केनोपनिषद्Kena Upanishad

About this scripture

The Kena (or Talavakara) Upanishad belongs to the Samaveda and is named from its opening word kena ('by whom?'). Its four khandas move from a probing inquiry into the Power behind mind, speech, and the senses — Brahman as 'the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind' — to the famous paradox that Brahman is unknown to those who think they know It, and finally to the allegory of the Yaksha, in which Agni, Vayu, and Indra are humbled and Uma Haimavati reveals that the mysterious being was Brahman. The first two khandas are in verse, the last two in prose. The Devanagari is given with strict IAST and a researched per-mantra meaning gloss in English and Hindi.