Monday, June 8, 2009
Upanishads
Amazon.com Review
The poetic backbone of Hinduism, the millennia-old Upanishads transcend time. The selections offered here illuminate a path that is as "narrow as the edge of a razor" but pregnant with freedom and bliss. Through vivid metaphors and timeless prose, learn how the path of yoga leads beyond the treacherous web of karma to the final, blissful union of the personal soul, atman, with the universal soul, Brahman. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
An "Upanisad" is a teaching session with a guru, and the thirteen texts of the "Principal Upanis.ads"—which comprise this volume—form a series of philosophical discourses between teacher and student that question the inner meaning of the world. Composed beginning around the eighth century bce, the Upanisads have been central to the development of Hinduism, exploring its central doctrines: rebirth, karma, overcoming death, and achieving detachment, equilibrium, and spiritual bliss. Speaking to the reader in direct, unadorned prose or lucid verse, the Upanisads collected here embody humanity’s perennial search for truth and knowledge. Valerie Roebuck’s powerful new translation blends accuracy with readability and retains the oral style of these stirring and profound philosophical explorations.

