Swami Paramananda

Three Upanishads Swami Paramananda

These three Upanishads set out to inform us that there is more to life, living, and loving than the everyday experience of our senses. Like adventurers trekking through Amazon jungles or astronauts traveling to the next cosmic orb, the Upanishads are adventures in consciousness itself. They direct our curiosity not toward what is known but to the Knower. Three Upanishads serves as a road map, guiding us, cajoling us, tempting us, towards a higher state of wellbeing, and a life free from the horrors of death. The old sages know every step of the way through these strange lands of inner knowledge and spiritual experience. They say they can't take us there, but they can show us the way. They show us what to look for, warn about missteps, tell us what to avoid, and point out any detours. Most important, the old sages advise that it is our personal destiny, our duty as human beings to have this adventure. Everything else in our lives is secondary. These spiritual texts are very personal manuscripts describing a landscape that is both real and universal. The sage's voices, passionately human, speak directly to you and me. They describe a topography of consciousness. Although these texts are thousands of years old, the message is as relevant today as they were to the sages of antiquity who wrote them. The sages insist we belong in this magical world. These higher or wider states of consciousness is our native land - our birth right. We are not cabin dwellers, born to a life cramped and confined to our body and mundane sense perceptions. We were born to explore the Universe, to push the limits of our human potential. The world of sense perceptions is our base camp. From here we travel to the summit and live in a world of joy, love, and peace.