Modern study of Upaniṣads?

[Seeker123]

Originally Posted by Sahasranama

A scholarly translation in English of the principle upanishads is done by Patrick Olivelle.

There is a wealth of traditional bhashyas available on the scriptures. They are mostly written in Sanskrit. In my opinion, it is best to avoid all these English translations that claim to be spiritual or poetic and instead use a scholarly translation that will assist you in understanding the Sanskrit language. Once you can read Sanskrit, all these spiritual books written in English become worthless.

I meant the interpretation by Swami Dayananda Saraswathi (Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) or his disciples for example. I like the spiritual over the scholarly as I feel at least they have "practiced" what they preach and speak from inner experience as opposed to merely providing a good translation. Moreover they have gone thorugh the Guru-Sishya parampara too.

I agree with Indraneela that it is very hard to learn to read Sanskrit at that level and avoid these translations.

[Sahasranama]

I was looking at this on India Exotic Art. I don't have these books, so I can't technically recommend them, but since they have the Sanskrit text of the prasthana traya with Shankara's bhashyas, all translated into English, they look interesting. You could check them out to see if they are worthwhile.

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-NAC864/

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-IHJ068/

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-IHJ083/

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-IHJ070/

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-IHJ092/

[Sahasranama]

Originally Posted by Seeker123

I meant the interpretation by Swami Dayananda Saraswathi (Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) or his disciples for example. I like the spiritual over the scholarly as I feel at least they have "practiced" what they preach and speak from inner experience as opposed to merely providing a good translation. Moreover they have gone thorugh the Guru-Sishya parampara too.

I agree with Indraneela that it is very hard to learn to read Sanskrit at that level and avoid these translations.

Arsha Vidya Gurukula is a very good institute, but still I would only use them as a stepping stone to reading the real Sanskrit.

[Ravi Narayan]

Hari Om

Upanishads and Aranyakas are discussed in depth during our weekly online (free) sessions through Skype organized by Divine Life Society from New York, every Saturday at 7 AM, if interested send 'Add Request' to 'DLSNewYork' from your skype account. We take up one topic by one topic and exchange our ideas. Sometime Swamijis from Rishikesh also come online to answer difficult questions, Please participate if you are interested and my email is dlsusa.org@gmail.com

Ravi Narayan

[veena]

I am definitely interested. I will e-mail the link.