Isha Upanishad

Translated by Pritish Nandy

Illustrated by Sunandini Banerjee

 

8.75 x 8.75 inches, 116pp, 38 colour illustrations. 2014

ISBN : 9780857421821

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That is full. This is full. From the full, comes the full. Remove the full from the full and what remains? The full.

 

Thus begins the Isha Upanishad, one of the most profound ancient books of faith. Mahatma Gandhi had famously said that if all scriptures happened all of a sudden to be reduced to ashes and only the first verse of the Isha Upanishad was left in our memory, Hinduism would live for ever.

 

But this Upanishad goes beyond all faith, all religion to help all people look within and without themselves to answer the questions that have swirled in and round them since the dawn of civilization. That is the spirit in which Pritish Nandy, renowned poet, painter and filmmaker, has produced this sparkling new translation from the original Sanskrit, and Sunandini Banerjee, accomplished artist and designer, has illustrated it with her unique graphic art. While the text reveals man’s relationship with nature and God, the artworks explore it, alluding to creations both divine and human. Together they manifest the thread that connects all that exists, together they chronicle mankind’s search for the true meaning of life.

 

There is no metaphysics here, no religion. Just pure, simple, deep wisdom. 

 

Sunandini Banerjee is an editor, designer and graphic artist based in Calcutta, India. She has illustrated Thomas Bernhard’s Victor Halfwit (2011), Ivan Vladislavic’s Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories (2012) and Diane Meur’s In Dreams (2013), all published by Seagull Books. Her artworks have been exhibited in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai and Cologne.

 

Pritish Nandy is a filmmaker and author 56 books. He was editor and publishing director of the the Times of India Group (1982–91) and member of the Indian Parliament (1998–2004). In 1981, Nandy was nominated as a Poet Laureate by the World Academy of Arts and Culture at the Fifth World Congress of Poets in San Francisco. In 2012, he received the International Humanitarian Award at the Genesis Awards in Hollywood, CA, and, in 2013, was honoured by the government of Bangladesh for his role in the Bangladesh Liberation War. 

Religion
Philosophy
Art