Crisis and Knowledge: The Upanishadic Experience and Storytelling

This book is a landmark in the study of early Indian religious literature, and offers a fresh reading of several central Upanishadic texts. Most studies of the Upanisads have perceived the two distinct components of the texts—the stories and the metaphysical analysis—as being distinct and unrelated. This book, however, argues that storytelling and philosophy in the Upanisads is related and explores the links between them. According to the author, the lives and experiences of Upanishadic heroes offer significant clues for understanding the more abstract messages of these spiritual texts. Crisis breeds openness to the spiritual message, and is conducive to spiritual growth. The men and women of Upanishadic tales—teachers, fathers and sons, wives, disciples—experience various crises and emerge from these to realize the ultimate truth. This unity of one’s innermost self and the absolute is a move towards excellence and confidence. Thus, these Upanishadic tales can be read as narratives of crisis, where the characters make a transition to excellence by virtue of therapeutic knowledge. The book will appeal to students and scholars of classical Hinduism and Indian mysticism, as well as readers interested in Indian philosophy and literature.