamless sleep. The Supreme Self is manifested in the universe in its gross, subtle and causal aspects. Answering to the four states of consciousness, wakefulness, dream, dreamless sleep, transcendental consciousness there are aspects of the Godhead, the last alone being all inclusive and ultimately real.
Svetasvatara Upanishad:
The Svetasvatara Upanishad belongs to the Taittiriya school of the Yajur Veda. Its name is derived from the sage who taught it (svet – pure, asva-indiriyas-senses). It is theistic in character and identifies the Supreme Brahman with Rudra who is conceived as the material and the efficient cause of the world, not only the author of the world but its protector and guide.
The Principal Upanishads – Dr. S. Radhkrishnan
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