the upanishads

The Sanskrit word “Upanishad” in its literal definition means “to sit down near”. In ancient India the Upanishads represented secret teachings reserved for those who sat at the feet of their guru. These texts full of wisdom are also referred to as Vedānta, meaning either the “last chapters of the Veda” or “the highest purpose of the Vedas”. While the main parts of the Vedas contain mostly descriptions of rituals and prayers, the Upanishads focus on the realization of the Ultimate – the Knowledge of the Self.

What exactly is this Self with a capital “S”? The oldest answer to this question comes from India, almost three thousand years ago.
Long before Socrates interrogated his fellow Athenians and Plato wrote his Dialogues, a great debate is said to have taken place in the land of Videha in what is now northeastern India. Staged before the throne of the learned and mighty King Janaka, the debate pitted the great sage Yājñavalkya against the other renowned Brahmins of the kingdom. The king set the prize at a thousand cows with ten gold pieces attached to each one’s horns, declaring that whoever was the most learned would win the animals. Yājñavalkya’s sagacity did not entail modesty, for while all the other priests kept silent, not daring to step forward, Yājñavalkya called out to his student to take possession of the cows. Challenged by eight great Brahmins, one by one, Yājñavalkya demonstrated his superior knowledge. As a favor to the king, he allowed him to ask any question he wanted. In the ensuing dialogue, told in the “Great Forest Teaching” (Brihadāranyaka Upanishad)—a text dating from the seventh century BCE and the oldest of the ancient Indian scriptures called the Upanishads—Yājñavalkya gave the first recorded account of the nature of consciousness and its main modes or states.

The Muktika Canon lists one hundred and eight Upanishads, of which the following ten are widely considered the Principal Upanishads.