Our Aim

We welcome all our readers to help us improve this blog. More care would be taken to understand the scriptures and explain them in a very lucid way for the benefit of people. The sources of such scriptures will also be mentioned for more reading. Many claim that the time of their religion is immemorial. Let's not get into any debate on such claims. The interest of this blog is to help people understand the meaning of holyscripts. One of the oldest religions is 'Hinduism', the sanadhana Dharma. Before discussing on various scriptures of Hinduism, it becomes essential to know these two terms, they are (i) Śruti and (ii) Smriti.

• Śruti - means what is heard by rishis or sages. This has no period and no author. example Upanishads
• Smriti - Sanadhana Varnashrama Dharma which means sacred law codes of Hindus. example is Bagavat Gita.

To be more precise, Śruti is what is heard and smriti is what is remembered or tradition. It is to be noted that Śruti will be given more prominence and Smriti should be in accordance to it. Any deviation of this results in rejection of Smriti.

Basically, Vedas and Upanishads are the Śrutis and to start with, one has to understand what these Upanishads are, how do they benefit posterity?

UPANISHAD

Split the word and what they mean

Upa means Near

Ni means Down

S(h)ad means Sit

Sit down near the guru to get his teachings.

The next is, Is Guru essential for spiritual growth?

Yes, Guru is essential for spiritual growth. Guru is the representative of God, even God in human form will have a guru standing as an example that a spiritual seeker ought to have a Guru.

It is said that there are about 350 upanishads

Traditionally 108 upanishads are followed

Rig Veda -10

Yajur Veda - 51 [White Yajur is 19 and Black Yajur is 32]

Sama Veda - 16

Atharvana - 31

Upanishads are based on the conversation between a Guru and his disciples. It's a kind of knowledge transfer to the disciples of the truth.

The most prominent one in upanishad is 'Katha Upanishad'.

Katha Upanishad:

Teacher: Yama or Yamaraj [ the God of death ]

Student: Nachiketa.

Verses: 120

Theme:

Vajashrava: The king of

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads

• The first 10 is mukkya, i.e. principle upanishads
• The 16 upanishads are Sāmānya Vedāntā.
• 23 as Saanyāsa
• 9 as Shākta
• 13 as Vaishnava
• 14 as Shaiva
• 17 as Yoga

More Reading

http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/