Hinduism · Translated by Swami Paramananda, 1919

The Upanishads: Isa, Katha and Kena

The Upanishads are the philosophical scriptures that close the Vedas and the foundation of the Vedanta schools of Hindu thought. The oldest were composed between about the eighth and the fourth centuries BCE; their teaching turns on Brahman, the absolute reality, and its identity with the Self (Atman). This volume gives three of the principal Upanishads: the Isa, eighteen verses on seeing the Lord in all things; the Katha, the story of the boy Nachiketas, who asks Yama, the lord of death, what survives death; and the Kena, which asks by what power the mind and the senses work. Swami Paramananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and founder of the Vedanta Centre of Boston, published these translations with a commentary in 1919. His commentary and the opening peace chants are not included, and the verse divisions are his own.