BibliotecaUpaniṣads
vaishnava
Upaniṣads
Los Upaniṣads — el núcleo filosófico de la tradición védica, que revela la naturaleza de Brahman, el Ātman, el conocimiento, la acción y la liberación. Los diez Upaniṣads principales junto con Upaniṣads vaiṣṇavas menores selectos.
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1Īśa / Īśāvāsya UpaniṣadEighteen verses — the shortest of the principal upaniṣads. The world in it belongs to the Lord, and a person in it is a guest: "all this is clothed by the Lord; enjoy what He has set aside for you." Hence its rule of life: work without appropriating, hold knowledge and deed together, without choosing between them.2Kena UpaniṣadA book of one question: "by whom?" — by whom the mind is moved, by what the breath is sent, by whose power the eye sees. The answer is that He is the ear of the ear and the mind of the mind, not one more object among others; and the parable of the gods grown proud of victory shows whose power it was.3Kaṭha UpaniṣadThe story of the boy Naciketas, given by his father to Death and waiting three days at Yama's gate. Death gives him three boons and teaches: the body is a chariot, the intellect the driver, the senses the horses; the path is narrow as a razor's edge; and He is disclosed not by reasoning, but to whomever He Himself chooses.4Praśna UpaniṣadSix pupils come to Pippalāda and each receives one answer to his own question: where beings come from, who is chief among the powers of the body, what happens in sleep, what contemplation of the syllable Oṃ gives, and where the one with sixteen parts lives.5Muṇḍaka UpaniṣadHere two kinds of knowledge are distinguished for the first time: the lower — all the Vedas and sciences — and the higher, by which the Imperishable is known. Hence its famous images: two birds on one tree, the bow and arrow where the person himself becomes the arrow, and the warning about the "leaky boats" of rites.6Māṇḍūkya UpaniṣadTwelve lines on the syllable Oṃ and the four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and the fourth — that which neither sleeps nor wakes. The most compressed book of the collection: whole treatises are written on it, yet it can be read in a minute.7Taittirīya UpaniṣadA three-part manual: the science of sound and pronunciation, the ladder of the five sheaths — from the body "made of food" to bliss — and a farewell to the graduate, put simply: "speak the truth, do your duty, let your mother be your god."8Aitareya UpaniṣadOn how it all began: the Ātman is one, and He creates the worlds, forms the person, and enters him — and the person forgets who is within him. It ends with a saying that became one of the great utterances: "knowledge is Brahman."9Chāndogya UpaniṣadThe largest after the Bṛhadāraṇyaka: from the chanting of the udgītha and the priests' disputes to famous conversations — Satyakāma, who does not know his own lineage; Nārada, who knows everything and is unhappy; and a father who repeats "that you are" to his son nine times. Here too is the small space in the heart, where one must seek.10Bṛhadāraṇyaka UpaniṣadThe greatest in size and depth: Yājñavalkya argues with a whole assembly and departs into the forest, bidding his wife farewell with the teaching that nothing is dear for its own sake. Hence "not this, not this," the teaching on deeds and rebirth, and the prayer "lead me from non-being to being."11Kali-santaraṇa UpaniṣadThree lines for whose sake the whole book is known: Nārada asks how to be saved in the age of Kali, and Brahmā gives him sixteen names — the great mantra. No fasting, no rite, no renunciation: only the Name, and it is called the sole means.12Śvetāśvatara UpaniṣadThe book where the impersonal teaching of the upaniṣads speaks directly of God as a Person for the first time: He possesses māyā, rules the world, and is known not by reasoning but by grace. Here too, for the first time in śruti, bhakti — devotion to God and teacher — is named.13Gopāla-tāpanī UpaniṣadKṛṣṇa is called the supreme Brahman, and the book examines His name and mantra syllable by syllable, explaining who the gopīs are and what Vṛndāvana means. Of all the upaniṣads, it is this one that gives the Vaiṣṇava reading of the Māṇḍūkya: the "fourth" state is named He.14Kauṣītaki-brāhmaṇa UpaniṣadA conversation about what happens after death and who returns and who does not; then a teaching on breath as the chief thing in a person, and on how the gods and senses are held by it. Indra himself teaches Pratardana and speaks of himself in the first person.15Subāla UpaniṣadA book of the beginning: from Nārāyaṇa come the elements, the worlds, and the person, and in Him all things end. Hence its refrain — "all is Nārāyaṇa"; the second half is on renunciation and on how one who has left everything lives.16Rāma-tāpanī UpaniṣadRāma is explained through His own name and mantra: six syllables broken down sound by sound, and Ayodhyā described as an abode. The second part is a conversation between Bṛhaspati and Yājñavalkya on what the name of Rāma gives to the dying.17Atharvaśiras UpaniṣadA Śaiva book: the gods ask Rudra who He is, and He answers in the first person — "I alone was and am," listing all that He has become. It ends with a vow taken with ash, and instruction on to whom this teaching may be passed.18Kaivalya UpaniṣadTwenty-five verses on contemplating Śiva in the heart: solitude, even breathing, renouncing possessions — and the vision of the One called by many names. One of the clearest books on this state being accessible to the householder too.19Jābāla UpaniṣadA book on renunciation: where to seek the holy place (within, not on a map), when a person has the right to leave home, and what one who cannot perform the rites should do. Hence the rule: one leaves not by age, but "on the day dispassion has come."20Garbha UpaniṣadAncient embryology: how the body forms month by month, what it is made of, and how much of each. Its most famous passage is the cry in the womb: the child remembers everything and promises to remember — and forgets it all at birth.21Mantrikā (Cūlikā) UpaniṣadTwenty verses, opening with the riddle of the eight-legged swan — an image behind which stand the structure of the world and of a person. What follows is a brief exposition of Sāṅkhya's principles and the path by which the soul passes out of them to the unborn.22Brahma UpaniṣadA conversation between Śaunaka and Pippalāda on the four abodes within a person: where the spirit dwells in waking, in dreaming, in deep sleep, and in the fourth state. The text has come down poorly, and we do not smooth over its obscure places, but note them honestly.23Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī UpaniṣadThe largest of the books on Nṛsiṃha: the first part on the thirty-two-syllable mantra and on why the Lord appeared for the sake of a child; the second, an examination of the syllable Oṃ in four parts, where the "fourth" is named Nṛsiṃha.24Mahā UpaniṣadThe largest of the minor upaniṣads: from the account of creation to a long conversation on how the mind binds itself and how it is freed. Here too is the famous "the whole world is one family," and a detailed teaching on the stages of knowledge.25Haṁsa UpaniṣadOn the "swan" — the soul, which flies between breath and thought — and on the inner sound heard in silence. The book is short and almost entirely about hearing: ten sounds, from a buzzing to a thunder, and what to do with the last of them.26Āruṇika UpaniṣadInstruction on renunciation: what is left behind, what words are said, what is taken along, and how one lives afterward. The rite is described step by step — one of the books by which renunciation was actually performed.27Nārāyaṇa UpaniṣadA short Vaiṣṇava book on Puruṣa being first and all things coming from Him; it gives Nārāyaṇa's eight-syllable mantra and promises union with Him to one who repeats it.28Paramahaṁsa UpaniṣadOn the highest rank of the renounced — the paramahaṃsas, who have neither staff, nor marks, nor dwelling. The book sharply separates renunciation as a status from renunciation as a state, and says only the second has worth.29Amṛtabindu UpaniṣadTwenty-two verses on how the mind binds and how it frees: "the mind itself is the cause of bondage and freedom." It ends by carrying abstract knowledge through to the Person to whom it leads.30Amṛtanāda UpaniṣadOn the syllable Oṃ and on breath: how to join them, what to do when tired, what hindrances occur. A practical book, with a precise count of stages and a warning that technique without character corrupts.31Atharvaśikhā UpaniṣadAn examination of the syllable Oṃ part by part: where to begin, what to contemplate, and who contemplates. Śaiva in language, it ends with the promise of never again dwelling in a womb — that is, of not being born again.32Maitrāyaṇī UpaniṣadOne of the oldest and largest: it opens with the story of a king who went to the forest in disgust at the body, and passes into a teaching on two "selves" — the one that tastes, and the one that watches. Here too is one of the earliest descriptions of the six limbs of yoga.33Bṛhajjābāla UpaniṣadA large Śaiva book on ash: where it comes from, how it is taken, what the three lines on the forehead mean. It ends with the last word turning out to be not the ash, but the name of the Lord.34Kālāgnirudra UpaniṣadTwelve lines on the three lines of ash: how they are applied, where, and with which mantras. One of the shortest books in the collection, and entirely about one rite.35Maitreyī UpaniṣadA condensed retelling of the Maitrāyaṇī, with a different ending: the same king, the same question of disgust at the body — but the book ends not with an abstraction, but with the name Puruṣottama, "the Supreme Spirit."36Kṣurikā Upaniṣad"The Little Knife" — a book about one exercise: attention, like a blade, cuts through what binds the soul to the body. It is called restraint, and what it cuts, in the end, is not the sinews, but desire.37Sarvasāra UpaniṣadA dictionary in questions: what is bondage and what is freedom, what is ignorance, who is a knower, what the great sayings mean. Twenty-nine short answers — a convenient handbook of Vedānta's whole vocabulary.38Nirālamba UpaniṣadThe "unsupported" book: a series of questions and short answers on who Brahman is, what caste is, what action is. It ends with all this being known not by one's own mind, but by the grace of a teacher.39Śuka-rahasya UpaniṣadA book told to Śuka — the one who will later relate the Bhāgavatam to the world. It examines the four great sayings and explains why, behind the abstract "that you are," stands not identity, but belonging.40Vajrasūcikā Upaniṣad"The Adamantine Needle" — eleven lines examining who a brahmin is. Body, lineage, birth, learning, and rite are rejected one by one; what remains is a single mark — the vision of the non-dual — and it cannot be inherited.41Tejobindu UpaniṣadSix chapters on the "point of light" in the heart — the longest of the yogic books in the collection. It moves from the most detailed description of contemplation to the negation of everything nameable, and demands to be read whole, not in pieces.42Nādabindu UpaniṣadOn the inner sound: the syllable Oṃ is described as a bird, and then come the ten sounds heard by one who is concentrated, and how the mind clings to the last of them as a bee to honey.43Dhyānabindu UpaniṣadOn contemplation: where to begin, where to hold attention, how to breathe, and what to do with distraction. The book begins with sin, called a mountain, and ends with the vision of Puruṣa.44Brahmavidyā UpaniṣadOn "the knowledge of Brahman," given by grace: an examination of the syllable Oṃ, the structure of the subtle body, and the path of breath. It ends with the knower being called Puruṣa — a Person, not an impersonal principle.45Yogatattva UpaniṣadA survey of the whole of yoga in four kinds — mantra, laya, haṭha, and rāja — with a description of the stages, hindrances, and signs of success. It ends with the word "service": the practice is named not work for oneself, but service.46Ātmabodha UpaniṣadThe first half is Vaiṣṇava prose on the syllable Oṃ and on Viṣṇu; the second, verses on non-duality. The book's worth lies in how these two voices come together. It ends with a promise to one who "does not return again."47Nāradaparivrājaka UpaniṣadThe largest book on renunciation: who has the right to leave, how the rite is performed, what a wanderer lives on, what is permitted and what is not. Nārada himself teaches, and it all ends at "the supreme abode of Viṣṇu."48Triśikhibrāhmaṇa UpaniṣadA detailed manual of yoga: elements, breaths, channels, postures, the count of breaths, and the signs of approaching death. By the end it turns out that all this work on the body leads to the contemplation of Vāsudeva in the heart.49Sītā UpaniṣadA book on Sītā as the Lord's own power. She is called the first cause: the worlds proceed from Her, and all that lives is held by Her. Short, in continuous prose, and entirely about Her.50Yogacūḍāmaṇi Upaniṣad"The Jewel in Yoga's Crown": the circles within the body, the sleeping power, breath, and sound. A practical book with counts and periods, ending with the image of the sun drawing its own radiance back into itself.51Nirvāṇa UpaniṣadShort sayings on what the renounced one is like: without a home, without rite, without a name, "with the sky for clothing." Built not as a narrative but as a list of marks — better read slowly.52Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa UpaniṣadYājñavalkya goes to the sun and brings back from there the science of seeing the light within: five spaces, their signs, their stages. It ends by speaking not of himself, but of others.53Dakṣiṇāmūrti UpaniṣadA Śaiva manual on the worship of Dakṣiṇāmūrti — Śiva as the silent teacher seated beneath the fig tree. It gives the mantra, the hand-gesture, and the contemplation; we read it as a book about teaching itself.54Śarabha UpaniṣadA polemical Śaiva book, in which Śiva in the form of Śarabha overcomes Nṛsiṃha. We present it honestly and examine it calmly: the examination shows that this story offends not Viṣṇu, but Śiva himself.55Skanda UpaniṣadFifteen verses in which Skanda says to his father: "the heart of Śiva is Viṣṇu, the heart of Viṣṇu is Śiva." A short answer to every quarrel of names, ending with the Ṛgveda's verse on the supreme step of Viṣṇu.56Mahānārāyaṇa UpaniṣadPart of the Taittirīya-āraṇyaka, not a later composition: a collection of great Vedic hymns — the Nārāyaṇa-sūkta, the Durgā-sūkta, the Gāyatrī, prayers for purification and for bread. From it come mantras spoken every day in India.57Advayatāraka UpaniṣadA short manual on the "yoga of crossing over": how to look, where to seek the inner light, why a teacher is needed. It ends by saying that this vision is rooted not in a technique, but in a teacher.58Ekākṣara UpaniṣadFourteen verses — a hymn to the one syllable and to the One named by it. One of the most compressed books: almost every word in it is a name, and all of them converge on Viṣṇu.59Rāmarahasya UpaniṣadHanumān answers the sages about the "secret of Rāma": mantras from one syllable to thirty-two, a diagram for worship, a code for living, and an examination of the name. In the middle of the list stands the main point: "what use are many mantras? — Śrī Rāma is my refuge."60Vāsudeva UpaniṣadA small book of the Sāmaveda on a single subject: the vertical mark on the forehead, the clay of Dvārakā, and what it means to bear another's mark upon oneself. It examines the custom in detail and does not treat it as a trifle.61Mudgala UpaniṣadA commentary on the Puruṣa-sūkta, the famous Ṛgvedic hymn on the Puruṣa from whom the world is made. It explains why the hymn is repeated, and says that this knowledge is not given to just anyone, nor for free.62Śāṇḍilya UpaniṣadA detailed manual of yoga: ten restraints and vows, eight postures, channels and winds, locks and seals. The path along the central channel leads, in its own words, to "the supreme step of Viṣṇu"; and the book ends with the Lord giving Himself to the sage and becoming his son.63Paiṅgala UpaniṣadThe most orderly exposition of Advaita in the whole collection: four chapters on how the world unfolds from the unmanifest, and how a person turns back. We read it closely and dispute it on the merits, not over trifles.64Bhikṣuka UpaniṣadNine lines — the shortest book in the collection: a list of classes of mendicants, from those living on alms to those who have left even the staff. Its measure is not clothing, but purity of mind.65Śārīraka UpaniṣadAn inventory of the person: what the body is made of, how many parts it has, what powers are in it, and who is their master. A book without argument, but precise — one of those that supply a vocabulary for everything else.66Yogaśikhā Upaniṣad"The Summit of Yoga" — the largest yogic book in the collection: six chapters on breath, sound, channels, and contemplation. Brahmā asks, Śiva answers, and it all ends with the image of a helmsman guiding a ship across the ocean.67Turīyātīta UpaniṣadOn "the one beyond the fourth" — the rarest of people, who has stepped off every ladder and lives like a child or a madman. The book warns at once: this is a description, not a model to imitate.68Saṃnyāsa UpaniṣadA code of renunciation, set out in order: who leaves home, when, and how; what ranks of the renounced there are; what they live on and what is forbidden them. It also examines difficult passages — including some we read differently.69Paramahaṃsa-parivrājaka UpaniṣadOn the highest rank of wanderers: no marks, no dwelling, no name; all that remains is the syllable Oṃ and work with it. It begins the same way as the Turīyātīta: Brahmā questions the Primordial Nārāyaṇa.70Akṣamālika UpaniṣadA book on prayer beads: what they are made of, how many beads, how to hold them, and what each letter on them means. One of the few places in śruti where this practice is described in such detail.71Avyakta UpaniṣadA book on "the unmanifest" and on Nṛsiṃha: how the world unfolds from the invisible, and why the Lion who appeared is that very unmanifest, become visible. It ends with a ban on teaching it to one not devoted to Viṣṇu.72Annapūrṇā UpaniṣadA large śākta book named for "Full Food" — that aspect of the Goddess from whom bread is asked. Its teaching is almost entirely Advaitic: five chapters on how the mind creates a world for itself and how it is freed from that same world.73Sūrya UpaniṣadOn the sun as the visible form of the Supreme: a hymn, a mantra, and a contemplation. One of the books read at sunrise; it also directly identifies the sun with Nārāyaṇa.74Akṣi Upaniṣad"The Book of the Eye": first a rite for the sight and a hymn to the sun, then seven stages of knowledge, from the first desire for truth to a state where nothing more is left to desire. These stages became a commonplace in Indian literature.75Adhyātma UpaniṣadOn "what pertains to the self": who placed the soul in the body, what the false "I" is, and how to distinguish the witness from what he sees. One of the most tightly composed books on discernment.76Kuṇḍikā UpaniṣadIt begins not with Brahman, but with the order of life: studenthood, household, forest, renunciation — and rules for one who walks with a water-pot. Its very title, "the little pot," is the wanderer's one possession, who has nothing else.77Sāvitrī UpaniṣadSeventeen verses on Sāvitrī — the feminine aspect of the one called Savitṛ, the impelling sun. A book about what the Gāyatrī prayer rests on, and whom it addresses.78Ātmā UpaniṣadIt divides "the person" into three: the body, the inner agent, and the supreme Ātman — and shows what remains of the three. A short book, from which one sees how the whole dispute over "I" is built.79Pāśupata-brahma UpaniṣadA Śaiva book on the "Lord of Cattle" and on creation beginning with desire. Much is said of the syllable Oṃ, of the swan, and of who remains awake in a person while he sleeps.80Parabrahma UpaniṣadŚaunaka comes to Pippalāda to ask about the supreme Brahman, and the answer leads through the structure of a person to what in him is composed of nothing at all. Here too the sacred thread that is worn is examined: the real one is not made of cord.81Avadhūta UpaniṣadDattātreya answers the question of who the avadhūta is — "the one who has shaken off everything": no marks, no rules, no concern for what others think. The book is short and sharp, of the kind easily misread.82Tripurātāpinī UpaniṣadA śākta book on Tripurā and on the mantra examined syllable by syllable within her. It begins with the Goddess appearing from the Lord, who has taken on a form — and this sets the whole reading that follows.83Devī UpaniṣadThe gods ask the Goddess not "what is Brahman," but "who are you?" — and She answers for Herself. Twenty-two lines, from which came one of the most-read hymns to the Goddess.84Tripurā Upaniṣad"The Three Cities": three cities, three paths, three lines, three abodes in the cave of the heart. A compressed śākta book, where the count to three holds the whole structure together.85Kaṭharudra UpaniṣadThe rite of renunciation step by step: what the one departing says, what he gives to his son, which mantras he recites, and how he lives afterward. One of the few books where the rite is recorded in full.86Bhāvanā UpaniṣadA śākta book on contemplation: how to "bring to presence" what is worshiped, turning one's own body, one's own senses, and the whole of daily life into an offering. Built not as argument, but as a sequence of images.87Rudrahṛdaya Upaniṣad"The Heart of Rudra": a book on Rudra and Viṣṇu being one, and on there being no enmity between them. It says directly: Viṣṇu is the heart of Rudra, and Rudra is the heart of Viṣṇu.88Yogakuṇḍalinī UpaniṣadOn the sleeping power and how it is awakened: breath, three locks, sound, and the stages at which the mind ceases to wander. A practical book, describing khecarī and warning against extremes.89Bhasmajābāla UpaniṣadOn ash: where it comes from, how it is prepared and applied, what the three lines mean. A Śaiva book, detailed in its practice, saying by the end that ash without purity gives nothing.90Rudrākṣajābāla UpaniṣadOn rudrākṣa beads: where these seeds come from, how many facets they have, how they are worn, and what is said while wearing them. One of those books that describe a thing, and through the thing, an order of life.91Gaṇapati UpaniṣadA hymn to Gaṇeśa, known by heart throughout India: "you alone are the creator, you alone the preserver." It begins with the great saying "that you are," and ends with a promise to one who repeats it at dawn.92Jābāladarśana UpaniṣadEight stages of yoga, set forth by Mahā-Viṣṇu: restraints and vows, postures, breath, withdrawal of the senses, contemplation. One of the fullest yogic books in the collection, and moreover with a Vaiṣṇava ending.93Tārasāra UpaniṣadOn the "ferrying" syllable and on Nārāyaṇa's eight-syllable mantra, broken down sound by sound. Here too it is said that the true Kurukṣetra is not a place on a map, but a person's own body.94Mahāvākya UpaniṣadOn the "great sayings," and on what it means to know them not by hearsay: the difference between what is heard and what is seen with one's own eyes. A short book on direct experience.95Pañcabrahma UpaniṣadOn the five faces of Śiva: what color each is, what it corresponds to, and what it means. It ends with one standing behind the five — "that which is beyond the fifth."96Prāṇāgnihotra UpaniṣadOn "the libation into the fire of breath": an ordinary meal is described as a sacrifice, where the fire is digestion and the offering is the food itself. Hence the Vaiṣṇava practice of eating nothing that has not been offered.97Kṛṣṇa UpaniṣadForest sages ask Rāma to embrace them, and He promises to fulfill this in another birth — in Vṛndāvana. A book on how everything in Kṛṣṇa's play turned out to be the fulfillment of a long-ago promise.98Yājñavalkya UpaniṣadJanaka asks Yājñavalkya about renunciation, and he answers: what is left behind, what is taken, how one lives. Here too is the famous passage that the true renounced one's thread is knowledge, not a cord.99Varāha UpaniṣadA large book on ninety-six principles, on the stages of knowledge, and on who the one liberated while living is. The Lord Himself teaches, in the form of the Boar, and the sage Ṛbhu, who has refused every gift, asks.100Śāṭyāyanīya UpaniṣadA Vaiṣṇava book on renunciation: the wanderer's code, marks, vows — all of it for the sake of the Name. Of the books that join strict order with devotion.101Hayagrīva UpaniṣadOn Hayagrīva — the horse-headed form of Viṣṇu, guardian of the Vedas: a mantra, a hymn, and a promise of understanding to one who calls upon Him. A short book, read before study.102Dattātreya UpaniṣadOn Dattātreya — the son of Atri, in whom tradition sees an appearance of the Lord Himself: name, mantra, form. Hence its chief word: He did not give a gift, He "gave Himself."103Gāruḍa UpaniṣadA charm against snake venom, addressed to Garuḍa. The only book of its kind in the collection — and it honestly shows that śruti contains such pages too.104Jābāli UpaniṣadA Sāmaveda book on renunciation and on ash: how the departure is performed and what holds it together. Short, of the kind that gives a code, not an argument.105Saubhāgyalakṣmī UpaniṣadA book on Lakṣmī: her mantra, her fifteen stages, and her contemplation. It joins śākta language with a Vaiṣṇava subject — the consort of Viṣṇu.106Sarasvatīrahasya Upaniṣad"The Secret of Sarasvatī": a hymn to the goddess of speech and an examination of what holds every word together. Toward the end it turns to the dispute over non-duality, and we examine it on the merits.107Bahvṛcā UpaniṣadNine short sections — the second-to-last book on the list, entirely śākta: everything begins with the Goddess, and She is named the one thing that was in the beginning.108Muktikā UpaniṣadThe very book from which the whole list of a hundred and eight is taken: Rāma names all the upaniṣads to Hanumān and explains how they differ from one another. Here too is the teaching on the four kinds of liberation, and which of them is highest.