Word Speaks to the Faustian Man (Vol. 4): (Chandogyo Upanisad)

The Chandogya Upanisad: The culture it reflects is remote and archaic, the

texture of its ritualistic and contemplative symbolism thick and

dense-virtually a closed book for us moderns. A sustained self-submitting

attentiveness, however, discloses its language as resonating disturbingly

modern notes, focusing our attention on many of our pathologies as well as

our possibilities, pathologies and possibilities that have escaped the

notice of us moderns. The spirit of quiet hermeneutics that characterizes

this study illumines many an opaque spot in this text, solves many an

interpretive puzzle, turns many of its 'archaic naivetes' into living and

compelling profundities. We are made to realize that what some moderns call

Gestell is far more primordial than they would envisage it to be, far more

ominous and primitive, tragic and persistent. A radical transformation is

required, an ontological transformation.

Not mere 'a masterly exposition' of an ancient text is, therefore, this

study, but 'an authentic springboard for fresh philosophical thinking

fecundating (the) two shores of the human experience: East and West'. The

first three (published) Vols. are on (i) Isa, Kena, Katha and Prasna

Upanisads; (ii) Mundaka and Mandukya Upanisad with Gaudapada Karika; (iii)

Taittiriya and Aitareya Upanisads.