Upa-ni-shad: to sit down near

The Upanishads, and where to start

Start with the questions students brought to their teachers in the forest, and read the answers slowly.

  • 108 in the Muktika list
  • 10 principal
Which to read firstLines people search for

उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत ।

uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata |

Arise. Awake. Go to the great teachers and learn.

Katha Upanishad 1.3.14

The Upanishads are the closing part of the Vedas, which is why they are called Vedanta, "the end of the Veda". They teach about the Self and Brahman, often as conversations between a teacher and a student. Tradition counts 108; ten are called the principal Upanishads because Shankara wrote commentaries on them.

What the word means

Upa-ni-shad is "sitting down near": a student sitting close to a teacher to listen. Shankara gives a second sense from the same root, sad, "to loosen": the knowledge that loosens the hold of not knowing who you are.

How many there are, and the ten principal

The Muktika Upanishad lists 108. Ten have always been read first, because Shankara wrote commentaries on them, and every school of Vedanta reads them closely.

  • IshaShukla Yajur Veda, 18 versesSee the Lord in everything; work without clinging.
  • KenaSama Veda, 4 sections, 35 versesWho sends the mind out? The knower that cannot be known as an object.
  • KathaKrishna Yajur Veda, 119 versesThe boy Nachiketa asks Death what happens after death.
  • PrashnaAtharva Veda, 6 questionsSix students bring six questions to the sage Pippalada.
  • MundakaAtharva Veda, 64 versesHigher and lower knowledge; the two birds; satyameva jayate.
  • MandukyaAtharva Veda, 12 versesOm, and the four states: waking, dream, deep sleep and the fourth.
  • TaittiriyaKrishna Yajur Veda, 3 chaptersMatru devo bhava; the five sheaths; Brahman as bliss.
  • AitareyaRig Veda, 3 chapters, 33 versesHow the Self made the worlds; prajnanam brahma.
  • ChandogyaSama Veda, 8 chaptersUddalaka teaches his son Shvetaketu: tat tvam asi.
  • BrihadaranyakaShukla Yajur Veda, 6 chapters, the longestYajnavalkya and Maitreyi; neti neti; aham brahmasmi; asato ma.

The Shvetashvatara (Krishna Yajur Veda, 6 chapters) is often counted as the eleventh: it speaks of the Lord with devotion, and Shankara is traditionally said to have commented on it too.

Which to read first

Start with the Isha. It is eighteen verses and you can finish it tonight. Then the Katha, which is a story: a boy waits three nights at Death's door and will not leave without an answer. After that, the Mandukya, twelve verses on waking, dream and deep sleep.

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The Upanishads and the Gita

The verse recited before the Gita says where the Gita comes from.

Gita Dhyanam, verse 4

सर्वोपनिषदो गावो दोग्धा गोपालनन्दनः । पार्थो वत्सः सुधीर्भोक्ता दुग्धं गीतामृतं महत् ॥

sarvopaniṣado gāvo dogdhā gopālanandanaḥ | pārtho vatsaḥ sudhīr bhoktā dugdhaṃ gītāmṛtaṃ mahat ||

All the Upanishads are the cows, and the one who milks them is Krishna, the cowherd’s son. Arjuna is the calf, the wise are the ones who drink, and the milk is the great nectar of the Gita.

Some lines cross over almost word for word. Death says to Nachiketa what Krishna later says to Arjuna:

In the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gita 2.20the Self is not born and does not die; compare Katha 1.2.18.In the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gita 2.19neither the killer nor the killed understands; compare Katha 1.2.19.

Seven lines on who you are

A short plan through seven Upanishads: Kena, Mundaka, Katha, Isha, Mandukya, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka. One line a day, with one thing to notice.

Start the Who am I plan

One line each morning

A week of lines for what you are going through, one each morning by email. The first week is free.

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Questions people ask

How many Upanishads are there?
Tradition counts 108, following the list in the Muktika Upanishad, though well over 200 texts carry the name. Ten are called the principal Upanishads because Shankara wrote commentaries on them: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka.
Who wrote the Upanishads?
In the Hindu tradition the Upanishads are shruti, "what was heard": seen by rishis, never composed by an author. The texts name many teachers, among them Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka Aruni, Angiras, Pippalada and Yama, the god of death.
When were the Upanishads composed?
Tradition holds them to be without beginning. Most scholars place the oldest, the Brihadaranyaka and the Chandogya, before the Buddha, around the 7th to 6th century BCE, with the others following over several centuries.
Are the Upanishads part of the Vedas?
Yes. Each belongs to one of the four Vedas and comes at its end, which is why the Upanishads are called Vedanta, "the end of the Veda". The Isha is even a chapter of the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita itself.
What is the difference between the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita?
The Vedas are the whole body of hymns, rites and teachings. The Upanishads are their closing, philosophical part. The Bhagavad Gita is in the Mahabharata; tradition calls it the milk drawn from the Upanishads, and each of its chapters names itself an Upanishad.

Sources and method

Sanskrit from the Wisdom corpus, read against the sanskritdocuments.org editions (and GRETIL where it has the text); where the two differ, the proofread edition is used and the difference is listed for review. English is Wisdom’s own, drafted from the Sanskrit with Shankara’s commentary (S. Sitarama Sastri’s public-domain English) and checked for tone against Swami Paramananda (1919).

Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, under human review.

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