The Upanishads

A very nice hard cover version of this book. Beautiful chapters, nice layout... After some time though, I came to conclusion that it would be useful to have different translations of this text, as each translator seems to translate the chapters differently, which may sometimes be crucial for a deeper understanding of their meaning.

Está muy interesante este libro, pero es una lectura que se va haciendo de a poco, ya que cada upanishad encierra mucha sabiduría anscentral.

The back of the book had old sticker residue that covered quite a huge area, which probably was from an old price tag or an old publisher sticker. I managed to remove the stubborn residue with an eraser and a wet wipe. The rest of the book was fine.

Spectacular book!

This edition is aimed for curious readers that have little or no previous knowledge of the Vedic, Brahmanic, and Hindu traditions. Although, this doesn't mean the scholar, researcher or student won't find something in this book. Indeed this is more of a popularization effort than a scholarly-intended work. Don't worry, this is a great quality. The language used is modern (no "thee", "thou", "ye", German-looking conjugations or weird archaisms you can only find in a scholar dictionary) and Aswaran really drives it home in terms of making sure the reader understands the point regardless of previous knowledge on the subject, but without stripping the text of any linguistic and/or rhetoric beauty. He just makes it understandable, he doesn't dumb it up. Besides, there's a great Introduction from Aswaran himself which sums up the basic points about why the Upanishad are so important and how they contributed in the evolution from Vedism to Brahmanism (I'm studying this theological transition and this book helped me a lot to shore up my data on the matter). This book includes the ten major Upanishads (though a couple of them in abridged versions) and four minor Upanishads. Don't fret about the abridged versions: they are competently shortened to include the most significant and essential sections. No greater meaning is lost. Also, Michael N. Nagler gives short introductions to each Upanishad and a general afterword that round up each text. Add a very pertinent glossary and most relevant notes to the Upanishads, along with a very attractive design, and you have a wonderful mix. (Personally, I don't like having all the notes at the end of the book, but I understand the sweet design didn't allow for footnotes on each page of the text) So, in short, this is a wonderful edition for either the curious or interested reader as well as the beginner or medium scholar on Hinduism. (I'm assuming the advanced scholar masters Sanskrit and has access to complete untranslated editions) This is a great book, make no mistake. You won't regret this purchase.