The word Upanishad comes from the combination of three words- ‘Upa’ meaning near-by in Sanskrit, ‘ni ‘which means at the proper place and ‘sad’ which means to sit. I.e. Upanishad means the knowledge that is gained by sitting near and obtaining instructions and information from a teacher. Thus most of the Upanishads were originally conveyed via an Oral Tradition called Sruti; which means the details were remembered and conveyed by the teacher to the student thru oral dialogues (speech). It was much later that these texts were written down under the Written Tradition called Smriti.
There are supposed to be more than 200 known Upanishads out of which 108 are recognized as being “true” Upanishads. Out of these 108, there are 12 Upanishads which are considered as the main- i.e. Primary Upanishads.
These classic Vedic scriptures are time immemorial and are meant to be read, re-read and studied to understand the true nature of our consciousness and existence.
There are supposed to be more than 200 known Upanishads out of which 108 are recognized as being “true” Upanishads. Out of these 108, there are 12 Upanishads which are considered as the main- i.e. Primary Upanishads.
These classic Vedic scriptures are time immemorial and are meant to be read, re-read and studied to understand the true nature of our consciousness and existence.