INTRODUCTION

In studying the Upanishads, we come against repeated references to ceremonials, sacrifices and the worship of gods and discussions as to their efficacy, which confuse the deeper and predominant enquiry. The position becomes to the Hindu readers worse still on account of ‘the formal persistence in Hinduism even now of the shell of those beliefs and practices.

To interpret and evaluate the substance of the Upanishads, we need a powerful imagination and an intellectual elasticity that can jump over the tremendous space that divides the beliefs, aspirations and psychologies of modem life from those of a long-past age. A study of the full text of the longer Upanishads would be the best means of comprehending the mind of the fathers of Hinduism.

But at the same time, the difficulties pointed out above reach the greatest dimensions in these longer Upanishads. In making the selections for the following chapters, an attempt has been made to reduce these difficulties to the minimum without prejudice to the main purpose of presenting an adequate idea of the Upanishad-content. 

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