Upanishads are the 'knowledge' portion of the Vedas. Kaivalyopanishad is the most striking of the minor Upanishads - at once pity, poetic and precise! For instance, when the sincere seeker, Asvalayana, a sensible and sensitive student approaches Brahma, the creative genius to know the highest Truth, the latter, without much ado, states the qualifications needed for listening to a spiritual discourse - faith in the teacher, devotion to the scriptures and a contemplative mind. This is one of the rare Upanishads that talks of saguna upasana - meditation on a symbol of the formless Absolute. After many pointers to the Self, the text ends with the benefits it confers on its regular chanters.