The Upanishads, Part 2 Annotated: Translation and Commentary

by F. Max Müller (Editor), Upanishad, Sapan Sathawara (Illustrator)

This is the first volume of the Sacred Books of the East. SBE 1 contains the introduction to the entire series, and explains the methodology and conventions used in the rest of the SBE. The Upanishads translated here are the Chandogya, Talavakara, Aitreya-Aranyaka, the Kaushitaki-Brahmana, and the Vajasaneyi Samhita.

Genres: Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality, Classics, Hinduism

348 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

Friedrich Max Müller, K.M. (Ph.D., Philology, Leipzig University, 1843)—generally known as Max Müller or F. Max Müller—was the first Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University, and an Orientalist who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology and the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction.

Müller became a naturalized British citizen in 1855. In 1869, he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as a foreign correspondent. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite (civil class) in 1874, and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art the following year. In 1888, he was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, delivering the first in what has proved to be an ongoing, annual series of lectures at several Scottish universities to the present day. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1896.

His wife, Georgina Adelaide Müller was also an author. After Max's death, she deposited his papers at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Reviews

[Katherine Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many verses like the Christian bible.

[Peter J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very worthwhile read. What was interesting was seeing sections that were obviously written by adherents of the various, clashing Astika Hindu (Vedanta, Samkhya, Yogic, etc.) and Nastika (early Buddhist, Jain, etc.) schools. I strongly disagreed with the seemingly Buddhist "enlightenment via will destruction" concepts and the ceremonial magic (I.e. blessing one's son by breathing on him and saying things in his ear, sex magic (rubbing semen on your forehead...gross!), etc.), however, there is just as much ceremonial nonsense in the Bible, and the execrable Koran. The metaphysical concepts here were at times outstanding, reminding me a lot of Orphic writings or the Neoplatonist writings of Plotinus. It is hard to comprehend how people could go from such heights of insight and logic to such valleys of cow and lingam worship. I took a lot from this that I expect to brood on for some time.

[Prateeksha S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pinnacle of Indian verse