The Upanishads

ISBN-13: 9781586380212 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 384 str.

Eknath Easwaran

Opis

In the ancient wisdom texts called the Upanishads, illumined sages share flashes of insight, the results of their investigation into consciousness itself. In extraordinary visions, they have direct experience of a transcendent Reality which is the essence, or Self, of each created being. They teach that each of us, each Self, is eternal, deathless, one with the power that created the universe.

Easwaran's best-selling translation is reliable and readable. It includes an overview of the cultural and historical setting, with chapter introductions, notes, and a Sanskrit glossary. But it is Easwaran's understanding of the wisdom of the Upanishads that makes this edition truly outstanding.

Each sage, each Upanishad, appeals in a different way to the reader's head and heart. In the end, Easwaran writes, "The Upanishads are part of India's precious legacy, not just to Hinduism but to humanity, and in that spirit they are offered here."

Recenzje

"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 World's Religions

Spis treści

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

SacredSong

SHVETASHVATARA 153

The Faces of God

MUNDAKA 179

Modes of Knowing

MANDUKYA 197

Consciousness& Its Phases

KENA 207

WhoMoves the World?

PRASHNA 219

The Breathof Life

TAITTIRIYA 239

Ascentto Joy

AITAREYA 263

TheUnity of Life

MINOR UPANISHADS Beads of Wisdom

TEJOBINDU 283

ATMA 286

AMRITABINDU288

PARAMAHAMSA 291

Afterword 295

A Religionfor Modern Times

by Michael N. Nagler

Glossary 337

Notes 345

Index377

O autorze

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.