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Translations were done Lala Sreeram. I will copy word by word what he wrote as it is so beautiful. Preface and Introduction Part 1 PREFACE A worm that is already well-known needs no word of commendation. It has made it’s way in the outlying districts of the Punjab, and every Sadhu who knows to read and write receives instruction from his Guru, on this very work, so that by perusing it, he learns all that is worth knowing of the Upanishads. It embodies a mass of instruction which cannot be otherwise had, unless a large number of original works difficult to understand, and requiring the life-time of an individual, are gone through, It is the only work of its kind in the vernacular. To increase its utility, and to make it easily understood without any extraordinary pains, or the assistance of Pundits, its present garb will be unusually facilitating to those who understand the language in which it is written. Where the text is obscure or requires elucidation by reference to other subjects beyond the pale of the work in hand, ample notes and references have been given to avoid the necessity of consulting the original works. No pains have been spared to increase its utility, and give a true and correct rendering of the text, so that it can be confidently recom¬mended. The original work abounds in the technicalities of the original Sanscrit from which our author has drawn largely, and their rendering into English has always been given in the plainest terms, so that there may be no mistake. But no philosophy can be taken up like a romance, or a book of travel ; it requires deep thinking, and constant reading, with patience and tranquility of mind. The times we live in are extremely auspicious for works like the present, Thanks to the late Swamy Dyanand Saraswati and other allumini, there is an increasing activity noticeable everywhere for a study of our Shastras and what they teach ; and the English education which had hitherto turned our young men into rank materialists, or scientific athe¬ists, is now giving way for a more healthy spirit of inquiry for our ancient philosophies. The impulse to this novel movement received no mean help from the Theosophical Society. The noble and self-sacrificing career of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott for regenerating our ancient litera¬ture and faith, deserves the highest encomium everywhere. Had it not been for their example and co-operation it would have taken several leng¬thened periods before the revival of things as they are, could have been accomplished. Thus then, if the present work would tend to increase the national spirituality, if it would be the means of inviting the active sympathies of our young men and old, and stimulate the study our ancient writings and the faith they inculcate, if it would stem the tide of materialism and supplant it with the noble and high aspirations which Non-duality teaches, if it will suppress bad karma and incite the good of our fellow-creatures, we would think ourselves highly gratified and amply repaid. It cannot be insisted too often, that a nation without spirituality is but on the road to ruin and self-destruction. It is indeed a sorrowful sight to find the struggle for existence gaining a strong ascendancy over us everywhere; hungering for material comforts and thirst for accumulation of wealth is omnipotent here as in Europe, we are now no longer satisfied as our fore¬fathers used to be, increased civilisation means increased luxury, that has become a necessity and for its gratification we must have increased re¬sources and that again signifies our best attention and energies in pursuit of wealth. It cannot be expected, the present state of things will suddenly collapse, no, there are cycles in the life of a nation, and all these are to be passed as surely as night follows day, and day, night. But if our inner consciousness may be roused to perceive and feel the utter worthlessness and unreality of this world, and if we draw our lessons from the sad experience of nations that have preceded us, we may receive a check in our headlong path to ruin, That this may so be is the earnest prayer of the Translator. INTRODUCTION WITH a view of facilitating an enquirer of self-knowledge to comprehend the main doctrine of the Upanishads, which forms the subject of the accompanying treatise, a few explanations, are needed; and it is hoped that they will be of much help to him. Non-duality or the oneness of the Individual and Universal Spirit is the subject to be demonstrated, and an elaborate and critical analysis of the rival systems which look upon them as different and otherwise, have been fully discussed. That does not concern us for the present. What we propose is to lay down a few salient points, to give a skeleton sketch, leaving the rest to our author. In the discussion of his subject he has brought in, a mass of arguments from all available sources; the work itself is a result of a vast amount of reading, and whatever is worth knowing of the Vedas, Mimansa, Nyaya, Sankhya, Puranas &c., has been included in it. It contains likewise a discussion of the merits of personal and impersonal forms of worship, and seeks to satisfactorily account for the apparent and seemingly anomalous dictum of the several Puranas, wherein each sets up a different form of worship and particularly insisting upon it, in lieu of others. In this way, the different sects of worshippers—Vishnuvite, Sivite, Ganpat, Sakta,—who have hither¬to been taught to regard his especial Deity to be superior to the rest will find much to unlearn. Reason, and analogy, with the proofs derived from the Shastras have been amply introduced to help the comprehension, and to erect at much labor, a neutral ground where the most inveterate bigot will cast away his rancor, and shake hands in fraternal love and harmony with one whom he had hitherto looked upon as a fool and knave. Thus then there is much to engage the attention of the reader; caste and creed, stands not in the way of acquiring the knowledge inculcated hero; for we find no mention about it by our author. The only caste he seems to recog¬nise is that of qualification, and any person having the necessary qualities may profitably engage himself in its study. He will find much to interest him, much to engage his attention, much to evoke his sympathy; the scale from his eyes will be dropped of and it is hoped, he will rouse to realise a new existence; the clue to solve the mighty problem of existence, the end and aim of human life is here spoken out with as much fervour, as its dignity demands, and though to realise it and form the basis of turning a new life can only happen to the fewest of the few,—to those who have sown the seeds of knowledge in their previous births—yet it can be profitably made use of by all alike. colour With this preamble, we enter into the few necessary explanations which we have promised at the outset. Brahma is described as “Sat-chit-ananda,” ‘Sat’ signifies Existence, ‘chit’ Intelligence and ‘ananda’ Bliss. It is therefore essentially Existent, Intelligence and Bliss. In the Mun¬daka Upanishad the story is related of the illustrious son of Sanaka, who desirous of knowledge, repaired to Angiras the sage, and enquired of him “what that was, which being known, every thing else would be known.” He was told in reply, that the wise regard “the invisible, intangible, un-related, colourless one, who has neither eyes nor cars, nor hands and feet, eternal, all-pervading, subtle, and indestructible as the cause of all that exists”. This is the Impersonal God of the Vedas, called severally by the names of Parabrahma, Brahma and Paramatma. It is said, prior to the evolution of the objective world there was present only ‘Sat’ the ONE EXISTENCE Parabrahma without name or form, for name and form are indi¬cations of creation, and what is created is open to destruction hence non-eternal, therefore Parabrahma being eternal is devoid of both. The three expletives ‘one’ secondless’ and ‘Existence’ (ekam, ebam, adwaitam) with which Parabrahma is always connected are only for differentiating it from bodies similar and dissimilar. That is to say, as It is one and secondless, and there exists not another body of Its kind, inasmuch as It is eternal,—while the world and its contents are non-eternal—It has only one indication. But a sect of Buddhists (Madhyamiks) contend that in the beginning there was present ‘Asat’ or nothing instead of ‘Sat.’ Virtually they teach that nothing produced everything, which is clearly impossible. Now if it be said, as Parabrahma also existed in the beginning, whence did the materials come from which the world was ushered into existence! The reply is as steam exists potentially in water, so was Prakriti, Maya or Ajnana, so many names of matter residing potentially in the supreme Brahma. To be more explicit, Parabrahma is the supreme force residing within Matter in its primordial condition, or cosmic state. Thus then, we have both Matter and Force, or Matter and Motion, as the Western Scientists would have it, to satisfactorily account for whatever that exists. So much in common with the Materialist only, the difference is yet more marked. For, while Materialism discards any hereafter, the Vedantin looks upon metampsychosis as the inevitable lot of humanity, and as life means suffering and an incessant struggle, he wants to crush the seed which produces the tree of life, and lays his axe at its root, so that there be nothing left to produce it again.

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