The Background:- As is well known, the Upanisada form part of the tradition of religious literature4 that is known as the Veda. It begins with the four Samhitas (often themselves called the ‘Vedas’) of the Rgveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda & Atharaveda, each a collection of metrical prayers and hymns for use in the sacrificial ritual. The next phase is that of the Brahmanas,5 prose guides to the ritual for use by the sacrificial priests. Overlapping to some extent with the Brahmanas are the Aranyakas, which are concerned with the inner symbolism of the rituals. Often they take one of the rituals of the sacrifice & turn it into a form of inner contemplation. All these, together with the principal Upanisada, are regarded by Hindus as sruti, ‘that which is heart’, revelation, as distinct from smrti, ‘that which is remembered,’ epics, legends, law books, etc. Dating the Upanisadas:- The date of the Upanisadas is still a matter of matter of debate. The view among most scholars is that the Samhitas of the Veda date back to about 1500-1000 BCE, the Brahanas and Aranyakas to 1000 BCE on, and the Upanisads from about 700 BCE on. Attempts to set the whole body of literature further back7 always come up against the fact that the period of the eary Upanisads clearly cannot be too far removed that of the Buddha & Mahavura, now thought by most scholars to have been active around 400 BCE.8 it seems probable, at least, that the main teachings of the Behadaranyaka Upanisad, attributed to the sage Yajnavalkya, are per-Huddhist. (Parts of the rest are if anything older.) Yajnavalkya presents the doctrine of reincarnation as a new and unfamiliar one, whereas in the earliest Buddhist texts that we have it is already fully developed.The Upanisads as Literature:- Many of the distinctive features of the Upanisads as literature are connected with their origins in an oral tradition. The literary devices that are used seen to be chosen primarily as means of conveying teaching. Perhaps the most striking of these devices is repetition, which takes several forms. There are a number of passages that are found in different vesions in more than one Upanisad. Such, for example, are the passages on the triumph of the two ways by which a person can go after death.14 Since each of the Upanisads was on origin a separate work, this is not so much reptition as a case of different drawing on the same fund of oral material & interpreting it in their own ways. Sometimes the same kind of repetition occurs within an Upanisad, as with the two different versions of the dislogue of Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi in the Brhadaranyaka.15 It is possible that both were originally separate versions of the same teaching, each handed down through a slightly different chain of teachers.16 However the authors of the Upanisads as we have felt that both versions were distinct enough to include, and indeed, each contains material that is not other, though the second version is slightly fuller and more detailed than the first. Gayatri Mantra************************************ We meditate on the lovely>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Glory of the god Savitr>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> That he may stimulate our minds. I include the Gayatri Mantra here because there are many passages in the Upanisads that Upanisads that cannot be understood it. It is regarded as the most sacred hymn of the Rgveda, and in some sense as containing the essence of the Vedas. For many Hindus it forms the basis of their daily practice. (For some of the ways in which it is used in meditation & worship, see Taimni, 1974.) Properly speaking, the hymn is called Savitri, the invocation of the solar deity Savity, whose name means ‘the one who arouses or inspires’.* Gayatri is the distinctive metre in which it is composed, containing three lines of eight syllables each. (In Vedic Saskrit, varenyam was pronouned vareniam.) The Savitri is by far the best known verse in that metre.It appears impossible to create a usable English which divides the content between the three lines as the Sanskrit does: The of-Savitr lovely/glory of-the-god we-meditate-on/so that that [god] may inspire our meditations.’ I felt it necessary to keep in the translation the 3 x 8 syllable form (which is important in accounts of the symbolism of the Gayatri, for example BU V.14) and the carrying on of meaning between the first & second lines. Within that framework I could find no way of reproducing the two used of the root dhi, in the verb dhi, to thik/meditate, and the noun dhi, thought/meditation. I hope that ‘meditate’ and ‘mind’ have a comparable though the two words are not derived from the same root.