[1] In some manuscripts discovered in India, the Upanishad is divided into three Adhyayas (chapters) with a total of six Kandikas (कण्डिका, short sections).

The first question gives a detailed philosophical and logical idea about the origin of life on earth and the description is one of the earliest concepts on Matter and energy.

[6] In ancient and medieval era Indian texts, the word had two additional context-dependent meanings: "task, lesson" and "short section or paragraph", with former common in Vedic recitations.

[10] Mahony suggests an earlier date, placing Prashna along with Maitri and Mandukya Upanishads, as texts that probably emerged about early fourth century BCE.

The pupils credited with the six questions are respectively Kabandhin Katyayana, Bhargava Vaidarbhi, Kausalya Asvalayana, Sauryayanin Gargya, Saibya Satyakama and Sukesan Bharadvaja.

This preface is significant, states Johnston,[5] as it reflects the Vedic era belief that a student's nature and mind must first show a commitment, aspiration, and moral purity before knowledge is shared.

[16][17] The three ethical precepts emphasized in this verse of Prashna Upanishad are Tapas (austerity, perseverance, fervour), Brahmacharya (chastity, self-discipline) and Sraddha (faith, purity, calmness of mind).

In verse 1.4 of Prashna Upanishad, the sage's answer is stated: Prajapati performed Tapas (heat, meditative penance, austerity) and created two principles, Rayi (matter, feminine), and Prana (spirit, masculine), thinking that "these together will couple to produce for me creatures in many ways".

For example, it states that the sun is ultimately the giver of rain and races in sky in the "chariot with seven wheels and six spokes".

[23] This symbolism is also found in more ancient Vedic literature, and the seven wheels represents half years, seasons, months, half months, days, nights, and muhurtas (मुहूर्त, a Vedic era division of time equaling 48 minutes and one muhurta was asserted to be 1/30 of a day).

[note 1][24][25] The first section ends with verses 1.15 and 1.16 asserting that ethical living is necessary to realize the Atman-Brahman: Satya (truthfulness), Brahmacharya (chastity, celibacy if unmarried, fidelity if married), Tapas (austerity, meditation, perseverance), no Anrta (अनृत, falsehood, lying, deception, cheating)[26] no Jihma (जिह्म, moral crookedness, ethical obliqueness with an intent to not do the right thing),[27] and no Maya (माया, dissimulation, delusion, guile).

This is widely interpreted by scholars,[30][32][33] given the context of answer that follows, to reflect the extant belief that deities express themselves in human beings and creatures through sensory organs and capabilities.

[35] Sage Pippalada opens the answers to the three questions by listing five gross elements, five senses and five organs of action as expression of deities.

[38][39] Sage Pippalada states that these questions are difficult, and given the student's past curiosities about Brahman, he explains it as follows,[40] आत्मन एष प्राणो जायते From the Atman (Self) is born this life.

It states, in verse 3.5 for example, that "seven lights" depend on air circulated by arteries in order to function, which is a phrase which means "two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and mouth".

[47] Dream is a form of enjoyment for the mind, where it reconfigures and experiences again, in new ways, what it has seen before, either recently or in past, either this life or another birth, whether true or untrue (Shaccha-Ashaccha, सच्चासच्च), whether heard or unheard, whether pleasant or unpleasant.

[48][49] After setting the foundation of its dream theory and deep-sleep theory, the Prashna Upanishad defines Atman as Purusha (Cosmic Self, Consciousness, Soil of all beings, Universal principle),[50] एष हि द्रष्ट स्प्रष्टा श्रोता घ्राता रसयिता मन्ता बोद्धा कर्ता विज्ञानात्मा पुरुषः । स परेऽक्षर आत्मनि संप्रतिष्ठते ॥ ९ ॥ It is he who beholds, touches, hears, smells, tastes, perceives, thinks, reasons, conceives, acts, whose essence is knowledge, the Self.

[52] The Prashna Upanishad opens the fifth section with the question: if a human being sincerely meditated on the symbol "Om" (Aum) until his death, what would he obtain by it?

[53][56] The Prashna Upanishad symbolically likens the three states of knowledge to sets of three: being awake, dream-sleep, and deep-sleep; three pronunciations - tara, mandra, and madhyama.

[53] The sixth Prashna in the Upanishad opens with a story of a prince visiting one of the student and asking, "where is the person with sixteen parts?"

[58] This answer is significant because more ancient texts of the Vedic era, such as the Samhitas, refer to Prajapati, the Lord of Creation, as Ṣoḍaśin (Sanskrit: षोडशिन्) - which literally means, the one with sixteen parts.

[58][60] Several Indian scholars reviewed and published their commentaries (bhasya) on Prashna Upanishad, including Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya.

[1] The theosophist Johnston has compared quotes from Prashna Upanishad with those in Gospel of Matthew, in his examples of how there are parallels and similarities in Hindu and Christian theology.