ANOTHER GREAT ONEMarch 8, 2007 2 out of 6 found this review helpful
VERY MUCH A STORY BOOK PACKED WITH SUBTLE LIFE LESSONS, BUT READ THE GITA FIRST!
Excellent readDecember 19, 2006 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Upanishads are beyond time and space. To grasp the inner meaning of its passage requires deep thinking and intellectual debate. Easwaran has done a commendable job of translating and providing notes for all the Upanishads.
The Upanishads reminded me that there are unknown unknowns.
A Required Book For Any Collection of Eastern WisdomMarch 12, 2006 10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book, along with its companion translations of the Dhammapada and Bhagavad Gita, also by Eknath Easwaran, should be required for any serious student of Eastern Wisdom. If you can't afford Swami Nikhilanandas multi-volume set of complete translations of every Upanishad, and even if you can, you should also have this volume on your shelf.
Excellent abridged versionDecember 22, 2005 19 out of 22 found this review helpful
On Upanishads: Excellent read, puts you new lines, way beyond your day to day thoughts. Katha upanishad was the most interesting and captivating as I found the narration very good.
On the translation: Translating a centuries old document into English is a challenging task. A word by word translation would be disastarous. Search in the web for Upanishads and compare it with the translation by the author - Eknath. Eknath Eswaran has done a wonderful job
On the commentary: Some of upanishads do not need any comments are they are very self-explanatory (thx to the excellent translation).
But some of the upanishads are very difficult to relate to, and probably needed more commentary.
The Song of the UpanishadsMay 20, 2005 15 out of 16 found this review helpful
When it comes to translation, there are two kinds of accurate - one is to focus on the ideas, the other on the feeling of the text. This text - as all fo Easwaran's - focuses on the feeling side, and thus opens the beauty of the Upanishads to new readers, while re-inspiring those who have encountered the more intellectual translations. It is the best place to begin a study of the Upanishads, and no good library of Hinduism should be without it.
I took off one star because some of the subtler meanings are not presented nor even suggested - though the language is so good, really only a half-star deduction is merited
