Prashna Upanishad Study Kit (Set of 3 Books)

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Prasna Upanisad- Translated with notes based on Sankara's Commentary

Prashnopanishad (Six Disciples - Six Questions One Truth)

Prasna Upanisad (Sanskrit Text, Transliteration, Translation and Detailed Commentary)

I am extremely glad to note that the Madurai public has so well reacted to the 41 days' Upanisad jnana-yajna, the fifth of its kind that I have been deputed to serve. The discourses that were heard at the Madurai yajnasala during these 41 days (from 14 February to 26 March 1954) are being compiled here into one solid volume to serve two kinds of people - those who have not been able to attend the yajna and those who attended it. To the former this will be a complete textbook, and to the latter it will serve as notes helping to refresh their memory of what they heard while attending the yajna.

I know that the yajna committee owes its thanks to thousands of people for their cooperation and divine enthusiasm, but for which the yajna would not have been such an unprecedented success as it was in Madurai. But all the same, mainly the committee should remember in gratitude the Lord Himself who gave it the chance to conduct this yajna, since it is he who guides us in all our endeavours and doles out real success of all our consistent and persistent efforts. .

I must congratulate especially the President of the committee, Sri P. A. C. Ramaswamy Raja of Rajapalayam, for his diligent and faithful editing of this textbook. I feel confident that all the salient points that were discussed in the yajnasala have been faithfully reported in these pages. .

Good or bad, success or failure, complete or incomplete, I consider no work as mine and as such I feel no hesitation in placing this volume as a flower of love and homage at the feet of our reviving Hinduism.

Renascent Hinduism is rising. She has decided to work out her queenly vision of serving humanity all round the globe. The general enthusiasm with which the faithful are now flocking to the study of the Upanisad in such continuous discussion groups clearly reveals that the rsis have started their unseen work of guiding their exhausted children back to their philosophical wealth and spiritual nourishment. The earlier our readers complete their study of these scriptures and reinforce their intellectual knowledge with consistent and intelligent practice, the easier would be the work of our 'Eternal Mother', the Sruti. If you are not enrolling yourself in the army of Hindu missionaries as a member, you will soon be finding yourself a foreigner in your own native land! .

Move with the times and know the timeless 'Time'. My grateful and humble regards to all workers and sincere volunteers who have contributed their work to make the yajna such a glorious success, especially, I owe my gratitude to Sri Gopalakrishna Pillai, the secretary of the committee, who had been a flawless sevaka of Mother Sruti. .

The Hindus believe that 'the Vedas are eternal'. To the modern skeptic it is certainly a revolting idea, smelling antiquity and thriving only in blind faith. But this opinion can come only to a hasty student who has not scientifically approached this statement, and has not understood the entire depth of its significance. .

In its primary meaning Veda is not a mere textbook in Sanskrit. It is only in its secondary meaning that it has come to acquire suggestiveness as 'a bible in four great volumes'. They contain the entire spiritual knowledge of the Hindus. The word Veda comes from a root 'yid' which means 'to know'. Since the textbook deals with Knowledge as its subject matter, the entire literature has come to be named as the Veda. .

Even today, when we walk into a modern library, we can come across shelves styled as 'Philosophy' or 'Poetry', 'Electricity' or even as 'Skulls'! These labels do not mean that these shelves are filled with this stuff! It only means that they contain books dealing with these special subjects. In the day-to-day life it is quite natural for us in our conversations to call the container by the name of the contained. Thus, when the Hindus believe that the Vedas are eternal, they do not mean that their palmyra books are indestructible, nor they feel that their bhurja patrams are imperishable! .

As a matter of fact the Hindu philosophers insist and believe that the entire world of matter is finite and that the only permanence in them is the very 'principle of their impermanence'. As such, when they say, 'the Vedas are eternal,' they mean only that the knowledge which is the theme of the Vaidika literature is eternal. That there is a fourth plane of Consciousness which is not generally recognised by man in his endless preoccupation with the lower, finite, three fields of conscious activities, is an eternal Truth. It is possible that in a given period of history, this Knowledge may be relatively more veiled from man than in another golden era of his culture and spirituality. This is true even in the field of material science. .

Almost in the same sense in which we say that Vedas are eternal, we can also say that electricity is eternal. Before the earliest scientist came to discover the existence of electrical energy, electricity was there, veiled from the cognition of man, in every running brook. At a given period in history, mainly by accident but equally well supported by intelligent and conscious self-effort, a series of scientists completed the discovery, the capture and the taming of this wild and ferocious energy for man to employ it in his day-to-day life. It is also equally possible that in another era, man may come to a state of existence, wherein generations may live in total ignorance of this mighty slave, now so beautifully tamed and so fully trained. But the existence of electricity does not depend upon man's knowledge or ignorance of it whether he knows it or not, electricity exists as long as the material world exists. .

Similarly, the Truth as the Conscious Principle in me and Its all-pervasive, homogeneous nature does not at all depend upon any generation's intellectual cognition and spiritual experience. In a given generation even if the majority has come to experience this eternal unity underlying the pluralistic diversity of the phenomenal world-dream, the Vedas thereby do not gain a greater status. The mount Alps is there in Europe, whether you know it or not. The majesty or grandeur, the might or strength of the Niagara Falls do not in any way depend upon our individual personal knowledge of it. .

**Contents and Sample Pages**

In Upanishads is articulated not only the quintessence of spiritual wisdom, but also the remarkable philosophical genius of the classical Hindu mind. Owing, however, to their complexity, metaphor, and even obscurity, Upanishad writings have been endlessly debated, discussed and written upon, more specially since Sankara's time. Swami Narayana Prasad's commentary is yet another valuable addition to the existing literature attempting, as it does, to rationally unlock the metaphysical subtleties of Prasna upanisad - with the master-key handed down to him in the disciples succession of Sri Narayana Guru.

Prasna Upanisad offers an enlightened exposition of brahmaoidua: knowledge of the Absolute/Supreme Reality. In an aptly thought-out dialectical situation, it offers a threadbare discussion of six questions which, centering around procreation/ origin of beings, prana: the most vital life-sustaining principle, functional states of the Self (puru$a), significance of meditating on AUM - lead to the finality of Vedantic wisdom: the sublimity of non-dual Reality: the param purusa of sixteen kalas.

With the English version of the Upanisad, Swami Prasad's interpretation highlights the true import of this metaphysical piece - spelling out its contexts in the light of what the author calls "the metalogic of yogic-buddhi" and all else that is allegorical, obscure and riddle-like. For the authenticity of this commentary, the author has had extensive discussions with a group of Vedantic scholars.

Swami Muni Narayana Prasad is the Guru and Head of Narayana Gurukula, a guru-disciple foundation open to all, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, religion or nation, aimed at promoting the Science of the Absolute (Brahma-vidya) as restated by Narayana Guru. A disciple of Nataraja Guru and Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, he has travelled widely teaching Indian philosophy. He has authored around eighty-five books in the Malayalam language. His English books are: commentaries on the [sa, Kena, Kaiha, MU1JQaka, Ma1JQakya, Taittirtva, Aitareya and Chandogva Upanisads, Vedanta Satras and Darsanamala of Narayana Guru, Three Acaryas and Narayana Guru, Karma and Reincarnation, Basic Lessons on India's Wisdom, The Philosophy of Narayana Guru, Life's Pilgrimage Through the cua, Collected Works of Narayana Guru, Naraya1Jasmrt*, and Philosophy Simplified for Youth.

All Upanishads teach the one and only secret wisdom, the very meaning of the word Upanishad being 'secret wisdom'. Through words the Upanishads try to impart knowledge of that which is beyond words. Known as Bhrahma-uidyti (wisdom of the Absolute) and Atma-uidya (wisdom of the Self), Upanishad teaching leads to one becoming fully aware of one's own self-content, which is none other than that of the world, and thus, it leads to seeing oneself identified with everything. Experiencing oneself in everything, and everything in oneself, marks the attainment of this wisdom, its ultimate benefit being the sense of absolute Freedom.

The Western mind may consider Upanishad teaching as being flawed by one major inadequacy - that it nowhere enjoins one to love others. While in one sense this appears to be a valid charge, we must keep in mind the fact that the Upanishads are part of a culture of seeing everything as part of one's self. Even the daily routines of life are to be based on this awareness, so that one would not even think of eating without sharing one's food, as the saying, atithi deuo bhaua (the guest varily is god) indicates.

There are certain scriptures called Dharma-Stistras that give special emphasis not only to loving others, but lay down detailed moral instructions as well. But they are relegated to a secondary position, as living a morally sound life guided by wisdom, without imposed moral codes, is considered higher than a life lived following formally structured moral codes.

Different Upanishads attempt to shed light on the one wisdom, answering different questions, some concisely (e.g., Ma1J4akya, Isa, Kena) and some elaborately (e.g., Brhadaranyoha, Chiindogya, Kaiha, Prasna, Murulaha), the words of the Upanishads are to be seen as wrappings; what is contained in them wrapped is the true wisdom. To open the wrapping and see for one self 'what-is in is the task of a keen student, an earnest seeker, to be done on his own.

It is possible that readers should wonder, as a Western friend did, why I should write a new commentary when there already exist numerous commentaries, beginning with Sankara's. My only answer is that I have been inspired to try a hand at applying the master-key provided by my teacher, N ataraja Guru (chief disciple and successor of Sri Narayana Guru), in unlocking the word-packages of this Upanisad to allow me as well as others to glimpse the mysterious secret hidden within. The methodological devise that has been made use of in this commentary, as in my other commentaries, is that of dialectics, which the Bhagavad GUa calls Yogabuddhi.

The Prasna Upanisad, in solving the problem of origin of beings, presents the philosophy of Brahma-vidya, as answers to the six questions asked to Pippalada by six seekers. Each leads to the other, and so on till the last one which reaches back to the first one, thus completing a full circle. These questions and answers deal with such topics as the actualities of begetting children on the one hand, and the sublimity of the non-dual Reality, the param purusa (Supreme Person) of sixteen kalas, on the other. The first question is centred on the procreation of beings through mating, the second on the pre-eminence of prat Ja in living beings, the third on the Self as the source aiprana, the fourth on the functional states of the Self, the fifth on meditatingAUM, the sixth on the Supreme purusa from whom arise all things.

Attempt has been mad~ in this commentary to unravel the riddle-like statements and contexts of the Upanishad in the light of the meta-logic of yoga-buddhi. This work is the result of the joint effort of a group of research scholars and inmate students of Narayana Gurukula. Each stanza has been privately pondered on by each of them followed by a group discussion. The ideas thus clarified were systematized and then put in writing, first in the Malayalam Language, my mother tongue, and then rendered into English. Mrs. Kala Remesh Krishnan of Ban galore edited it simply out of her love for wisdom and the Narayana Gurukula Movement. All of us in this group are thankful to Messrs D.K. Print world for their willingness to help these ideas reach the hands of those who are looking for new paths into the world of Upanishad wisdom.