Kena Upanishad: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Kena Upanishad, credited to Unknown, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Kena Upanishad by Unknown. (Translated by F. Max Müller.) Read in English by Jothi Tharavant. The word Upanishad (upa-ni-shad) consists of, "Upa" means "near;" "ni" means "down;" "shad" means "to sit." Thus, Upanishad is to sit down near the teacher to discuss, learn, practice, and experience. There are some 200 or more Upanishads. Some are lost and are only known about because of being referenced in other Upanishads. Most of the Upanishads were kept secret for centuries, only passed on to others orally in the form of Shloka (a category of verse line developed from the Vedic Anustubh meter). Kena (Sanskrit: केन) literally means, depending on the object-subject context, "by what, by whom, whence, how, why, from what cause". This root of Kena, in the sense of "by whom" or "from what cause" is found the inquisitive first verse of the Kena Upanishad, "At whose wish does the mind sent forth proceed on its errand?...." The Kena Upanishad belongs to the Talavakara Brahmana of Sama Veda, giving it the etymological roots of an alternate name of Talavakara Upanishad. The Kena Upanishad is also referred to as the Kenopanishad. The chronology of Kena Upanishad is unclear; it is ancient and generally placed before the earliest Buddhist Pali and Jaina canons. The 11 principal Upanishads to which Sankara appeals in his great commentary on the Vedanta-Surtras are: Chandogya, Talavakara or Kena, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Vajasaneyi or Isha, Katha, Mundaka, Taittirtiyaka or Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, and Prasna. They are also called the 11 classical Upanishads or the fundamental Upanishads of the Vedanta Philosophy. Apart from these, Maitrayana-Brahmana-Upanishad is also considered as an important Upanishad. The Upanishadic literature is not a religious scripture and is free from dogma and doctrines. It is not a part of any religion but is a philosophy for all times and for all. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, impressed by the Upanishads, called the texts "the production of the highest human wisdom". Summary by Jothi

Recording facts

• Recording title: Kena Upanishad
• Author credits: Unknown
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 1
• Listed recording duration: 10:48

Catalogue topics

• philosophy

Track guide

1. 01 - Kena Upanishad — 10:48

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.