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Originally Posted by Crystalsun
Namaste,
I need a little help.Excuse for the intelligent questions, but no other way.I generally in the past, have had found myself being confused when reading writings of Hinduism. So, here I am again.
I want to read The Vedas and the Upanishads.
In some sites it said that Upanishads are part of the Vedas. I don't really know that and what exactly is are their purposes.
I have downloaded:
"Four Vedas - Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda & Atharva Veda." So i just want confirmation , that these are the real, actual writings.
"The Upanishads" by Swami Paramananda. It says, there are three Upanishads in that book.All editions of the Upanishads I could find, in English or my Native language are all not more than 120-smartphone pages, which usually is not much information. And seems to be small amount of data for the Upanishads. Unless, i am just wrong.
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I ask these questions, because I want to read the actual writings. And I have experience in the past with false information.
If you want to suggest a very particular edition or a guru who has intepretated the writings and/or a credible download source i am very open to auggestions.
Thank you.
Om!
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Namaste.
There have been so many translations and purports given to the original Vedas and Upanishads, that unless one can read and understand Sanskrit, it is ALL pretty much up for interpretation - it is why I leaned Sanskrit.
However, when I get lazy, what I like to do is to compare translations of the same Upanishad (or Veda) by different scholars.
Max Muller has been criticised by academics, but his translations are perhaps the easiest to understand for a lay person.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...elNG0HgkA0057I
Then, Swami Krishnananda from the Divine Life Society wrote some rather good translations on the Vedas and Upanishads...
https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/hist/hist_1.html
However, in the digital age, enter the glorious beauty of Android Apps...
https://www.google.com/search?q=upan...obile&ie=UTF-8
*just click on the down arrow to see them all*
The same can be done for the Vedas:
https://www.google.com/search?q=veda...obile&ie=UTF-8
This will give you a good starting point to proceed at your own pace and not get overwhelmed with large words or convoluted concepts.
....and yes, the Vedas and Upanishads are all surprisingly SHORT!
120 Smartphone pages is about right.
There are many different translations...many different authors...some will have their favourites, some will be biased and will say either this translation or that one is "definitive" thus confusing people even further..
Just graze amongst it.
Aum Namah Shivaya