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The Upanishads (/ ʊ ˈ p ʌ n ɪ ʃ ə d z /; [1] Sanskrit: उपनिषद्, IAST: Upaniṣad, pronounced [ˈʊpɐnɪʂɐd]) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" [2] and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hinduism.
The Principal Upanishads, which were composed probably between 600 and 300 BCE, constitute the concluding portion of the Veda. [2] According to most Hinduism traditions, ten Upanishads are considered as Principal Upanishads, but some scholars now are including Śvetāśvatara, Kauṣītaki and Maitrāyaṇīya into the list.
The Principal Upanishads is a 1953 book written by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975), then Vice President of India (and later President of India), about the main Upanishads, which carry central teachings of the Vedanta. Originally published in 1953 by Harper, the book has been republished several times.
The Upanishads, known as Upadeśa Prasthāna (injunctive texts), and the Śruti Prasthāna (the starting point or axiom of revelation), especially the Principal Upanishads. The Bhagavad Gita , known as Sādhana Prasthāna (practical text), and the Smṛti Prasthāna (the starting point or axiom of remembered tradition)
The Māṇḍūkya Upanishad was considered to be a Śruti before the era of Adi Shankara, but not treated as particularly important. [37] In later post-Shankara period its value became far more important, and regarded as expressing the essence of the Upanishad philosophy. The entire Karika became a key text for the Advaita school in this later ...
The Upanishads contain the hidden meaning of the Vedas, [15] and "this is a very important" for understanding Theosophy, since the Upanishads were a basis "of the six great schools of Indian philosophy" which Blavatsky called "the six principles of that unit body of Wisdom of which the 'gnosis', the hidden knowledge, is the seventh."
And, furthermore, the ideas of the Upanishads "can be rediscovered in much of the thought of Pythagoras and Plato and form the profound part of Neo-platonism and Gnosticism..." Finally, the larger part of German metaphysics "is little more in substance than an intellectual development of great realities more spiritually seen in this ancient ...
The chronology of Isha Upanishad, along with other Vedic era literature, is unclear and contested by scholars. [11] All opinions rest on scanty evidence, assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.