♦ The Primordial Vastness is the sky. The Primordial Vastness is the sphere of space. The Primordial Vastness is the mother, the father, the son. The Primordial Vastness is all the Gods, the five sorts of men, all that was born and shall be born.

- Rig Veda

♦ He is the inner Self of all, Hidden like a little flame in the heart. Only by the stilled mind can he be known. Those who realize him become immortal. He has thousands of heads, thousands of eyes, Thousands of feet; he surrounds the cosmos On every side. This infinite being is ever present in the hearts of all. He has become the cosmos. He is what was and what will be. Yet he is unchanging, The lord of immortality.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ Get up! Wake up! Seek the guidance of an Illuminated teacher and realize the Self. Sharp like a razor's edge, the sages say, Is the path, difficult to traverse.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ Only the one-pointed mind attains this state of unity. There is no one but the Self. Who sees multiplicity but not the one indivisible Self Must wander on and on from death to death.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ The supreme Self is neither born nor dies. He cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried. Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self Is the eternal witness, ever pure, Indivisible, and uncompounded, Far beyond the senses and the ego. In him conflicts and expectations cease. He is omnipresent, beyond all thought, without action in the external world. without action in the internal world. Detached from the outer and the inner, this supreme Self purifies the impure.

- Atma Upanishad

♦ The supreme Self, adored in the scriptures, Can be realized through the path of yoga. Subtler than the banyan seed, subtler Than the tiniest grain, even subtler Than the hundred-thousandth part of a hair, This Self cannot be grasped, cannot be seen.

- Atma Upanishad

♦ He fills the cosmos, yet he transcends it.
Those who know him leave all separateness,
Sorrow, and death behind. Those who know him not
Live but to suffer.

The Lord of Love, omnipresent, dwelling
In the heart of every living creature,
All mercy, turns every face to himself.

He is the supreme Lord, who through his grace
Moves us to seek him in our own hearts.
He is the light that shines forever.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ Know him to be the supreme magician Who has become boy and girl, bird and beast. He is the bestower of all blessings, And his grace fills the heart with profound peace.

Know him to be the supreme source of all The gods, sole support of the universe, The sower of the golden seed of life. May he grant us the grace of wisdom.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ As there can be no water without the sea, No touch without the skin, no smell without The nose, no taste without the tongue, no form Without the eye, no sound without the Ear, no thought without the mind, no wisdom Without the heart, no work without hands, no Walking without feet, no scriptures without the Word, so there can be nothing without the Self.

- Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

♦ I will give you the Word all the scriptures Glorify, all spiritual disciplines Express, to attain which aspirants lead A life of sense-restraint and self-naughting. It is OM. This symbol of the Godhead Is the highest. Realizing it one finds Complete fulfillment of all one's longings. It is of the greatest support to all seekers. Those in whose hearts OM reverberates Unceasingly are indeed blessed And deeply loved as one who is the Self.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ The Self, who can be realized by the pure in heart, who is life, light, truth, space, who gives rise to all works, all desires, all odors, all tastes, who is beyond words, who is joy abiding—this is the Self dwelling in my heart.

- Chandogya Upanishad

♦ In the secret cave of the heart, two are seated By life's fountain. The separate ego Drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff, Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter, While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter Neither liking this nor disliking that. The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self Lives in light. So declare the illumined sages And the householders who worship The sacred fire in the name of the Lord.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ In the dark night live those for whom The world without alone is real; in night Darker still, for whom the world within Alone is real. The first leads to a life Of action, the second to a life of meditation. But those who combine action with meditation Cross the sea of death through action And enter into immortality Through the practice of meditation. So have we heard from the wise.

- Isa Upanishad

♦ "The sun is the prana of the universe, And it rises to bring light to our eyes. The earth draws the lower fire of apana; The space between sun and earth is samana, And the moving air is vyana."

Fire is udana. When that fire goes out, The senses are drawn back into the mind And the person is ready for rebirth.

"Whatever the content of consciousness At the time of death, that is what unites us To prana, udana, and the Self, To be reborn in the plane we have earned."

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ Hear, O children of immortal bliss,

You are born to be united with the Lord.
Follow the path of the illumined ones
And be united with the Lord of Life.

Kindle the fire of kundalini deep
In meditation. Bring your mind and breath
Under control. Drink deep of divine love,
And you will attain the unitive state.

Dedicate yourself to the Lord of Life,
Who is the cause of the cosmos. He will
Remove the cause of all your suffering
And free you from the bondage of karma.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ Earth, sky, worlds above, quarters and their halves;
Fire, air, sun, moon, and stars; water, herbs, trees,
Space, and entity are the elements.
Eye, ear, mind, tongue, and touch; skin, flesh, muscle.
Marrow, and skeleton; and the five Vital forces constitute the body. The sage, contemplating these sets of five, Discovered that everything is holy. Man can complete the inner with the outer.

- Taittiriya Upanishad

♦ Those who act without thought of personal Profit and lead a well-disciplined life Discover in course of time the divine principle That all forms of life are one. Those who work in the service of the Lord Are freed from the law of karma.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ Conscious spirit and unconscious matter Both have existed since the dawn of time, With maya [illusion] appearing to connect them, Misrepresenting joy as outside us. When all these three are seen as one, the Self Reveals his universal form and serves As an instrument of the divine will.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ When the mind is detached from the senses One reaches the summit of consciousness. Mastery of the mind leads to wisdom. Practice meditation. Stop all vain talk. The highest state is beyond reach of thought, For it lies beyond all duality. Keep repeating the ancient mantram OM Until it reverberates in your heart.

- Amritabindu Upanishad

♦ As a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is without and what is within, so a person in union with the Self is not aware of what is without and what is within, for in that unitive state all desires find their perfect fulfillment. There is no other desire that needs to be fulfilled, and one goes beyond sorrow.

- Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.

♦ But not those who are free from desire; they Are free because all their desires have found Fulfillment in the Self. They do not die like the Others; but realizing Brahman, they merge in Brahman.

- Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.

♦ As rivers lose their private name and form When they reach the sea, so that people speak Of the sea alone, so all these sixteen Forms disappear when the Self is realized. Then there is no more name and form for us, And we attain immortality."

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ The ego and the Self dwell as intimate friends in the same body, like two golden birds perched in the same tree. The ego eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree, while the Self looks on detached. For as long as you identify with the ego, you will feel joy and sorrow. But if you know you are the Self, the Lord of Life, you will be free from suffering; the supreme source of light; the supreme source of love. You will transcend duality and live in a state of Oneness.

- Mundaka Upanishad

♦ Not by the weak, not by the unearnest, Not by those who practice wrong disciplines Can the Self be realized. The Self reveals Himself as the Lord of Love to the one Who practices right disciplines.

- Mundaka Upanishad

♦ As the rain on a mountain peak runs off The slopes on all sides, so those who see Only the seeming multiplicity of life Run after things on every side.

As pure water poured into pure water Becomes the very same, so does the Self Of the illumined man or woman, Nachiketa, Verily become one with the Godhead.

- Katha Upanishad.

♦ The Self cannot be known by anyone Who desists not from unrighteous ways, Controls not his senses, stills not his mind, And practices not meditation. None else can know the omnipresent Self, Whose glory sweeps away the rituals Of the priest and the prowess of the warrior And puts death itself to death.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ In deep meditation aspirants may See forms like snow or smoke. They may feel A strong wind blowing or a wave of heat. They may see within them more and more light: Fireflies, lightning, sun, or moon. These are signs That one is far on the path to Brahman.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ Asan and attitudes for Meditation:

Be seated with spinal column erect
And turn your senses and mind deep within.
With the mantram echoing in your heart,
Cross over the dread sea of birth and death.

Train your senses to be obedient.
Regulate your activities to lead you
To the goal. Hold the reins of your mind
As you hold the reins of restive horses.
Choose a place for meditation that is
Clean, quiet, and cool, a cave with a smooth floor
Without stones and dust, protected against
Wind and rain and pleasing to the eye.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad From The Upanishads, translated

♦ The wise see the Lord of Love in the year,
Which has two paths, the northern and the southern.
Those who observe outward forms of worship
And are content with personal pleasures
Travel after death by the southern path,
The path of the ancestors and of rayi,
To the lunar world, and are born again.

But those who seek the Self through meditation,
Self-discipline, wisdom, and faith in God
Travel after death by the northern path,
The path of prana, to the solar world,
Supreme refuge, beyond the reach of fear
And free from the cycle of birth and death.

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ He is formless, and can never be seen
With these two eyes. But he reveals himself
In the heart made pure through meditation
And sense-restraint. Realizing him one is released
From the cycle of birth and death.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ "AUM has three sounds. Those who meditate on A Come back to earth, led by the Rig Veda, To lead a pure life, full of faith and love. Those who meditate on the first two sounds, A and U, led by the Yajur Veda, Go to the lunar world, full of pleasure, From which they come back cloyed to earth again.
But those who meditate on A, U, and M Are led by the Sama chants to the sun, Where freed from sin, as a snake sheds its skin, They see the supreme Lord, who lives in all.

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ In the depths of meditation, sages Saw within themselves the Lord of Love, Who dwells in the heart of every creature. Deep in the hearts of all he dwells, hidden Behind the gunas of law, energy, And inertia. He is One. He it is Who rules over time, space, and causality.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

♦ The rituals and the sacrifices described
In the Vedas deal with lower knowledge.
The sages ignored these rituals
And went in search of higher knowledge. ...
Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing
The sea of samsara, of birth and death.
Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross
The sea of samsara on these poor rafts.
Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise
In their own esteem, these deluded men
Proud of their vain learning go round and round
Like the blind led by the blind.

- Mundaka Upanishad

♦ As a heavily laden cart creaks as it moves along, the body groans under its burden when a person is about to die. When the body grows weak through old age or illness, the Self separates himself as a mango or fig or banyan fruit frees itself from the stalk, and returns the way he came to begin another life.

- Brhadaranya Upanishad.

♦ The dreaming mind recalls past impressions. It sees again what has been seen; it hears Again what has been heard, enjoys again What has been enjoyed in many places. Seen and unseen, heard and unheard, enjoyed And unenjoyed, the real and the unreal, The mind sees all; the mind sees all.

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ Never fear that old age will invade that city; never fear that this inner treasure of all reality will wither and decay. This knows no age when the body ages; this knows no dying when the body dies. This is the real city of Brahman; this is the Self, free from old age, from death and grief, hunger and thirst. In the Self all desires are fulfilled.

- Chandogya Upanishad

♦ After a year Kabandhi asked the sage: "Master, who created the universe?"

The sage replied: "The Lord meditated and brought forth prana With rayi, the giver of name and form: Male and female, so that they would bring forth Innumerable creatures for him.

"Prana is the sun; rayi is the moon. Matter is solid, matter is subtle; Rayi therefore is present everywhere.

"The sun gives light and life to all who live, East and west, north and south, above, below; It is the prana of the universe."

- Prashna Upanishad

♦ The sage Vamadeva declared of old: "While dwelling in the womb I understood The birth of all the gods. A hundred forms, Strong as steel, held me prisoner. But I Broke loose from them, like a hawk from the cage,

And came out swiftly." While still in the womb, Vamaveda made this declaration. He emerged from his mother's womb, fully Illuminated, to live in abiding joy, And went beyond death. Indeed He went beyond death.

- Aitareya Upanishad

♦ Filled with wonder, we sing, "I see the Lord." So his name is Idamdra, "He who sees." The name Indra stands for Idamdra. The gods do like to sit behind a veil; Indeed they like to sit behind a veil.

- Aitareya Upanishad

♦ The mantra AUM stands for the supreme state Of Turiya, without parts, beyond birth And death, symbol of everlasting joy. Those who know AUM as the Self become the Self; Truly they become the Self. Om shanti shanti shanti

- Mandukya Upanishad

♦ Know the Self as lord of the chariot, The body as the chariot itself, The discriminating intellect as charioteer, And the mind as reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; Selfish desires are the roads they travel. When the Self is confused with the body, Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

- Katha Upanishad

♦ That which makes the eye see but cannot be Seen by the eye, that is the Self indeed. This Self is not someone other than you."

- Kena Upanishad