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How did the meaning of the term Upanishad become associated with hidden teachings?

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Indian philosophy In the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna and the Hindu deity Krishna, who also serves as Arjuna's charioteer (as depicted in this 17th-century illustration), engaging in a philosophical dialogue.

Contrary to the common misconception that the term Upanishad refers to a "session" of students sitting around a teacher, the Sanskrit word originally signified "connection" or "equivalence".1

In the context of early Indian cosmology, this term specifically referred to the homologies—or symbolic correspondences—drawn between aspects of the human individual and celestial forces. Because these homologies were regarded as esoteric knowledge at the time, the title Upanishad became associated during the middle of the 1st millennium BCE with a genre of texts that claimed to reveal these hidden, secret teachings. These works explore the ontological connection between humanity and the cosmos, ultimately positing a unifying principle known as brahman that resides within the atman, or the unchanging core of the individual.1