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The Upanishads constitute the end part of the Vedas.
So they are also typically referred as Vedanta or the end of the
Vedas. The aim of the Vedas is liberation. The ideas is that
when you spend your entire life in the study of the Vedas and
practice of the rituals, you will slowly gain transcendental
knowledge of your Self and the Universal Self. Your knowledge
and consciousness expands and you will come to know the truth
about yourself and your existence. When you finally arrive at
the truth contained in the Upanishads through your personal
experience, there is nothing else to learn. You become free for
ever and shine in your own light. The
Upanishads are found as the concluding parts of the four Vedas
and were passed on to several sages at various times in the
history of ancient India. There is also no certainty as to the
actual number of the available Upanishads. Some of the
Upanishads were composed as late as the medieval period, while
some were composed probably a thousand or more years before the
Buddha. The Upanishads contain loosely held truths about various
things just as our minds act in a rambling way during meditative
contemplation, touching upon various subjects with no particular
method. Some of the verses are couched in symbolic language and
to understand them and their spiritual significance we need the
guidance of an adept guru. The purpose of the Upanishads is to
ennoble us and elevate us to a higher level of thinking and
consciousness. Any one who reads them with sincerity and
concentration would admit that they do succeed in fulfilling
these objectives. They deal with various aspects of Brahman, the universal
soul, the nature of reality, atman or the individual soul, its
bondage and liberation, how the body, the mind and the sense
came into existence during creation and how they perpetuate the
illusion of duality in our consciousness and limit our knowledge
and wisdom. The following are some of the links we have gathered
from the internet on the significance and philosophy of the
Upanishads. We hope you will find them useful. -
Jayaram V
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