The Upanishads | Introduced and Translated by Eknath Easwaran

I. Brief Summary

Easwaran translates and frames the Upanishads not as religious dogma but as “supreme science” of the mind. He treats the sages as explorers of the inner world, similar to how scientists explore the outer world. Easwaran’s translation focuses on making these ancient texts accessible and practical for modern daily life.

II. Big Ideas

• The Upanishads is a collection of ancient Indian texts that explore profound philosophical and spiritual concepts.
• The Upanishads, the earliest of which were composed in Sanskrit between 800 and 400 bce by sages and poets, form part of the Vedas - the sacred and ancient scriptures that are the basis of the Hindu religion. Each Upanishad, or lesson, takes up a theme ranging from the attainment of spiritual bliss to karma and rebirth, and collectively they are meditations on life, death and immortality.
• You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
• Below are the central themes:
  • Atman and Brahman (The Supreme Equation): The core discovery of the Upanishads is that the core of the individual personality (Atman) is identical to the ultimate reality of the universe (Brahman). Realizing this unity is the highest goal of life.
  • “Thou Art That” (Tat Tvam Asi): A recurring mantra (mahavakya) found in the Chandogya Upanishad, teaching that the divine essence you seek outside is actually your own true nature.
  • The Illusion of Separateness (Maya): The world of multiplicity—where we see ourselves as separate individuals—is an illusion. This separateness causes fear and desire. Wisdom lies in seeing the “One” underlying the “Many.”
  • The Law of Karma and Rebirth: Our actions, driven by our deep desires, determine our destiny. We are trapped in a cycle of birth and death (samsara) until we realize our true Self and break the cycle.
• The path to self-realization
  • Meditation is Key: Intellectual study and external rituals are insufficient for knowing the Self. Real knowledge comes from direct experiential realization through deep meditation (dhyana) and turning the senses inward.

    Meditation here is not reflection or any other kind of discursive thinking. It is pure concentration: training the mind to dwell on an interior focus without wandering, until it becomes absorbed in the object of its contemplation. But absorption does not mean unconsciousness. The outside world may be forgotten, but meditation is a state of intense inner wakefulness.

  • The Choice between the Pleasant & the Good: The Katha Upanishad introduces the idea that at every moment, we face a choice between Preya (what is pleasant or gratifying to the ego/senses) and Shreya (what is good and leads to spiritual growth).
  • Renunciation of the Ego: True freedom comes not from getting what you want, but from mastering your own desires. “Renunciation” in Easwaran’s view is not running away from the world, but dropping the selfish ego to act with selfless love.
• The texts explore four states of consciousness:
  • Waking
  • Dreaming
  • Dreamless Sleep
  • Turiya (the “fourth” state): pure, unitary consciousness, which is the ultimate reality.
• Memorable metaphors from the book:
  • The Chariot: Found in the Katha Upanishad, the body is likened to a chariot, the senses to horses, the mind to the reins, and the intellect to the charioteer. The Atman is the passenger. One must train the “horses” (senses) to reach the destination.
  • Nachiketa and Death: The story of a teenage boy (Nachiketa) who goes to the abode of the King of Death (Yama) to learn the secret of immortality. Yama teaches him that the Self never dies and is immortal.
  • Shvetaketu: A student who returns from years of study proud of his book learning, only to be humbled by his father who teaches him that he still lacks the knowledge of the Self (using the famous example of salt dissolved in water—unseen but pervasive).

III. Quotes

• As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad. Good deeds make one pure; bad deeds make one impure. You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
• Dreams are real as long as they last. Can we say more of life?
• He who is rich in the knowledge of the Self does not covet external power or possession.
• There is no joy in the finite; there is joy only in the Infinite.
• The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe.

The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.

• He who sees all beings in his Self and his Self in all beings, he never suffers; because when he sees all creatures within his true Self, then jealousy, grief and hatred vanish.
• Meditation here is not reflection or any other kind of discursive thinking. It is pure concentration: training the mind to dwell on an interior focus without wandering, until it becomes absorbed in the object of its contemplation. But absorption does not mean unconsciousness. The outside world may be forgotten, but meditation is a state of intense inner wakefulness.
• Human beings cannot live without challenge. We cannot live without meaning. Everything ever achieved we owe to this inexplicable urge to reach beyond our grasp, do the impossible, know the unknown. The Upanishads would say this urge is part of our evolutionary heritage, given to us for the ultimate adventure: to discover for certain who we are, what the universe is, and what is the significance of the brief drama of life and death we play out against the backdrop of eternity.
• There is enough in the world for everyone’s need; there is not enough for everyone’s greed.
• The fifth-century Greek writer we know as Dionysius the Areopagite once said that as he grew older and wiser his books got shorter and shorter.
• As long as man is overpowered by the darkness of ignorance, he is the slave of Nature and must accept whatever comes as the fruit of his thoughts and deeds. When he strays into the path of unreality, the Sages declare that he destroys himself; because he who clings to the perishable body and regards it as his true Self must experience death many times.
• What exactly is the difference between a dream and waking experience? What happens to the sense of “I” in dreamless sleep? And they sought invariants: in the constantly changing flow of human experience, is there anything that remains the same? In the constantly changing flow of thought, is there an observer who remains the same? Is there any thread of continuity, some level of reality higher than waking, in which these states of mind cohere?
• The infinite – free, unbounded, full of joy – is our native state.
• Materialism leads us to lose awareness of our inner life, which is bad enough; but to be hypnotized by our own feelings and sensations and forget about others and the world around us is worse.
• Birth is but the beginning of a trajectory to death; for all their love, parents cannot halt it and in a sense have “given us to death” merely by giving us birth.
• Be self-controlled, give, be compassionate.
• Abundance is scooped from abundance yet abundance remains.
• In the cosmos there are only eaters and the eaten. Ultimately, all is food.