25 Facts About Kena Upanishad

Kena Upanishad is a Vedic Sanskrit text classified as one of the primary or Mukhya Upanishads that is embedded inside the last section of the Talavakara Brahmanam of the Samaveda.

Kena Upanishad was probably composed sometime around the middle of the 1st millennium BCE.

Paul Deussen suggests that the latter prose section of the main text is far more ancient than the poetic first section, and Kena Upanishad bridged the more ancient prose Upanishad era with the metric poetic era of Upanishads that followed.

Kena Upanishad is notable in its discussion of Brahman with attributes and without attributes, and for being a treatise on "purely conceptual knowledge".

Kena Upanishad literally means, depending on the object-subject context, "by what, by whom, whence, how, why, from what cause".

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Kena Upanishad belongs to the Talavakara Brahmana of Sama Veda, giving the etymological roots of an alternate name of Talavakara Upanishad for it, in ancient and medieval era Indian texts.

Phillips dates Kena Upanishad as having been composed after Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Taittiriya and Aitareya, but before Katha, Mundaka, Prasna, Mandukya, Svetasvatara and Maitri Upanishads, as well as before the earliest Buddhist Pali and Jaina canons.

Paul Deussen considers Kena Upanishad to be bridging a period of prose composition and fusion of poetic creativity with ideas.

The ideas in verse 2 of Kena Upanishad are found in the oldest Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's chapter 4.

Kena Upanishad has three parts: 13 verses in the first part, 15 paragraphs in the second part, and 6 paragraphs in the epilogue.

Kena Upanishad is accepted as part of Sama Veda, but it is found in manuscripts of Atharva collection.

The difference between the two versions is minor and structural - in Sama Veda manuscripts, the Kena Upanishad has four sections, while the Atharva manuscripts show no such division into sections.

Kena Upanishad opens by questioning the nature of man, the origins, the essence and the relationship of him with knowledge and sensory perception.

In verse 4, Kena Upanishad asserts that Brahman cannot be worshipped, because it has no attributes and is unthinkable, indescribable, eternal, all present reality.

Woodburne interprets the first khanda of Kena Upanishad to be describing Brahman in a manner that "faith" is described in Christianity.

Second khanda of Kena Upanishad starts with prose paragraph 9 that inserts a theistic theme, asserting that the worshipping of Brahman, described in the first khanda, is deception because that is phenomenal form of Brahman, one among gods.

Verses 12 and 13 of Kena Upanishad describe the state of self-realization, stating that those who are self-awakened gain inner strength, see the Spiritual Oneness in every being, and attain immortality.

Kena Upanishad, who found it here below, possesses the truth, For him who has not found it here, it is great destruction, In every being, the wise being perceives it, and departing out of this world, becomes immortal.

Third section of Kena Upanishad is a fable, set in prose unlike the first two poetic sections.

Kena Upanishad's allegory is suggesting that empirical actions, such as destruction by fire or moving a being from one place to another, does not lead to "knowing the essence of the subject, the wonderful being".

The Kena Upanishad is allegorically reminding that a victory of good over evil, is not of manifested self, but of the good, the eternal, the Atman-Brahman.

Epilogue in Kena Upanishad is contained in the last six paragraphs of the text.

Edward Washburn Hopkins states that the aphoristic mention of "tapo dammah karma" in closing prose parts of Kena Upanishad suggests that ethical precepts of Yoga were well accepted in Indian spiritual traditions by the time Kena Upanishad was composed.

Kena Upanishad gives free rein to his imagination and use a rich and colourful vocabulary to add more details, in the spirit of the Romantic movement.

Kena Upanishad changed the ending : in the Upanishad, the Brahman avoids showing himself to Indra, so that he does not recognise him, but in the poem, the goddess Uma being absent from the story, cannot therefore tell the god that he is in dialogue with Brahman.

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