Prashna (“Question”) Upanishad

One of the later and more developed
upanishads, the speculative religious
texts that form the latest stratum of the
oldest Hindu sacred texts, the Vedas. As
with most of the upanishads, the Prashna
Upanishad’s underlying concern is to
investigate ultimate questions, in particular the nature of the Self (atman).
Considered one of the later upanishads,
the Prashna Upanishad is similar to the
earliest upanishads, the Brhadaranyaka
and the Chandogya, but is far shorter, and
the text is much more focused. Like the
older upanishads, the Prashna is written
as a dialogue. It takes the form of a conversation between the sage Pippalada and
six questioners. In each section (called a
prashna in the text) one of the hearers asks
a question, to which Pippalada replies.
The six sections all have different themes:
the nature of time, prana as the most
important human power, the nature of life
after death, sleep, meditation, the sound
Om, and the nature of the Self. In this
way, it uses the older dialogue form to
advance a far more developed and
cohesive philosophical perspective.
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Prashna (“Question”) Upanishad