The Taittiriya Upanisad

The human being is not what he seems to be. He is not one person but five-fold, one covering another. The outermost person has to journey within to his inmost Self and return to the surface a new being altogether, according to the Taittiriya Upanisad. The high importance of this classical Upanisad as exclusive treating, among other things, of the five Kosas (sheaths of the Self) cannot be overemphasized. As the doctrine of the Kosas is pivotal to Vedanta on its theoretical as well as its practical side, students of the Vedanta should be thoroughly familiar with it before proceeding further in their studies. The present work fulfils the need in ample measure. The work now presented to the public contains the original Sanskrit text of the Upanisad in Devanagari with a literal translation into English both of the text and of the three commentaries – the Bhasya of Sankaracharya, the Vartika of Suresvaracharya and the Bhasya of Vidyaranya. A few notes have been extracted from Anandagiri’s glosses on the Bhasya and on the Vartika; also from Vanamala, Achyuta Krsnananda Swamin’s gloss on the Bhasya. The translator has added some notes of his own where they seemed most necessary.