Description

Based on the oldest Vedic Upanishad, this introduction to spiritual awakening elaborates on the essential principles of Vedic philosophy through eighteen cryptic verses. The author’s presentation, with reference to rich commentaries by illustrious masters of our time, preserves the tone and color of such ageless teachings and reveals their wisdom in a convivial format readily accessible to modern readers.

Since time immemorial, humankind has wondered about its origins and the meaning of life. Are we really alone in the universe? Why do poverty, injustice, war, and death exist? Is there really a higher power that governs everything? It is difficult to find answers to these questions in a world dominated by relativism, where adherents of a thousand different belief systems each claim to possess the truth. There is, nevertheless, a science that can guide our quest for absolute knowledge, and it is into this science that the pivotal, though largely unknown text, Shri Ishopanishad, initiates us.

Excerpt from the preface

by Joshua M. Greene – professor of religion at Hofstra University

Discovering the Absolute makes three important contributions to our understanding of this brief yet revered scripture. First, it presents complex Sanskrit verses in clear and comprehensible language. Second, it contemporizes an important 40-year-old commentary on the Ishopanishad by the late pre-eminent scholar-devotee Bhaktivedanta Swami without changing its meaning. And finally it gently expands on that commentary, allowing the text’s core message to shine through with renewed vigour.
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Discovering the Absolute unearths the buried treasures of the Ishopanishad, rendering its wisdom in words that make otherwise esoteric teachings accessible to a general readership. Pierre Corbeil is to be thanked for having undertaken the excavation with meticulous linguistic and philosophic skill and the delicate touch of a true bhakta.