Amrtanadopanisat

THE KUPPUSWAMI SASTRI RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute was founded in 1944 in memory of the great Sanskrit scholar and savant Mahamahopadhyaya Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri, a rare scholar who combined in him the depth of traditional knowledge and modern research acumen.

The Institute is a unique organization which has been doing yeoman service for the promotion of Sanskritic and Indological research for more than six decades through various means.

The K.S.R.I has so far published more than 70 research books and monographs in Sanskrit and English on various aspects of Indian literature and philosophy, including critical edition of rare ancient texts in manuscripts, notable among them being Tolkappiyam, Arthasastra with two different commentaries and texts on Astronomy, Mathematics, Ayurveda, Mimamsa and other systems of philosophy as well.

The Journal of Oriental Research, started in 1927, by Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri and subsequently published by the Institute is internationally renowned and carries valuable research articles on Indological subjects by well-known scholars from India and abroad.

The Institute is affiliated to the University of Madras for M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Sanskrit from 1982 and many candidates from the Institute have been awarded the degrees by the University. Besides many foreign scholars from U.K., Europe, U.S.A., Canada and other countries have conducted research here for their Ph.D. and post-doctoral projects on different topics.

The K.S.R.I. has been organizing interesting seminars at national and international levels benefiting scholars, students and the public as well. It has also been arranging lectures by eminent scholars regularly . The Institute possesses a unique library of more than 50,000 rare books in many Indian and foreign languages and also ancient palm-leaf manuscripts.

The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute stands as a torch bearer for spreading the wisdom of our ancients in the field of literature, language, philosophy and science. It is ideally situated within the premises of the Madras Sanskrit College, Mylapore, a central place in Chennai.

Amrtanada Upanisat, the present publication of the Institute is the third work to be brought out under the K.S.R.I Yoga Granthamala series. The present edition of the Upanisat also carries English translation and Roman transliteration along with explanatory notes in some places that need them.

The ANU prescribes sadanga yoga and is unique in describing new technique in Pranayama, Dharana and Samadhi, The description of the colour of each of the pancaprana is another salient feature of this text.

The text, inspite of being quite small in size, has been harder to translate as it contains some difficult passages dealing with obscure ideas. The translators have done their best to solve these knotty problems. They have also in the process, corrected some of the erroneous reading found in the Adyar edition of the text.

This book is the result of the joint efforts of my colleagues Dr.K.S. Balasubramanian, a specialist in the field of Yogic studies and Dr. T.V. Vasudeva, an Advaita scholar (both Deputy Directors of the Institute). They plan to bring out some more minor texts on Yoga.

The present publication is made possible by the financial assistance rendered by Sri S. Krishnamurthy and Smt. Kamala Krishnamurthy, in memory of Svargiya Acaryasevaratnam Sri G.R.Nataraja Aiyar. The Institute is deeply indebted to them for their kind gesture.

The academic staff of the Institute - Mrs.R. Subasri, Mr.V. Ramakrishnan and Mr. S.N. Krishna have assisted the editorial committee in proofreading the text.

Our thanks are due to Mrs. M. Srividhya, for type-setting the text and to Mr.B.Ganapathy Subramanian, for the lay-out and wrapper designing.

Sri Harish Printers are to be thanked for the printing and nice get-up.

Amrtanada Upanisat (ANU), is a small text consisting of thirty eight verses in Anustub metre, (except verse 24). It is one among the 'Yoga Upanisats' and occupies the second position in the alphabetical order. According to Upanisat Brahma Yogin, this belongs to Krsna Yajurveda. ANU starts with Pranava Upasana, the technique of meditation on the sacred syllable Aum. It also emphasises that one should have the Brahman as his goal and scriptures are not useful after realising God.

ANU advocates sadanga yoga, i.e. Yoga with six limbs. It excludes Yam a and Niyama and adds Tarka in the place of Asana. Interestingly some of the Saiva Agamas also express the same view. Among the Yoga texts, Goraksa Samhita ascribed to the legendary saint Goraksanatha and Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP) of Svatmarama also recommend the same.' While ANU 's definition of Pratyahara resembles that of Patanjali's Yogasutras, its definition of Pranayama and Samadhi follows Yoga Yajnavalkya. It is also interesting to note that its definition of Tarka says that the reasoning should not be contradictory to the scriptures.

ANU is unique in that it describes some unknown techniques of Pranayama, Dharana and Samadhi. Some of the technical details given in ANU are also noteworthy, like talamatra, aghosa, avyanjana, asvara, usmana and so on. There are also some obscure descriptions like the sapta-dvaras (seven doors) in the body, the duration or length of prana, and the meditation on prana, which pose problems for proper understanding and translation. The commentary of Upanisat Brahma Yogi is also silent on the technical aspects.

Another interesting feature of this tiny text is that i describes the colour of each of the pancaprana, (prana, apana udana, samana and vyana) which is not found in any of the popular texts on Hatha Yoga.' ANU aptly instructs the sddhaka to progress from gross towards subtle and subtler elements i.e. from earth to space. It thus recommends one to go from lower parts of the body towards the crown of the head, which is known as nivrtti marga.

We have made an attempt to give a reliable translation based on the original text published by the Adyar Library Research Centre, Chennai and other printed texts, the details of which .. are given in the Introduction to the Darsanopanisat brought out by our Institute. We have made the following changes correcting the errors found in the Adyar edition like, sthitva for sthatva (v.3), nisvaset for nisvaset (v.13),yallabdhva for yam labdhva (v.16), pasyati for pasyate (v.25) and indragopa for indrakopa (v.36).

We hope that students and scholars would find it useful and this would stimulate researchers to go deep into the technical and practical aspects of Yoga.