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The Upanishads represent a foundation for Indian philosophies. Using complex linguistic devices such as puzzles, paradoxes, metaphors, dramatic personae and word-play, they force an engagement of consciousness. The Isha Upanishad is among the most concise and complex of Upanishads, and one of the most diversely interpreted. Sri Aurobindo wrote a commentary on this Upanishad, seeing it as embodying a problem of becoming, the attainment of a consciousness in which unity and multiplicity are identical and do not erase each other. His commentary also rests on an original interpretation of the esoteric symbolism of the Veda and demonstrates how the Upanishad relates to this symbolism while pioneering a new form of language. The commentary divided the eighteen verses of the Upanishad into four movements, starting with a summary of its main themes, like an overture, which is elaborated in the rest of the verses. Drawing on the four movements of this commentary as well as on the larger body of Sri Aurobindo's works, this book presents four corresponding meditations on the Isha Upanishad. In the spirit of the Upanishads, these meditations are both presentations and contemplations meant to aid subjective orientation and alignment. At the same time, they trace the philosophical vision of Sri Aurobindo.
About the author
Debashish Banerji is the Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco. His academic interests lie in postcolonial, cross-cultural and posthumanist approaches to Indian philosophy, psychology and culture. He has authored and edited over ten books and art catalogs on major figures of "the Bengal Renaissance" such as the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, the artist Abanindranath Tagore and the spiritual thinker Sri Aurobindo; on Critical Posthumanism, Yoga Psychology and on a variety of creative and art-related projects. He has curated about fifteen exhibitions of Indian and Japanese art and has written and produced a documentary film, Darshan: The Living Art of India (2018). His most recent books are Meditations on the Isha Upanishad: Tracing the Philosophical Vision of Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo Samity and Maha Bodhi Publishers, 2019) and Integral Yoga Psychology: Metaphysics and Transformation as Taught by Sri Aurobindo (Lotus Press, 2020).
