ISHA (2:10), KATHA (20:16), AITAREYA (4:35), BRIHADARANYAKA (19:45), MUNDAKA (9:55),  SVETASVATARA (13:20), KENA (6:30), TAITTIRIYA (7:45), CHANDOGYA (9:43)  

This recording contains materials deleted from the CD due to time constraints: Mundaka Upanishad and Kena Upanishad

Original Liner notes  

Back Cover:

The Upanishads, from which these selections have been recorded, form the concluding portion of the Vedas. The Vedas are the oldest and most important scriptures of India. There are four Vedas — the Rik, the Sama, The Yajur, and the Atharva. Each Veda comprises two parts: a work portion and a knowledge portion. The work portion includes prayers, hymns, rules of conduct, and instruction for the performance of sacrificial rituals and duties. The knowledge portion consists of the Upanishads. It is also known as Vedanta.  

The Vedas are, to the Hindu, as nearly as any human document can be, the expression of divine truth. And he believes that a sincere aspirant, by practicing spiritual disciplines under qualified guidance, can, through his own experience, verify the truths of Vedas. The scriptures themselves uphold the position that their validity lies in their capacity for verification. The real study, declares the Upanishads, is not of the Upanishads but of that “by which we realize the changeless.”

The word upanishad means sitting nearby,” bringing to mind the picture of a disciple learning from his teacher. It also means “secret teaching,” the teaching which may be imparted only to those who are fit to receive it. A third meaning is given by the great philosopher Shankara, who defined upanishad as “the knowledge of Brahman, the knowledge that destroys the bonds of ignorance and leads to the supreme goal of freedom.”

The most authoritative opinion assigns the earliest of the Upanishads to a period between 3000 B.C. and 800 B.C. One hundred and eight Upanishads have been preserved, these ranging in length from a few hundred to many thousands of words. Some of them are in prose, some in verse, and some in a combination of the two. Ten Upanishads are regarded as being of major importance and they have become the principal source for the study of the Hindu religion.

The ancient sages of the Upanishads reported the mystical experiences revealed to them in exalted states of spiritual realization. Their visions and insights were later developed into philosophical systems. But whatever philosophical views may be derived from a reading of these great religious documents, the fundamental fact remains that they stand as a witness of an unchangeable reality behind the universe of change, and that this reality is identical with the essential reality of man.

Swami Prabhavananda, a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India, is a noted author on religion and philosophy and a translator of India’s spiritual classics. His point of view is different from that of a Western scholar, in that he speaks always as one born to the religious tradition of India. The aim of the Prabhavananda-Manchester translation has been to convey in clear and simple English the sense and spirit of the original.

Special thanks to Christopher Isherwood for reading the selections, to Jan Steward for designing the album, to Charles Mitchell and Jon Monday for supervising the production, and to Dorris Carlson without whose encouragement and help this recording would not have been made.

The Selected Upanishads CD is an edited and re-mastered re-issue of this 1976 LP. Issued with permission of Vedanta Press. The book Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal from which these readings are taken, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, as well as other related works are available from Vedanta Press.