Kena (“By Whom?”) Upanishad

One of the shorter of the early speculative texts known as the Upanishads,
whose name comes from the first word
of the text itself. The Kena Upanishad is
unusual in that the first two sections are
written in verse, and the third and fourth
in prose. This change gives the text a
somewhat disjointed feel, despite its
brevity, and raises the possibility that it
is a compilation of two earlier texts. As
with many of the later upanishads, the
Kena Upanishad propounds that the
ultimate source of all reality is ascribed
to a single power that can only be discovered through a flash of mystic
insight. The verse sections describe this
power: “It is conceived of by one who
does not conceive of it, it is not conceived by one who conceives, it is not
known by those who think they know it,
it is known by those who think they do
not know it” (verse 2.3). The prose sections are very different, narrating an
encounter between a mysterious being
(Brahman personified) and several of
the primary gods in the earlier Vedic literature—Indra, Agni, and Vayu. Despite
all their efforts, the gods are unable to
exercise their respective powers of
storm, fire, and wind, showing that their
divine power is not independently
theirs, but is derived from Brahman.