An extension of early Vedic (see Vedic entries) thought, or Vedānta (the “end of the Vedas”), but to some extent a reaction against what their eighth- to fourth-century BCE compilers thought of as the somewhat closed-mindedness and action-oriented approach of the Brāhmaṇas (see Brāhmaṇas), the Upaniṣads are sacred Hindu “śruti” (see Śruti) texts that are marked by a free ranging search for the essence of reality (see Vedānta). For the Upaniṣad writers, meditation on rituals and thought rather than on rituals and right actions was the true path to salvation. Their emphasis is on inwardness and the spiritual life, a differentiation between the self of the body (jīva) and that of the true self, or Ātman (see Ātman). Understanding that the true Self within must identify with Brahman (see Brahman)—the ultimate cosmic reality or essential basis of the Universe—the goal of the thinkers in the Upaniṣads is mokṣa (see Mokṣa) or release from the world of physical phenomena. The Upaniṣads use myths as teaching tools, as in the famous parable of Prajāpati (see Prajāpati) leading the god-king Indra (see Indra) along the way of truth to the understanding of Ātman as both formless and ultimately real (see Hinduism, Advaita Vedānta, Vairocana, Descent to the Underworld, Hinduism, Hindu Mythology, Upaniṣad Cosmogony).
