Friday, January 12, 2007


There are 108 upanishads known ot mankind. Upanishads are a condensed form of our sacred vedas. They breifly bring about the philosphocial messages embedded in the vedas.

The list are (Thanks to http://www.astrojyoti.com/upanishadspage.htm)

From the Rigveda

1 Aitareya Upanishad 2 Aksha-Malika Upanishad - about rosary beads3 Atma-Bodha Upanishad 4 Bahvricha Upanishad 5 Kaushitaki-Brahmana Upanishad 6 Mudgala Upanishad 7 Nada-Bindu Upanishad 8 Nirvana Upanishad 9 Saubhagya-Lakshmi Upanishad 10 Tripura Upanishad From the Shuklapaksha Yajurveda 11 Adhyatma Upanishad 12 Advaya-Taraka Upanishad 13 Bhikshuka Upanishad 14 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 15 Hamsa Upanishad 16 Isavasya Upanishad 17 Jabala Upanishad 18 Mandala-Brahmana Upanishad 19 Mantrika Upanishad 20 Muktika Upanishad 21 Niralamba Upanishad 22 Paingala Upanishad 23 Paramahamsa Upanishad 24 Satyayaniya Upanishad 25 Subala Upanishad 26 Tara-Sara Upanishad 27 Trisikhi-Brahmana Upanishad 28 Turiyatita-Avadhuta Upanishad 29 Yajnavalkya Upanishad

From the Krishnapaksha Yajurveda 30 Akshi Upanishad 31 Amrita-Bindhu Upanishad 32 Amrita-Nada Upanishad 33 Avadhuta Upanishad 34 Brahma-Vidya Upanishad 35 Brahma Upanishad 36 Dakshinamurti Upanishad 37 Dhyana-Bindu Upanishad 38 Ekakshara Upanishad 39 Garbha Upanishad 40 Kaivalya Upanishad 41 Kalagni-Rudra Upanishad 42 Kali-Santarana Upanishad 43 Katha Upanishad 44 Katharudra Upanishad 45 Kshurika Upanishad 46 Maha-Narayana (or) Yajniki Upanishad 47 Pancha-Brahma Upanishad 48 Pranagnihotra Upanishad 49 Rudra-Hridaya Upanishad 50 Sarasvati-Rahasya Upanishad 51 Sariraka Upanishad 52 Sarva-Sara Upanishad 53 Skanda Upanishad 54 Suka-Rahasya Upanishad 55 Svetasvatara Upanishad 56 Taittiriya Upanishad 57 Tejo-Bindu Upanishad 58 Varaha Upanishad 59 Yoga-Kundalini Upanishad 60 Yoga-Sikha Upanishad 61 Yoga-Tattva Upanishad

From the Samaveda 62 Aruni (Aruneyi) Upanishad 63 Avyakta Upanishad 64 Chandogya Upanishad 65 Darsana Upanishad 66 Jabali Upanishad 67 Kena Upanishad 68 Kundika Upanishad 69 Maha Upanishad 70 Maitrayani Upanishad 71 Maitreya Upanishad 72 Rudraksha-Jabala Upanishad 73 Sannyasa Upanishad 74 Savitri Upanishad 75 Vajrasuchika Upanishad 76 Vasudeva Upanishad 77 Yoga-Chudamani Upanishad

From the Atharvaveda 78 Annapurna Upanishad 79 Atharvasikha Upanishad 80 Atharvasiras Upanishad 81 Atma Upanishad 82 Bhasma-Jabala Upanishad 83 Bhavana Upanishad 84 Brihad-Jabala Upanishad 85 Dattatreya Upanishad 86 Devi Upanishad 87 Ganapati Upanishad 88 Garuda Upanishad 89 Gopala-Tapaniya Upanishad 90 Hayagriva Upanishad 91 Krishna Upanishad 92 Maha-Vakya Upanishad 93 Mandukya Upanishad 94 Mundaka Upanishad 95 Narada-Parivrajaka Upanishad 96 Nrisimha-Tapaniya Upanishad 97 Para-Brahma Upanishad 98 Paramahamsa-Parivrajaka Upanishad 99 Pasupata Brahmana Upanishad 100 Prasna Upanishad 101 Rama Rahasya Upanishad 102 Rama-Tapaniya Upanishad 103 Sandilya Upanishad 104 Sarabha Upanishad 105 Sita Upanishad 106 Surya Upanishad 107 Tripadvibhuti-Mahanarayana Upanishad 108 Tripura-Tapini Upanishad

Tuesday, January 09, 2007


Universality of Yoga, another chapter from Yogananda's Man's Eternal Quest start with an emphasis on what a true religion is. All religions which are practiced today are based on Man's beliefs. The code and the conduct of the religion comes from people who call themselves the authority of it. Early literature including great epics were written in Sanskrit. The beauty of the language lies in its grammar and vocabulary that a same sentence can be interpreted differently.

Rodney Lingham in his website www.geocities.com/rigvedsamhita has serious of articles on the right interpretation of Rig Veda from a spiritual perspective. This throws great light on what our ancient sages wanted to convey to the future generations. Mastery of Sanskrit language is not the only qualification to understand and throw ideas on religious principles from vedas.

Yogananda clearly points out that any religion should be based on science and not mere human beliefs. The science should be able to reveal the true identity of the almighty or GOD.
This would throw light on the universality of all religions helping the man kind to setup an universal brotherhood under the fatherhood of the almighty. Yoga is that science which can help the mankind understand the purpose of his / here existence in this world and his true identity.

In most of his works, Yogananda never misses the point that we humans have been created as an image of GOD. But as we start our worldly journey we associate ourselves only with the body and forget our true nature. During the beginning, that is before big bang happened as the scientific community would like to callit, there was Universal consciousness, the spirit, as the living creatures were formed, Universal consciousness came upon the creatures as Krishna consciousnes or the soul. Eventually with the human being started disassociating themselves from the soul and started believing more in the body consciouness.

Yoga is the true science to take the journey backward from body consciouness to Universal Consciousness. Any Master who has done it himself only would be able to guide us in that path. Infact it was the first question which Swami vivekananda asked Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, " Sir, Have you seen GOD ? If yes the can you show it to me ? ".

Monday, January 08, 2007


Yesterday morning was spent reading another article from beloved Yogananda, "The Desires of All Desires", from his book Man's Eternal Quest. His extracts form Gita and Bible were so apt to explain the concept of why should we aspire for GOD always in our life leaving all other desires as secondary. The one part which was so sole stirring was the Mother son example. In our every day prayers we demand / beg worldy pleasure to god, we may ask for a new car, home, a promotion at work, or a bigger salary cheque etc etc....never once we have demanded for God himself. Yogananda, says this resembles the act of a son who comes to his mother only for demanding money for his needs and forget about her otherwise.

This started a lot of thought process in my mind, interms of how do we cultivate the habit of remebering GOD every moment in our life ? Do the normal rituals which were prescribed for Brahmins is an attempt to do it ? In the long course of time have we forgotten the real meaning behind it,and have tried to ape it as it was thought ? I dont know the answers for these questions.. however the article is a nail on the head to bring the point that man's ultimate desire should be to find almighty.

In most of his lesson Yogananda emphasises the point that we are all made as an image of GOD. We dont have to go around to find GOD, he resides within us, with closed eyes and practiced concentration we can find him anytime. Mediation is the key to find GOD.

Another para which dwells on why to forfeit desires, we tend to think this world as real and this is the Kingdom of GOD. However Yogananda, points out that this is not GOD's Kingdom, rather its his laboratory, where he wants to put his children to test. The real test of our god given will and conscience. How much are we ready to use the god given conscience to find our lost treasure, our Heavenly father, The GOD.