Attempting to Read the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad

Of the classes I am taking this semester, the only one which is not Unitarian Universalist related, besides my language requirement, is a course on the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad. We are reading it through along with Sankara's commentary from around the 8th century CE.

I have always enjoyed what I have learned about Hinduism and the non-dualist school of philosophy that he exemplifies (Advaita Vedanta), so I am very excited to starting an in depth study of a central text in this tradition. As a lover of the Transcendentalists, too, I'm interested in seeing where it has influenced them, and generally I hope it can inform my own philosophy and understanding of religion, if not reality. A lofty goal, so we'll see if I get far at all.

And, of course, it is a goal that should be tempered with the academic pursuit of trying to simply understand the text on its own, or at least as the tradition has interpreted it. I am an outsider to the tradition, so I can't pretend that I'll be able to just sit down and read a sacred text in translation (or even in the original, if I could) and expect to glean the proper meaning. But on the other hand, my basic religious sensibilities and understanding of language tell me that to a certain extent, my own interpretation and understanding is all I have anyway.

I'm trying to draw out a theoretical distinction here, which is likely never so clear in practice. On the one hand, I am reading this Upanisad as an academic, attempting to learn facts about it and its interpretation, as it is and as (some) adherents interpret it. On the other hand, I am also a human being reading a sacred text that has inspired and supported laypeople, religious professionals, and philosophers throughout time. In both pursuits, I have an obligation to avoid anything that would lead to the oppression of others or the exoticization of another culture, as well as an obligation to avoid untruth generally.

It might be clearer to explain in a more broad context, since what I am trying to describe is not limited to any particular text. I wish to be a student of all religions and their texts, or at least as many as is reasonably possible. We might say that in order to truly read a sacred text we need to be part of, or educated enough in that tradition (whether as an academic or more strictly as a practitioner/member). But from another point of view, we might say that all religious texts are open to all human beings (or at least insofar as that is how they are addressed), and that although cultural and cross-cultural contexts and language translations may make some things change a little or a lot, the heart is essentially communicated.

I definitely tend toward the latter interpretation, but want to take seriously the concerns of the former. If any of you reading have thoughts or contributions, please share! What are some good practices for reading the sacred texts of another culture as a religious pluralist? Are there any tricky examples that might be fruitful to discuss? Or more specifically to this Upanisad, is there anything you would suggest to a westerner first delving into it?