The Upanishads - II: Kena and Other Upanishads (Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo Volume 18)

The Upanishads has now been expanded and brought out in two volumes, with much new material published for the first time in book form. The single volume The Upanishads has been discontinued, with all its content included in the two new volumes, each available as an independent book. The Kena Upanishad is concerned "with the relation of mind-consciousness to Brahman-consciousness", writes Sri Aurobindo in his commentary on this work. "The material world and the physical life exist for us only by virtue of our internal self and our internal life. According as our mental instruments represent to us the external world, according as our vital force in obedience to the mind deals with its impacts and objects, so will be our outward life and existence." Along with Sri Aurobindo's final translation of and commentary on the Kena, this book includes his translations of six other Upanishads as well as several other translations and commentaries, and essays such as 'The Philosophy of the Upanishads'. Sri Aurobindo's translations of and writings on the Upanishads are now collected in two The Upanishads Isha Upanishad, and The Upanishads Kena and Other Upanishads. As the titles indicate, the first volume contains his commentaries on a single Upanishad, the Isha, while the second contains his work on all other Upanishads and Vedantic texts. The two volumes contain material written over a stretch of almost twenty from around 1900 to 1918. A little more than half of the material published in the two volumes appeared earlier in The Upanishads. The new material, which amounts to more than 400 pages, is appearing for the first time in book form. New pieces are found both in UpanishadsI and UpanishadsII. The new material is placed according to the overall scheme of a