The Katha Upanishad embraces the key ideas of Indian mysticism in a mythic story we can all relate to – the quest of a young hero, Nachiketa, who ventures into the land of death in search of immortality. But the insights of the Katha are scattered, hard to understand. Easwaran presents them systematically, and practically, as a way to explore deeper and deeper levels of personality, and to answer the age-old question, “Who am I?” Easwaran grew up in India, learned Sanskrit from a young age, and became a professor of English literature before coming to the West. His translation of The Upanishads is the best-selling edition in English. For students of philosophy and of Indian spirituality, and readers of wisdom literature everywhere, Easwaran’s interpretation of this classic helps us in our own quest into the meaning of our lives. (Previously published as: Dialogue With Death)

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Upanishad of the Isha is the first Upanishad in most Indian collections. It is a condensed and profound text that establishes the fundamental building blocks of spiritual awareness.

The Upanishads: one of three new editions of the books in Eknath Easwaran's Classics of Indian Spirituality series You are what your deep driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (IV.4.5) Over two thousand years ago, the sages of India embarked on an extraordinary experiment. While others were exploring the external world, they turned inward - to explore consciousness itself. In the changing flow of human thought, they asked, is there anything that remains the same? They found that there is indeed a changeless Reality underlying the ebb and flow of life. Their discoveries are an expression of what Aldous Huxley called the Perennial Philosophy, the wellspring of all religious faith that assures us that God-realization is within human reach. The Upanishads are the sages' wisdom, given in intense sessions of spiritual instruction in ashrams, in family gatherings, in a royal court, in the kingdom of Death himself. And Easwaran shows how these teachings are just as relevant to us now as they ever were centuries ago.

Essence of the Upanishads - A Key to Indian Spirituality (Revised edition of Dialogue with Death, with new series preface and introduction - 19 new pages from transcripts of Easwaran's talks) Easwaran shows how the Katha Upanishad can help us understand our lives today Easwaran takes one of India's classic wisdom texts, the Katha Upanishad, and explains how it embraces all the key ideas of Indian spirituality within the context of a powerful mythic quest - the story of a young hero who ventures into the land of death in search of immortality. Illustrating the insights of the Katha through analogies and everyday examples, Easwaran shows how these ancient teachings help us gain a deeper understanding of our world and ourselves today.

In this companion to his best-selling translation of the Bhagavad Gita, Easwaran explores the essential themes of this much-loved Indian scripture. Placing the Gita in a modern context, Easwaran shows how this classic text sheds light on the nature of reality, the illusion of separateness, the search for identity, and the meaning of yoga. The key message of the Gita is how to resolve our conflicts and live in harmony with the deep unity of life, through the principles of yoga and the practice of meditation. Easwaran grew up in the Hindu tradition and learned Sanskrit from an early age. A foremost translator and interpreter of the Gita, he taught classes on it for forty years, while living out the principles of the Gita in the midst of a busy family and community life. In the Gita, Sri Krishna, the Lord, doesn’t tell the warrior prince Arjuna what to do: he shows Arjuna his choices and then leaves it to Arjuna to decide. Easwaran, too, shows us clearly how these teachings still apply to us – and how, like Arjuna, we must take courage and act wisely if we want our world to thrive.

This book, first published in 1962, is an analysis of the history of the philosophy of a country that has never distinguished philosophy from religion. Indian philosophy is not merely metaphysical speculation, but has its foundation in immediate perception. This insistence upon immediate perception rather than abstract reasoning is what distinguishes the Indian philosophy of religion from philosophy as Western nations know it.