The Kena Upanishad and the Chandogya Upanishad form part of the Sam Veda. As the Upanishads are the concluding part of the
Vedas, they are also known as Vedanta. (In Sanskrit, anta means the end or conclusion) The pupil asked – at whose command does the person carry out this task, at whose wish do we speak these words? The
teacher replied – we do not know it, we do not understand it, how can anyone teach it? That which can not be expressed by speech, but that by which speech is spoken, that is the
eternal spirit. That which does not breathe by means of life, but by means of which life breathes, that is the eternal spirit. The teacher said – if you think I know it well, then surely you know little. I do not think I know it, nor do I know that I do not know it. Only by self-awakening can the eternal spirit be known. Elated by their victory, in their conceit the devas (gods) thought the victory was theirs, the greatness was theirs. The Supreme Spirit appeared before them. Agni (the god of fire) did not have the power left in him to burn a single straw, Vayu (the god of the winds) did not have the power left in him to blow that straw. Indra (the chief of the gods) approached it, but it disappeared before he could reach it. Indra asked Uma what that spirit was. Uma replied that it was the eternal spirit, by means of which the gods have achieved their greatness. The eternal spirit is the spirit that dwells within us. It is towards the eternal spirit that we are drawn, and it is by means of the eternal spirit that we remember. The teacher said – the knowledge of the eternal spirit is the knowledge contained within the Upanishads.