About the Book: The Ten Principal Upanishads
The Upanishads are a group of texts in Hindu sacred literature that are
considered to reveal the ultimate truth and whose knowledge is considered to
lead to spiritual emancipation. In the Upanishads, we find the finest flowering
of the Indian metaphysical and speculative thought. They are utterances of seers
who spoke out of the fullness of their illumined experience. Upanishad is
derived from upa (near), ni (down) and sad (to sit). Hence, the term implies the
pupils, intent on learning, sitting near the teacher to acquire knowledge and
truth. There are over 200 Upanishads but the traditional number is 108.