The Upanishads

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 Worlds Religions

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-point program for spiritual living to an American and international audience for almost forty years. His books on meditation and the classics of world mysticism have been translated into many languages. Easwaran drew on the Upanishads and the other Classics of Indian Spirituality throughout his life for deep inspiration. As Huston Smith writes, it is impossible to get to the heart of those Classics unless you live them, and he did live them. Through the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and its publishing arm, Nilgiri Press, Easwaran continues to reach an ever-growing audience around the world through publications and retreats.

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