Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

=========================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, May 31, 2020. 1.Introduction -6. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. #The texts, known as the Upanishads, are spread out throughout the range of the literature of the Veda, and each section of the Veda has its own Upanishad or Upani?hads. We are proposing to take up the study of the most important of them, very rarely studied by people and very rarely still discussed about – the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – the great forest of knowledge, as its name suggests. ##One can find everything there, as one finds in a forest. This Upanishad, particularly, is never studied by students, nor is it taught by tutors, because of its complicated structure, difficult to grasp, and not safe also to communicate if its import is not properly rendered. If its meaning is properly grasped,

============================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, May 18, 2020. 1.Introduction -5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The seers of the Upanishads were bent upon entering into the kernel of Reality by casting off all vestures which limit human life, and attaining a kind of attunement with it, if necessity arose, and the unconditioned was plumbed and experienced. #So, in a way, we may say that the Upanishad texts are records of experiences and explanations of Masters who set themselves in tune with ultimate Truth. ##Such are the Upanishads. ##It is a very strange word, 'Upanishad', which is supposed to mean a secret knowledge, not to be imparted to the uninitiated or to the common public who are wedded to the exoteric approach only, who are totally conditioned in their life, and who cannot rise above the bia

================================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday, May 15, 2020. 1.Introduction -4. ----------------------------------------- The Veda-Sastra is classified into the exoteric and the esoteric, as in the case of every religious lore. We have this distinction in Christianity, in Islam, and everywhere : the outward religion and the mystical approach to no where.  The Vedas are a general term for this entire group of scriptures which discuss by a long range of development of thought, every approach to Reality possible, from the lowest to the highest. These layers of approach, recorded in the Vedas, are available to us in the groupings, today known as the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. These are terms known to many of us, and we know very well that the Samhita portion of the Veda is constituted of hymns and pra

================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 02/05/2020. 1.Introduction -3. ----------------------------- 1. #This was the great theme of discussion in ancient times, recorded in the Vedas and Upanishads, and masters and sages sat together in congregation, and discussed the problems of life, of here and hereafter. *What is life? **What is this world, and what is our duty? ***What are we expected to do and in what way are we to behave, and so on. Is there a life beyond, or is this life everything? ****Is this earth the evaluating principle of all, or is there something beyond? ##These questions were discussed in great detail through centuries, right from the time of the Vedas. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. #We have, in India particularly, a series of records available of such discussions of ancient masters, which are given to us today