The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 101
Ancient Hindu Enlightenment Series, Book 1
The Hindu Upanishads are among the best known and most beloved philosophical/religious/spiritual works in the world, and are also among the oldest, predating the earliest known works of Greek philosophy.
Loosely translated, Upanishad means “sitting at the feet of the masters”. Each one is found at the end of one of the four main Vedas (or Hindu “Bibles”) and is formatted as a “question and answer session” between student and teacher.
Imagine being able to sit at the feet of Buddha, Christ, or some other spiritual master and asking questions that would clarify the meaning of the scriptures for you. This is what the Upanishads are for the Hindus.
Though not well known by the masses, the teachings contained within their pages have influenced some of the greatest minds of our time, including T.S. Elliot, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, Arthur Schopenhaur, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and president John Adams, just to name a few.
They have also influenced Buddhism, the modern “New Age” movement, and just about every other religion that we know of today.
The goal of this series is to help you experience the “fountainhead” of modern spiritual thought for yourself, but in a greatly simplified manner.
The Chandogya 101 is the second work in this series.
"I LOVED this book. It spoke to my Soul.
And the tree analogy ... perfect."
-AT (reader, Amazon.com)
Excerpt from Chapter One:
“Perhaps It can best be conceptualized as a vast field of Energy, a Force, a Great Mind, or Consciousness Itself.
“No. Even these concepts fall short.
“Still, they may be the best that we can do, for there are no other concepts in human experience that come as close.
“Except, perhaps, for the concept of love.
“Yes, comparing It to Love Itself also comes close.
“For simplicity’s sake, we refer to It, whatever It is, as Brahman.”
The master thus explained creation, and the meaning of the statement, “Brahman is All,” to his bewildered students:
“In the beginning, there was nothing but the One—That which many refer to as God.
“Many have attempted to describe It, many have attempted to name It, many have attempted to conceptualize Its nature in human terms, but all attempts have fallen short.
“No one really knows what It is. It simply cannot be fathomed by the human mind.
“Even those who have actually experienced It through near death experiences, periods of intense suffering, the deepest states of meditation, or the deepest states of prayer, have been unable to coherently put into words That which they experienced.