Raja Thatha's stotra translations: Upanishads Translated by P.RRamachander

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Upanishads Translated by P.RRamachander

P.R.Ramachander

General Introduction

"Upanishad means the inner or mystic teaching. The term Upanishad is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and s(h)ad (to sit), i.e., sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. In the quietude of the forest hermitages the Upanishad thinkers pondered on the problems of deepest concerns and communicated their knowledge to fit pupils near them. Samkara derives the word Upanishad as a substitute from the root sad, 'to loosen.,' 'to reach' or 'to

destroy' with Upa and ni as prefixes and kvip as termination. If this determination is accepted, upanishad means brahma-knowledge by which ignorance is loosened or destroyed." Upanishads are found in the concluding sections of Vedas and are classified as Vedanta or the end of the Vedas. There are five Vedas with Yajur Veda having two versions. Each of these five books has several Saaakas (Branches). Each Saaka has a Karma Khanda dealing with the actions to be performed and is made up of Mantras and Brahmanaas. The latter deals with Upasana or meditation and has Aranyakas inside them for the benefit of those who have resorted to the quiet habitat of the

forest to pursue their spiritual Quest.

The Upanishads are found mostly in the Aranyaka section of the Vedas. The five Vedas have 1180 Saaakas and thus there should be 1180 Upanishads. But what we have now with us is a collection of 108 Upanishads. The list of these 108 Upanishads is given in the Mukthikopanishad.

Out of the 108 Upanishads only 10 have been commented upon by several Acharyas like Adhi Sankara. These are Ishavasya, Kena, Katha, Aithreya, Brihadaranyaka, Prashna, Mandukya, Taittireeya, Chandogya and Mundaka. These have also been popularized by many savants

like Swami Vivekananda, Swami Chinmayananda etc. They all deal with highest category of philosophy and metaphysics. So there is a general impression that all Upanishads are texts

of Hindu Philosophy. This is not true. There are Upanishads which even tell you how to wear

the sacred ash, how to worship a particular God and so on. But majority of them deal with

methods of Yoga and Renunciation (Sanyasa).

English translation

Sri Lakshmanan of Celextel.org searched for the english translation of all the 108 upanishads. He could find english translation of only 86 upanishads He requested me to translate the rest 22 upanishads and I did . Here are they

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Upanishads Translated by P.RRamachander

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