Upanishads & Vedānta Sūtras

The Upaniṣads are the earliest Vedic source texts wherein can be found the roots of all later Hinduism.  It is in these texts that we find notions such as yoga, karma, moksha, ātman, reincarnation, bhakti, etc., first clearly expressed. All later Hindu schools of yoga trace their origins back to the Upaniṣads, so they stand as the foundation of all traditional Hindu spirituality. The Upaniṣads are also the main canonical texts for the variegated Vedānta traditions, which base their various understandings of the relationship between Brahman, the Absolute Truth, the ātman, the individual soul or consciousness in all embodied beings, and the world.  This course will engage the most famous and oft-quoted selections from the primary Upaniṣads – reading passages from the longer and more archaic Upaniṣads, such as the Brihadāranyaka and Chāndogya, as well as the entirety of the shorter Upaniṣads, such as the Katha and Iśa.  We will find the earliest seeds of Indian philosophy in these texts,