Kena and Other Upanishads - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

459 Pages·2003·1.38 MB·English

by  Sri Aurobindo

18
Kena and
Other Upanishads
VOLUME18
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO
©SriAurobindoAshramTrust2001
Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department
Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry
PRINTEDININDIA
Kena and Other Upanishads
ii
Publisher’s Note
ThisvolumecomprisesSriAurobindo’stranslationsofandcom-
mentaries on Upanishads other than the Isha Upanishad. (His
writings on that Upanishad appear in Isha Upanishad, volume
17 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.) It also in-
cludes his translations of later Vedantic texts and writings on
the Upanishads and Vedanta philosophy in general.
The volume is divided into three parts. The first consists
of translations and commentaries that were published during
Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The pieces in this part, along with
his final translation of and commentary on the Isha Upani-
shad,arehismostmatureworksofUpanishadicinterpretation.
The second and third parts consist of material from Sri Auro-
bindo’s manuscripts. The second includes early translations of
the Prashna, Mandukya, Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads,
andincompletetranslationsofandcommentariesonsomeother
UpanishadsandVedantictexts.Thethirdpartcomprisesincom-
plete and fragmentarywritings on the Upanishads and Vedanta
in general.
All the texts have been checked against the relevant manu-
script andprinted versions.
Guide to Editorial Notation
ThecontentsofPartsTwoandThreeofthisvolumewerenever
prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication. They have been
transcribed from manuscripts that sometimes present textual
difficulties.Inthiseditiontheseproblemshavebeenindicatedas
far as possible by means of the notation shown below.
Notation Textual Problem
[.......] Word(s)lostthroughdamagetothemanuscript(at
the beginning of a piece, sometimes indicates that
a page or pages of the manuscript have been lost)
[word] Word(s)omittedbytheauthororlostthroughdam-
agetothemanuscriptthatarerequiredbygrammar
or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors
[ ] Blank left by the author tobefilled inlaterbut left
unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill
[note] Situations requiring textual explication; all such
information is printed in italics
CONTENTS
Part One
Translations and Commentaries Published by SriAurobindo
Kena Upanishad 3
Katha Upanishad 99
Mundaka Upanishad 129
Readings in the Taittiriya Upanishad 149
Part Two
Translations and Commentaries fromManuscripts
Section One. Introduction
On Translating the Upanishads 163
Section Two. Complete Translations (circa1900–1902)
The Prusna Upanishad of the Athurvaveda 175
The Mandoukya Upanishad 193
The AitereyaUpanishad 197
Taittiriya Upanishad 206
Section Three.Incomplete Translations and
Commentaries(circa 1902–1912)
Svetasvatara Upanishad 235
Chhandogya Upanishad 250
Notes on the Chhandogya Upanishad 258
The Brihad Aranyak Upanishad 268
The Great Aranyaka: ACommentary on the
Brihad Aranyak Upanishad 273
The Kaivalya Upanishad 288
Nila Rudra Upanishad 290
SectionFour. Incomplete Commentaries onthe
Kena Upanishad (circa1912–1914)
Kena Upanishad: An Incomplete Commentary 297
A Commentary on the Kena Upanishad 311
Three Fragments of Commentary 313
Kena Upanishad: A Partial Translation with Notes 315
CONTENTS
Section Five. Incomplete Translations of Two
Vedantic Texts(circa 1900–1902)
The Karikasof Gaudapada 319
Sadananda’s Essence of Vedanta 330
Part Three
Writings on Vedanta
Four Fragments 337
The Spirit of Hinduism 340
The Philosophy of the Upanishads 345
An Incomplete Work of Vedantic Exegesis 400
The Religion of Vedanta 413
Evolution in the Vedantic View 414
The Meansof Realisation 421
A FragmentaryChapter for a Work on Vedanta 424
God and Immortality 433
Part One
Translations and Commentaries
Published by Sri Aurobindo
These texts were first published between 1909 and 1920. Sri
Aurobindo later revised most of them. The revised versions
areprintedhere.