The Upanishads
उपनिषद्
The oldest sustained attempt to answer one question: what is actually here, underneath the world and underneath you?
The closing layer of the Vedas—conversations, mostly, recorded between roughly 800 and 200 BCE. Where the earlier Vedic material is ritual, these turn inward and ask a single question in many forms: what is the thing that is actually here, underneath the world and underneath you? Their answer, arrived at by different roads, is that the ground of the universe (brahman) and the ground of yourself (ātman) are not two things. They argue this by story, by riddle, by teacher-and-student exchange, by frank admission of failure. They are not systematic and they are not consoling. They are the source of all later Indian philosophy, and Schopenhauer said reading them was the solace of his life and would be the solace of his death.
असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor māmṛtaṁ gamaya
From the unreal lead me to the real. From darkness lead me to light. From death lead me to immortality.
The prayer that everyone knows, and the whole programme of the Upanishads in three lines.
ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम् ॥
tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam
All this, whatever moves in this moving world, is enveloped by the Lord. Enjoy it, then, by letting it go. Do not covet anyone's wealth.
The shortest Upanishad opens with the whole ethic of non-possession.
यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मन्येवानुपश्यति ।
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥
sarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate
One who sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, does not shrink from anything.
Vivekananda's service and Sarada Devi's motherhood are both applications of this line.
यस्यामतं तस्य मतं मतं यस्य न वेद सः ।
अविज्ञातं विजानतां विज्ञातमविजानताम् ॥
avijñātaṁ vijānatāṁ vijñātam avijānatām
It is understood by the one who does not think they understand it; the one who thinks they understand it does not. It is unknown to those who know, and known to those who do not.
The best verse in the corpus on intellectual humility. Ramakrishna's salt doll is a commentary on it.
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत ।
क्षुरस्य धारा निशिता दुरत्यया
दुर्गं पथस्तत्कवयो वदन्ति ॥
kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā
durgaṁ pathas tat kavayo vadanti
Arise! Awake! Having found the great ones, learn. The path is sharp as a razor's edge, hard to cross—so the poets say.
Vivekananda took his motto from the first line. Note that the verse does not promise it will be easy.
आत्मानं रथिनं विद्धि शरीरं रथमेव तु ।
बुद्धिं तु सारथिं विद्धि मनः प्रग्रहमेव च ॥
इन्द्रियाणि हयानाहुर्विषयांस्तेषु गोचरान् ।
buddhiṁ tu sārathiṁ viddhi manaḥ pragraham eva ca
indriyāṇi hayān āhur viṣayāṁs teṣu gocarān
Know the Self as the rider in a chariot, and the body as the chariot. Know the intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins. The senses, they say, are the horses, and the objects of sense the roads they run.
The chariot: still the clearest map of the mind ever drawn.
द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते ।
तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ॥
tayor anyaḥ pippalaṁ svādv atty anaśnann anyo abhicākaśīti
Two birds, close companions, clasp the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other, not eating, looks on.
The self that suffers and the self that watches. Sri Aurobindo's “stand back and look” is this verse turned into a practice.
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं
satyam eva jayate nānṛtaṁTruth alone conquers, not falsehood.
India's national motto.
तत्त्वमसि
tat tvam asiThat thou art.
Said nine times by a father to his son, each time after a different experiment. The three most argued-over words in Indian philosophy.
सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः ।
मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ।
mātṛ-devo bhava. pitṛ-devo bhava. ācārya-devo bhava. atithi-devo bhava.
Speak the truth. Practise dharma. Do not neglect study. Be one for whom the mother is a god, the father is a god, the teacher is a god, the guest is a god.
The oldest graduation address we have. Periyava quoted it constantly.
काममय एवायं पुरुष इति ।
स यथाकामो भवति तत्क्रतुर्भवति ।
यत्क्रतुर्भवति तत्कर्म कुरुते ।
यत्कर्म कुरुते तदभिसम्पद्यते ॥
sa yathā-kāmo bhavati tat-kratur bhavati
yat-kratur bhavati tat karma kurute
yat karma kurute tad abhisampadyate
A person is made of desire. As their desire is, so is their resolve; as their resolve is, so is the deed they do; and as the deed they do, so do they become.
Desire → resolve → deed → destiny. The Dhammapada opens with the same insight.
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
That is full; this is full. From fullness, fullness comes forth. Taking fullness from fullness, fullness alone remains.
The peace-chant that opens the Īśā Upanishad. Chant it on our Listen page.
- Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, 1921 (public domain) ↗
- Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East vols. 1 & 15 ↗
- Swami Paramananda's translations, 1919 ↗
Where the translation is marked “Aumidhra”, the English is our own plain rendering from the original, made with the public-domain translations above as reference. Where a translator is named, the wording is theirs.
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