Katha Upanishad:

Katha Upanishad: One of most popular Upanishads because of its clarity and brevity in expressing mystic truths; contains famous dialogue between Nachikethas and Yama(raja), God of death.

(See also: Katha Upanishad, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Katha Upanishad: (Sanskrit) One of the major Upanishads, belonging to the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda. This scripture contains the famous story of Nachiketas who extracts from Yama, Lord of Death, the knowledge of liberation to be had through realization of the Supreme.

(See also: Katha Upanishad, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Katha Upanishad:

Katha Upanishad (Kattha Upanishath). Also  Katthopanishath). One of the ten most important and popular Upanishads because of its clarity and brevity in expressing mystic truths; contains famous dialogue between Nachiketas and Yama, God of death.

(See also: Katha Upanishad, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Hindu Quotes: Perennial Joy

Perennial joy or passing pleasure?

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Hindu Quotes: A Hundred and One Vital Tracks

From the heart there radiate a hundred

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Hindu Quotes: Paradise

 In paradise there is [no such thing as] fear;

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Hindu Quotes: God of Creation

The god of creation, Brahma,

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Hindu Quotes: Lord of the Chariot

Know the Self as lord of the chariot,

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Hindu Quotes: The Rain on a Mountain Peak

As the rain on a mountain peak runs off

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Hindu Quotes: Hear About The Self

 It is but few who hear about the Self

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Para vidya alone can show us the path to eternal bliss. Mundane knowledge, which produces 'intellectualism"cannot confer wisdom on us. Even the most amazing of scientific and technological advances have failed to bring lasting happiness in our lives. The exponential increase in knowledge has,surprisingly, led to more conflicts and destruction.

Para vidya is transcendental knowledge, which leads to wisdom.

Apara vidya or secular knowledge merely enhances our vision of the outer world. Wisdom is perennial while knowledge is mainly informative and therefore transient. The former is stable, the latter, subject to change.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Hinduism and Jiva: The Constitution of Man - The Jiva

In Hinduism man is the microcosm who contains within himself all the constituents and manifestations of the Universal Self. It is by looking into oneself, by knowing and understanding oneself, one can experience the Truth of the Supreme Self. In the Katha Upanishad, Lord Yama declares to Nachiketa that it is through self-contemplation (adhyatma-yogadhigamena) that the wise man realizes the Primal God and leaves behind him both joy and sorrow (mortal existence).

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There's this story of a young boy whose dialogue with death is as fascinating as it is exploratory, coursing down the six chapters of the Katha Upanishad.

Sage Vajasravasa, to get divine recognition, performed a sacrificial rite which required him to give up all his possessions and pleasures. But he gifted away only those cows which were diseased, old and lame, keeping the good ones for himself.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

The Upanishads are the concluding portions of the Vedas or the end of the Vedas. The teaching based on them is called Vedanta. The Upanishads are the gist and the goal of the Vedas. They form the very foundation of Hinduism.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Upanishads: The Upanishads in the Hindu Scriptures

The Upanishads are records of the thoughts and teachings of ancient Indian sages who lived in forest hermitages. They are among the oldest religious scriptures in the world. All of them are preoccupied with the quest for knowledge of the Self.

Isa Upanishad is a compact and highly poetic scripture. It contains all the quintessential teachings of all the Upanishads. When asked to condense his life's message in three words, Gandhiji said: "Renounce and enjoy". This is the dictum in the very first stanza of Isa Upanishad: "All this - whatever moves on earth - should be enveloped by the Lord. Fortify yourself through this renunciation. Do not covet anybody's wealth; to whom does wealth belong?

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Vedas are four in number: The Rig Veda , the Sama Veda , the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda . Each of these four Vedas has four parts: the Samhita, the Brahmana, the Aranyaka, and a number of Upanishads. The first three parts of all the Vedas are collectively called the Vedas , and the fourth and the last, the Upanishads, are collectively called Vedanta .

These four parts of the Vedas represent the historical order of their development over millennia. The Samhitas are the most ancient, and of them, the Rig Veda Samhita is the earliest. The Samhitas are considered the Vedas proper; the Brahmanas , the Aranyakas and the Upanishads are periodic additions, made by way of growing with the changing times.

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The enormity of death is felt by people when they lose someone close to them. Knowledge and spirituality are often the light at the end of the tunnel in such moments of sadness. A human being who has died, is like a torch extinguished.

However, the flame of his life burns in his children, friends, work, and in his ideas. He has enriched the earth on which he has walked, the rivers in which he has bathed, and the living beings with whom he has been in communion.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

In literature, art and cinema, death has been almost always depicted as a terrible thing, the final end, although in reality it is merely a release from the burden of the physical body.

Every religious tradition recognises that to reach the final truth, one must pass through death. This is the meaning behind Aanea's descent to the underworld in Virgil, of Dante's descent into hell in the Divine Comedy and the Christian baptism: “You were baptised into the death of Christ”.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Raja Ram Mohan Roy's efforts to abolish the despicable practice of sati and the setting up of the Brahmo Samaj is more well-known than the fact that he was also far ahead of his time in interpreting religion.

Much of what he said more than 200 years ago is relevant even today, despite the passage of time and attendant changes in the social fabric.

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Our actions are based on the seeking of results. We are engaged in a process of causation, trying to produce one thing through another. Such action is, in a sense, dishonest. We are doing one thing only to arrive at something else. The result is more important than our regard for what we are actually doing.

We seldom do anything for its own sake. Our action is not direct and present. It follows an ulterior motivation and a looking to the future. Our action works through time, which is the past and the future, and the denial of the present that is awareness.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)