The Ten Principal Upanishads
CONTEXT:
- Recently, the prime minister gifted the Bidens with an exquisite sandalwood box, a first edition print of the book The Ten Principal Upanishadsfrom 1937, and a 7.5 carat lab-grown diamond.
- The gift, according to the outlet, is a tribute to the US president’s admiration for Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
- Biden has often quoted poetry from Yeats and made references to his writings and poetry in his public speeches, officials said, adding that Yeats had a deep admiration for India and was greatly influenced by Indian spirituality.
- This book is an English translation of the Indian Upanishads, co-authored with Shri Purohit Swami, and published by Yeats in 1937.
- The translation and collaboration between the two authors occurred throughout the 1930s and it was one of the final works of Yeats.
About Upanishads:
- The Upanishads are the most sacred late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts which are considered to contain the ultimate truth and the knowledge that leads to spiritual emancipation.
- In the Upanishads, we find the finest flowering of the Indian metaphysical and speculative thought.
- They are utterances of seers who spoke out of the fullness of their illumined experience.
- Upanishad is derived from upa(near), ni(down) and sad (to sit).
- Hence, the term implies the pupils, intent on learning, sitting near the teacher to acquire knowledge and truth.
- While there are over 200 Upanishads, the traditional number is 108.
- Of these, only 10 are the principal Upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Tattiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka.
- As such, the book The Ten Principal Upanishadsintends to introduce these primary Upanishads to the unversed.
Syllabus: Prelims
