Upanishads – Introductory

Jagat Guru Adi Shankaracharya ji. I bow to you and ask for your blessings and permission for writing down explanation of your most spectacular work.

Upanishads constitute the path of knowledge and is considered enough to provide liberation to those who seek it.

While there is no actual proof about who wrote the ever flowing philosophy of Upanishads (we think Bhagwan Vyasa did), it is Adi Shankaracharya ji’s commentaries on them that is world wide studied in Advaita Vendanta, the branch of Metaphysical philosophy that considers everything as one supreme reality.

A-dvaita (non dual) Philosophy has something unique I feel, and that is, it appeals to the rational mind. When I was an atheist devotion didn’t occur to me but this text wasn’t anything abstract. This was as same as science- equally logical. Swami Vivekananda called it spirituality for rational minds. Though I, still believe, that devotion and surrender are non negotiable.

In earlier of my posts I have mentioned them multiple times and realized that people were eager to know more about them. And even though I am literally no where qualified to write even a word about them, I’ll still try. As Even  writing this introduction down is bringing me the sense of immense peace. I’ll try to post time to time from next week onwards.

I spent four years scratching my head and trying to figure out what these lines really meant, because the essence is one liner- You are that. 95% of my time I kept thinking that Umm okay but I don’t feel like it, But it again is subjective as I was only 17 then and had no sense of spirituality . So, I’d say not to take this very seriously and get demotivated because it takes time and a lot of self contemplation. I probably won’t be posting verse-to-verse But my general understanding of the topic, What I can assure you is to write down everything that I’ve known for myself and please feel free to correct me anywhere I could have done better. 😊 I’ll probably have to go through all of it again before starting writing it here to ensure maximum quality content.

Ending the introduction (oxymoron?😛) with my favorite story.

Once when a Prince was very little, he had dressed up as a Princess for a drama play in the kingdom. After he had dressed up and had applied makeup, he looked so pretty that his mother- The queen asked the royal potrait maker to paint the prince’s potrait.

Many years later, the Prince grew up into a fine- handsome youngman and found this potrait in the store house one day. One look at it and he fell completely in love with the girl who was labeled as – Princess of Kashi and Below that the year of potrait was mentioned. The Prince calculated the years and realized that this girl must be of his age now. “I must propose to this princess” he thought and made plans to find her.

As soon as he informed about this to his royal close-ones. They burst out laughing and said “Dear Prince, the searcher and the object of searching are one. You don’t need to desire her as it’s you. You already have what you are searching for”

This is the essence of all Upanishads summarized. 😀

Did I give away everything in the introduction itself?😛 Or may be there was nothing to give in the first place 😉

asato mā sadgamaya,
tamaso mā jyotirgamaya,
mṛtyormā’mṛtaṃ gamaya
From the unreal lead me to the real!
From the darkness lead me to the light!
From death lead me to immortality!

Om Shanti. Shanti. Shanti.