So I just read the Penguin Classic edition of "The Upanishads", originally published in 1965. The title is somewhat misleading, since the slender volume only contain a few of the Hindu texts known as Upanishads. The translator, Juan (or Joan) Mascaró, also translated "The Bhagavad Gita". Curiously, Mascaró was Spanish (specifically Catalan), yet translated from Sanskrit to English! Since my knowledge of Sanskrit is virtually non-existent, I can´t really judge the translation. However, it did struck me that it sounds "Christian" (a lot of "joy" and "love" in this one, and even a "trinity"). Mascaró´s introduction, which I frankly only skimmed, also tries to find as many parallels as possible between the Upanishads, Christianity, the Romantics, and various poets and mystics through the ages. I´m not entirely sure if this is the right approach.
Still, the little book is interesting. Monist Hinduism always struck me as pessimistic and frankly weird - who wants to become "one" with some impersonal "god" who is suspiciously similar to dreamless sleep, or comes across as a hybrid between a fainting fit and brute matter. Merging with the divine like the drop merges with the ocean (i.e. disappear) doesn´t sound very appealing either. In Mascaró´s version, merging with Brahman sounds like consciousness-expansion, rather than nihilistic self-annihilation. As already mentioned, non-duality means joy and love. Even Shiva is described as a god of love in this scenario! The world around us is God´s creation (or Brahman´s emanation), and therefore wonderful and magical, but in order to reach *real* perfection, we have to go beyond it, to the Spirit from which it came and which still today both transcends it and dwells within it, including in ourselves (as the Atman).
There are no explanatory notes, which is a pity, since the Upanishads contain many statements which cry out for some, shall we say, knowledge-expansion. At several points, an esoteric anatomy is described. Where you end up is dependent on where your subtle energies are directed. Pro tip: direct them to the top of the head! At other points, I get the impression that the impersonal Oversoul isn´t the highest reality, there is something else which transcends even it. Also, the world around us seems to be real, not an illusion, according to many passages. However, there are examples of the more "negative" teaching, too, as when dreamless sleep is portrayed as the obvíous longing of all creatures. Some Upanishads see the Vedic sacrifices and rituals as expressions of the Brahman, while others seem to repudiate them. Of course, these texts aren´t the work of a single school, so different approaches are to be expected. The most common one is to see the traditional rites as good, but nevertheless of a lower order than the yogic techniques, since the Vedic sacrifices can´t lead to liberation, but at most to a temporary stay in a heaven-world. And so on...
Will perhaps ponder these scriptures more in the future.
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