Upanishads Around the time that the Buddha was preaching and perhaps a little earlier, other thinkers also tried to find answers to difficult questions. Some of them wanted to know about life after death, others wanted to know why sacrifices should be performed. Many of these thinkers felt that there was something permanent in the universe that would last even after death. They described this as the atman or the individual soul and the brahman or the universal soul. They believed that ultimately, both the atman and the brahman were one. Many of their ideas were recorded in the Upanishads. These were part of the later Vedic texts. Upanishad literally means ‚¬Ëœapproaching and sitting near‚¬„¢ and the texts contain conversations between teachers and students. Often, ideas were presented through simple dialogues. Most Upanishadic thinkers were men, especially brahmins and rajas. Occasionally, there is mention of women thinkers, such as Gargi, who was famous for her learning and participated in debates held in royal courts. Poor people rarely took part in these discussions. One famous exception was Satyakama Jabala, who was named after his mother, the slave woman Jabali. He had a deep desire to learn about reality, was accepted as a student by a brahmin teacher named Gautama, and became one of the best-known thinkers of the time.