[4][6] The text is notable as the one frequently referred to by Ramanuja, the 11th-century proponent of Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) school of Vedanta philosophy and a major influence on Vaishnavism in the 2nd millennium CE.

[9][10] Some modern scholars suggest that the Narayana theology of the Subala Upanishad may have been the decisive impetus to Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita philosophy.

[7] In the Telugu language anthology of 108 Upanishads of the Muktika canon, narrated by Rama to Hanuman, it is listed at number 30.

[13] The Subala Upanishad is structured into sixteen chapters and deals a range of topics, including cosmology, physiology, psychology, and metaphysics.

[14] The text opens as a conversation between Vedic sage Raikva (Subala)[15] and Prajapati, the former is credited in the Chandogya Upanishad for Samvargavidya.

His forehead and anger became Rudra, while his exhalation became the Vedas, the Sutras, the grammar, the Nyaya logic, the prosody, the dharma, and all human knowledge and all beings.

[21][23] Atman and Brahman, asserts the text, is unborn, uncaused, devoid of form or nature that can be sensed; is imperishable, neither short nor long, neither definable nor obscure, neither provable nor shrouded, neither manifested nor measurable, neither with interior nor with exterior.

[21][23] One attains this Atman and self-knowledge through virtues, which are six in number – truthfulness, charity, austerity, non-injury to others, Brahmacharya, and renunciation.

[27] The immortal soul, the innermost center of one's existence, is ever-present as the "resplendent effulgence", whether one is in an awake state of consciousness or dreaming in one's sleep.

[35] The tongue and mouth are Varuna,[36] the hands are Indra,[37] the feet are Vishnu,[37] the mind is Moon,[36] ahamkara (personality) is Rudra,[38] and the sexual organs are Prajapati.

[41] The directional gods, all Devas, time and the aeons, the planetary systems, the climatic phenomena, the fourteen nadis, all organs of living beings, parents, siblings, fire, and ghee (clarified butter) are identified as manifestations of Narayana.

"[8][52] The Subala Upanishad was frequently cited by the 11th-century scholar Ramanuja, the main proponent of Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) school of Vedanta philosophy.

[10][53][54] Ramanuja justifies Vishnu as each individual self (Atman, soul), the inner self of everyone, everything in the world, the means to ultimate liberation, with theological arguments partly based on the Subala Upanishad.