India has produced a phenomenal array of scriptures and religious texts. They span the whole range of the human thought process, from the dry and logical to the emotionally charged, with many swinging between these two extremes over the course of a few verses! The Vedas are well-known even in the Western part of the world and many of Europe's most celebrated scholars have studied, analyzed and praised them. However, there are many more texts that are equally audacious in philosophical thought, apart from being wonderful pieces of literature as well.
The Upanishads for example are considered among the most refined of India's many philosophical texts. The eighteenth century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, has said of the Upanishads, "In the whole world, there is no study so beneficent and elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death." Quite a statement, especially considering that Schopenhauer's work influenced some of Europe's greatest authors and musicians, including Leo Tolstoy and Richard Wagner.
Each of the 108 Upanishads deals with specific areas, revolving around exploring the fundamental nature of man and life itself. There is much to be learnt from these books, many of which were the culmination of hoary oral traditions, and were put down into writing before even the works of the ancient Greeks.
If philosophy undiluted is not your cup of tea, not to worry because you would have had good company among the ancient Indians. Not everyone took to these flights of philosophical fancy. They preferred something more down to earth, which is why the sages of India's past encoded many answers to life's questions in story form. The two major Indian epics, the Mahabharat and the Ramayana, are two examples of this. Both are quite long. At 24,000 verses, the story of Ramayana is twice as long as the combined length of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. The Mahabharat is a bit longer and is ten times as long as the Iliad and Odyssey put together!
Both stories are quite different from each other. However, their underlying theme is the same - that the ultimate goal of human beings is mukti or spiritual liberation, and all of life's events are but a stepping stone towards that. Work, marriage or war, each situation is a possibility to get closer to this goal.
For one who has attained to this blessed state of moksha, for one who is an enlightened being, the events of life are but a drama. Thus, we see Lord Krishna in the Mahabharat conducting the entire Kurukshetra War with a smile on his face. Similarly in the Ramayana, towards the end when Lord Rama grieves for his lost wife, he is reminded by Brahma that he is an incarnation of Vishnu, and there is nothing to grieve over.
Similar concepts are put forth in the Upanishads too, but in more complex language, presented as discourses between Master and disciple. Foreseeing that this may not be as accessible to the general public, the ancient Indians encapsulated the same themes and wove them into stories and epics.