The Taittirīya Upaniṣad: An in-depth study, based on the teachings of Srila Prabhupada
The first in a series on the eleven main Upanisads and the Govinda Bhasya of Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana explained according to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
The first volume in a series of in-depth Vaishnava translations and commentaries on the 11 main Upaniṣads and the Govinda Bhasya, according to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
The Upaniṣads are collections of passages from the original Vedas that discuss self-realization. The Taittirīya Upanisad, for example, is composed of three chapters that came originally from the Yajurveda. In his Sat-Sandarbhas Srila Jiva Goswami explains that while most of the verses of the original Vedas didn't survive the passage of time, we can still understand the meaning of the original Vedas by studying the Upaniṣads through the conclusions offered in the Vedanta Sutra, as well as the Puranas, of which the Srimad Bhagavatam is the chief.
Often we have the idea that the Upaniṣads support the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth, but this is actually due to the many Mayavadi interpretations of the texts. In reality, the Upaniṣads directly speak about the personal form of the Lord, just like the Bhagavad-Gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam. The difficulty is that the Upaniṣads are parts of the original Vedas, and thus the language is more metaphorical, and the concepts more abstract.
Different from books like the Mahabharata or Ramayana, the Upaniṣads were written to be studied in the company of the spiritual master, receiving explanations, asking questions, and so on. Considering most of us don’t have the opportunity to study the Upanisads from a self-realized soul, how can we understand? It happens that Srila Prabhupada gave all the important conclusions of the Upanisads in his purports, basing his work on the conclusions of Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana in the Govinda Bhasya, as well as the works of other acaryas. These conclusions allow us to properly interpret the texts and unveil the deep meaning hidden in the verses.
This translation and commentary on the Taittirīya Upaniṣad is the first in a series on the eleven main Upanisads and the Govinda Bhasya of Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, a humble attempt to explain all these works according to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
Often we fail to appreciate how much Srila Prabhupada gives the conclusions of the Upaniṣads, the Vedanta sutras, and the Sat Sandarbhas in his books. I hope this attempt may also shed some light in this direction.
This book is published as a free e-book so everyone can have free access to it. You are also welcome to share the file. If you would like to support my work, you can donate:
💬 Read the book online:
+ The conclusions of the Upaniṣads
+ Chapter One: The Śikṣā-vallī
+ Chapter Two: The Ānanda-vallī
+ Chapter Three: The Bhṛguvallī
⬇️Download the PDF of the book (feel free to share!)
