The Electron Frog-Jump Past the Edge of Death's Abyss. Complete texts, original translations, word by word transliteration, philosophical commentary, mythological analysis and notes of Ganapati, Isa, Katha and Mandukya Upanishads with parallels from the Veda, Brahmana, other Upanishads and Sacred Texts of various religions. The sacred texts of India, the Veda, Brahmana and Upanishad, are universal a-temporal paradigms of our existence. Since antiquity, India has influenced the world. It discovered the Self as Greece discovered the Idea. Indian speculation recognizes degrees of consciousness. In the beginning, from an Unknown Transcendent Zero springs out Desire or Death. This entire world was concealed by Death as Hunger. That Hunger generates its own self as Auto-transparency. Then, in a circular motion, similar to a Biblical day of creation, Desire generates its 'I' as I-consciousness. Finally, with another circular motion, Hunger generates its Ego as Ego-consciousness, namely, the rider of this physical body, metaphorically indicated as a thinking horse. Hunger creates this entire world of representation. It sacrifices it or makes-it-sacred by placing it into existence. Metaphorically, then, the world becomes food for thought. Epistemologically, Agni, the god of fire, indicates the 'I' burning the object in its cognitive process. In four different ways, All religions tend to a central ineffable Transcendent from which we departed. By Transcendent, we mean that which is intended to rest beyond the subject-object immanent correlation. Therefore, we constantly believe that the known world persists in a reality transcending our perception of it. The function of Philosophy is to rethink the world, while Mythology tends to transcend it. Here we offer the texts and original translations with commentaries of four of the sacred revealed Upanishads. The GANAPATI (Lord of Hosts) Upanishad, in it the Ganesha symbolizes the Transcendent. The MANDUKYA (the Frog-like) Upanishad outlines the meaning of the mystical syllable AUM identified with the whole world in time, space and beyond. The Self has four conditions, the states of waking, dreaming and unconscious preceded and followed by the silence from which they come and to which they go. The ISA (the Lord) Upanishad, in it, the Primordial Transcendent Waters, the Nothingness "present" at the beginning of this world, are like quantum fluctuation in the very early universe. The KATHA (Distress) Upanishad portrays the existential distress at the time of death when all that remains for the Wealthy Desirous being is the Unknown (Naciketa). The Self is the blaze of consciousness hidden in the heart of the subject-object correlation. In it stands Naciketa. The Self resides in the castle of the body. Everything is the Self. Beyond births and desires, the Self is the Apodictical Certitude of Awareness in Itself, shaping everything else. The Self is the supreme happiness. Based on the ancient Upanishads, this book shows the way to prepare for the instant of death, when our focus cam lead us to the realization beyond the dichotomy of death and immortality.
PASQUALE J. SIMONELLI, Ph.D. studied and taught Eastern and Western Philosophies at the Universities "Orientale" and "Federico II" of Naples, Italy. He taught Philosophies and Religions of India in the USA. He published scholarly works in Belgium (VUB University Press, Brussels), England (Cambridge University Press), Italy (University of Naples, University Orientale and Archeoclub d'Italia) and USA (Monmouth University, NJ and NAAAS, LA). He circumnavigated the world three times and he continues his traveling explorations.
