Katha

For the uninitiated, the Katha Upanishad is one of the noblest and most ancient Hindu scriptures:

"What is within is also without. What is without is also within. He who sees a difference between what is within and what is without goes evermore from death to death. By the purified mind alone is the indivisible Brahman to be attained. Brahman alone is - nothing else is. He who sees the manifold universe, and not the one reality, goes evermore from death to death."

"As one draws the pith from a reed, so must the aspirant after truth, with great perseverence, separate the Self from the body. Know the Self to be pure and immortal - yea, pure and immortal!"

"When all the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not - that, say the wise, is the highest state. This calm of the senses and the mind has been defined as yoga. He who attains it is freed from delusion."