THIS SECTION PROVIDES an idea of each of the 108 Upanishads listed in the Muktika Upanishad. This is not a translation of the texts, but a summary and an attempt to understand their main features. The ideas in these Upanishads are far more complex than what is revealed here. Sri Aurobindo, for instance, suggests that dual meanings often exist. He also believes that the opening sentence of each Upanishad provides the essence of the text and sets the tone of the whole Upanishad.1
As Swami Veda Bharati says, one cannot look for some logical or coherent sequence. One has to see the Upanishads as tools to meditation or a means to ignite intuition. ‘No translation can be perfect, especially from ancient texts of a tradition. [. . .] The inspired texts contain many truths in different layers of their meanings and thus may be translated in such a way that one rendering is totally different from another but both are accurate.’2 Each word has layers of meaning which are gradually revealed. Sri Aurobindo remarks that the Upanishads are vehicles of illumination and not of instruction, and are for seekers already familiar with Vedic ideas and even with some personal experience of the truths on which they are based.3 Detailed commentaries are available for the early Upanishads and some of the later ones; while Shri Upanishad Brahmayogin has commented on every one of them. Commentaries have been consulted to understand the complex and multilayered texts. (For an explanation of the main topics in the Upanishads see Chapter 3.)
Many of the Upanishads are divided into sections and subsections, referred to by different terms. They are called kandas, kandikas, khandas, adhyayas, brahmanas and by other terms. These are translated as chapters, sections or books. Though the number of sections and sometimes verses are mentioned, it should be noted that there were different versions of the texts, particularly of the later Upanishads.
Among the early Upanishads are the Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Chhandogya and Kena, while slightly later are the Kathaka, Shvetashvatara, Maha-Narayana, Isha, Mundaka, Prashna, Maitrayaniya and Mandukya. These fourteen can be dated to before the third century BCE. Various scholars differ slightly in the relative dating of these texts though all agree that the prose Upanishads are the earliest. Patrick Olivelle, based on a consensus of various views, provides the following sequence: 1. The earliest are the Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya, probably seventh to sixth centuries BCE, though they may include passages that belong to much earlier times; 2. These are followed by the Aitareya, Taittiriya and Kaushitaki, sixth to the fifth centuries BCE (all these are prose Upanishads); 3. He places the verse Kena next; 4. Followed by the Katha, Isha, Shvetashvatara and Mundaka; 5. After this are the Prashna and Mandukya, two prose Upanishads.
Though some of the early Upanishads are in prose, in the descriptions below, for convenience we have used the term ‘verses’ for the shorter passages in each section.