Exploration of the Katha Upanishad

March 10 – 13

Ravi Ravindra

Tuesday – Thursday, 10:00PT – noon

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Katha Upanishad is an ancient text in the Indian tradition and is regarded as one of the primary Upanishads. This Upanishad contains the first mention of yoga as a practice of liberation, defining yoga as the steady control of the senses and mind, leading to a supreme state of stillness. In this text, an archetypal searcher Nachiketa, whose name literally means “one who does not know,” implying that he does not already have a conclusion, but he is interested in learning, encounters Yama, the Lord of Death and also the Maintainer of dharma, the cosmological order. The important question that arises is: Is death the end? What dies and what does not die? Some aspects of the teaching in this Upanishad resonate in the Bhagavad Gita.

Recommended Readings:

Katha Upanishad by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati.

The Bhagavad Gita: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life by Ravi Ravindra

Single Session $15, Series $50

Ravi Ravindra, PhD is professor emeritus at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, where he taught in the departments of physics, philosophy and comparative religion. He has authored many papers in these fields and several books, including Pilgrim Soul; the Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism; Science and the Sacred; the Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and The Bhagavad Gita: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life. Ravi travels and teaches internationally as well as online.