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The Principal Upanishads

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Eastern Traditions Advaita VedantaNon-dual consciousness

By Trans. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1953)

Summary

The Upanishads are the foundational texts of Vedanta philosophy. Key teachings: Brahman (the ultimate reality) is pure consciousness (prajnanam Brahma); Atman (the Self) is identical to Brahman (tat tvam asi — "that thou art"); the world is mithya (appearance). The Mandukya Upanishad maps consciousness to four states: waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), deep sleep (sushupti), and turiya (the fourth, pure consciousness).

Why It Matters

The Upanishads are the most ancient and influential texts on non-dual consciousness in human history. Turiya strongly parallels the "pure consciousness" or "witness" states described in modern meditation research and by psychedelic subjects.

Notes

This entry is a seed import from the Phase 1 Knowledge Inventory. It has not yet been manually reviewed.