Full text of "The Upanishads , translated by Juan Mascaro"
See other formats
cs
95c
DS
1
>
_
1
THE PENGUIN CLASSICS
FOUNDER EDITOR ( 1 944-64) : E.V. RIEU
Present Editors:
BETTY RADICE AND ROBERT BALDICK
j /} 4^4
THE UPANISHADS
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SANSKRIT
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JUAN MASCARO
PENGUIN BOOKS
BALTIMORE • MARYLAND
r
Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Penguin Books Inc., 3300 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore 11, Md, U.S.A*
Penguin Books Pty Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
First published 196^
Copyright © Juan Mascar6, 1965:
Made and printed in Great Britain
by C. Nicholls & Company Ltd
Set in Linotype Pilgrim
This book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise disposed
of without the publisher’s consent
in any form of binding or cover
other than that in which
it is published
CONTENTS
Introduction
7
Note on the Translations
45
Acknowledgements
46
THE UPANISHADS
47
Isa
49
Kena
5i
Katha
55
Prasna
67
Mundaka
75
Mandukya
83
Svetasvatara
85
From the Maitri
99
From the Kaushitaki
105
From the Taittiriya
109
From the Chandogya
113
From the Brihad-aranyaka
127
The Supreme Teaching
133
To the Spirit of
RABINDRANATH TAGORE,
1861 -I 94 I
And in Memory of
PROFESSOR MILLICENT MACKENZIE
1862 - I942
INTRODUCTION
The Sanskrit word Upanishad , Upa-ni-shad, comes from the
verb sad, to sit, with upa, connected with Latin s-ub,
under; and ni, found in English be-neath and ne-ther.
The whole would mean a sitting, an instruction, the sitting
at the feet of a master. When we read in the Gospels that
Jesus 4 went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his
disciples came unto him’ we can imagine them sitting at
the feet of their Master and the whole Sermon on the Mount
might be considered an Upanishad.
The Upanishads are spiritual treatises of different length,
the oldest of which were composed between 800 and 400 b.c.
Their number increased with time and about 112 Upanishads
have been printed in Sanskrit. Some were composed as
late as the fifteenth century a.d. These repeat most of the
ideas of the older Upanishads, using them for a particular
school of thought or religious instruction. The longest and
perhaps the oldest Upanishads are the Brihad-aranyaka and
the Chandogya which cover about one hundred pages each,
while the Isa Upanishad, one of the most important, not far
in age from the Bhagavad Gita, has only eighteen verses.
If all the known Upanishads were collected in one volume,
they would make an Anthology about the length of the
Bible. The spirit of the Upanishads can be compared with
that of the New Testament summed up in the words * I and
my Father are one’ and ‘The kingdom of God is within
you*, the seed of which is found in the words of the Psalms
T have said: Ye are gods; and all of you are the children of
the most High*.
The Bhagavad Gita could be considered an Upanishad; and
at the end of each chapter we find a note added in later times
which begins with the words: ‘Here in the Upanishad of the
glorious Bhagavad Gita\
7
INTRODUCTION
In theory, an Upanishad could even be composed in the
present day: a spiritual Upanishad that would draw its life
from the One source of religions and humanism and apply
it to the needs of the modern world.
When prince Dara Shukoh, the son of the emperor Shah
Jahan who built the Taj Mahal, was in Kashmir in 1640, he
heard about the Upanishads and he had fifty of them trans¬
lated into Persian. This translation was finished in 1657, and
it was much later put into Latin by Anquetil Duperron and
published in Paris in 1802. This was read by Schopenhauer,
who said of the Upanishads: their reading ‘has been the con¬
solation of my life, and will be of my death’ - ‘Sie ist der
Trost meines Lebens gewesen und wird der meines Sterbens
sein.'
In the songs of the Vedas we find the wonder of man
before nature: fire and water, the winds and the storms, the
sun and the rising of the sun are sung with adoration. They
sometimes remind us of the love of nature of St Francis
when he sings:
Glory be to thee, my God, for the gift of thy creation, and
especially for our brother, the sun, who gives us the day and by
whom thou givest us light. He is beautiful and radiant and of
great glory, and bears witness to thee, O most High.
Glory be to thee, my God, for our brother the wind and the
air, serene or in clouds and in all weathers, by which thou dost
sustain all creatures.
Glory be to thee, my God, for our sister water, which is very
useful and humble, and precious and pure.
Glory be to thee, my God, for our brother fire, by whom thou
dost illumine the night; and he is beautiful, and joyful, and
strong and full of power.
The songs of the Vedas cannot begin with ‘Glory be to
thee, my God ’, as the song of St Francis does, nor reach the
sublime end of the song: ‘Glory be to thee, my God, for
those who forgive for love of thee* - ‘ Laudato si', mi Signore ,
per quelli che perdonano per lo tuo amore' The ascension
8
INTRODUCTION
from the many to the One was not yet complete in the
Vedas , nor do we find in them the Spirit of love revealed in
the Svetasvatara Upanishad, in Buddha, and in the Bhagavad
Gita .
When in the Vedas , however, the soul of the poet is one
with the god he is praising, we often find a sense of oneness,
as if there were one God above all the gods, as when we
hear these words to Varuna, the god of mercy :
We praise thee with our thoughts, O God. We praise thee even
as the sun praises thee in the morning: may we find joy in being
thy servants.
Keep us under thy protection. Forgive our sins and give us thy
love.
God made the rivers to flow. They feel no weariness, they
cease not from flowing. They fly swiftly like birds in the air.
May the stream of my life flow into the river of righteousness.
Loose the bonds of sin that bind me. Let not the thread of my
song be cut while I sing; and let not my work end before its
fulfilment. Rig Veda n. 28
In one of the latest songs of the Vedas , the song to Vurusha,
we find that the god is described in words that remind us of
the Brahman of the Upanishads:
Purusha is the whole universe: what has been and what is
going to be. One fourth of him is all beings, three fourths of him
is immortal heaven.
And when the poet of the Vedas sings the glory of Vata,
the god of the winds, he says: ‘Spirit of the gods, seed of all
the worlds’, ‘Atma devanam, bhuvanasya garbho\
We also find in the Vedas some of those supreme ques¬
tions, asked by man when he considers the meaning of this
great All, which were to be answered later on in the Upani¬
shads :
There was not then what is nor what is not. There was no sky,
and no heaven beyond the sky. What power was there ? Where ?
Who was that power ? Was there an abyss of fathomless waters ?
9
INTRODUCTION
There was neither death nor immortality then. No signs were
there of night or day. The one was breathing by its own power,
in infinite peace. Only the one was: there was nothing beyond.
Darkness was hidden in darkness. The all was fluid and form¬
less. Therein, in the void, by the fire of fervour arose the one.
And in the one arose love: Love the first seed of the soul. The
truth of this the sages found in their hearts: seeking in their
hearts with wisdom, the sages found that bond of union between
Being and non-being.
Who knows the truth? Who can tell whence and how arose
this universe ? The gods are later than its beginning: who knows
therefore whence comes this creation ?
Only that god who sees in highest heaven: he only knows
whence came this universe, and whether it was made or un¬
created. He only knows, or perhaps he knows not.
Rig Veda x. 129
The ritual of adoration in the Vedas, when men felt the
glory of this world and prayed for light, must in time have
become the routine of prayers of darkness for the riches of
this world. We find in the Upanishads a reaction against ex¬
ternal religion; and when ideas of the Vedas are accepted
they are given a spiritual interpretation. It is the permanent
struggle between the letter that kills and the spirit that gives
life. We thus read in the Mundaka Upanishad .
But unsafe are the boats of sacrifice to go to the farthest shore;
unsafe are the eighteen books where the lower actions are ex¬
plained.
In the B hagavad Gita the same idea is even more power¬
fully expressed;
As is the use of a well of water where water everywhere over¬
flows, such is the use of all the Vedas to the seer of the Supreme.
In different words the Svetasvatara Upanishad tells us:
Of what use is the Rig Veda to one who does not know the
Spirit from whom the Rig Veda comes ?
o
10
INTRODUCTION
The composers of the Upanishads were thinkers and poets,
they had the vision of the poet; and the poet knows well
that if poetry takes us away from a lower reality of daily
life it is only to lead us to the vision of a higher Reality even
in this daily life, where limitations give way for the poet to
the joy of liberation.
These compositions are as much above the mere archaeo¬
logical curiosity of some scholars as light is above its defini¬
tion. Scholarship is necessary to bring us the fruits of ancient
wisdom, but only an elevation of thought and emotion can
help us to enjoy them and transform them into life.
One of the messages of the Upanishads is that the Spirit
can only be known through union with him, and not through
mere learning. And can any amount of learning make us feel
love, or see beauty or hear the ‘unheard melodies’? Some
have only seen the variety of thought in the Upanishads, not
their underlying unity. To them the words in the sacred
texts might be applied: ‘Who sees variety and not the unity
wanders on from death to death’.
The spirit of the Upanishads is the Spirit of the Universe.
Brahman, God himself, is their underlying spirit. The Christ¬
ian must feel that Brahman is God, and the Hindu must feel
that God is Brahman. Unless a feeling of reverence indepen¬
dent of the barriers of names can be felt for the Ineffable,
the saying of the Upanishads is true: ‘Words are weariness’,
the same idea expressed by the prophet that ‘Of making
many books there is no end’.
‘The Holy Spirit’ may be the nearest translation of Brah¬
man in Christian language. Whilst God the Father and God
the Son are in the foreground of the mind of many Christ¬
ians, the Holy Spirit seems to receive less adoration. And in
India the Brahman of the Upanishads is not as popular as
Siva, Vishnu, or Krishna. Even Brahma, the manifestation
of Brahman as creator, and not to be confused with him, is
not living in the daily devotions of the Hindu, as are the
two other gods of the trinity, Siva and Vishnu. The UpanU
shad doctrine is not a religion of the many; but rather the
ii
INTRODUCTION
Spirit behind all religions is their central theme repeated in
such a wonderful variety of ways.
Brahman in the Universe, God in his transcendence and
immanence is also the Spirit of man, the Self in every one
and in all, Atman. Thus the momentous statement is made in
the Upanishads that God must not be sought as something
far away, separate from us, but rather as the very inmost of
us, as the higher Self in us above the limitations of our little
self. In rising to the best in us we rise to the Self in us, to
Brahman, to God himself. Thus when the sage of the Upani¬
shads is pressed for a definition of God, he remains silent,
meaning that God is silence. When asked again to express
God in words, he says: ‘Neti, neti’, ‘Not this, not this’; but
when pressed for a positive explanation he utters the sub¬
limely simple words: ‘tat tvam asT, ‘Thou art That’.
According to the Upanishads , the reality of God can only
be apprehended in a consciousness of joy that is beyond
ordinary consciousness. The silent voice of the Eternal is
perpetually whispering in us his melodies everlasting. The
radiance of the Infinite is everywhere, but our ears cannot
hear and our eyes cannot see: the Eternal cannot be grasped
by the transient senses or the transient mind. This is beauti¬
fully expressed in the Taittiriya Upanishad : ‘Words and
mind go to him, but reach him not and return. But he who
knows the joy of Brahman fears no more.*
Only the Eternal in us can lead us to the Eternal, only
when the transient has become Eternal can a man say: ‘I
am He\
Brahman is described as immanent and transcendent, with¬
in all and outside all. If the All is imagined as a triangle, the
apex might be imagined as God transcendent, who in his
expansion creates matter out of himself, not out of nothing,
and thus becomes immanent until the end of evolution when
the immanent has all again become transcendent in an
ascension of evolution towards him. Why? For the joy of
creation. Why is there evil ? For the joy of good arising from
it. Why darkness? That light may shine the more. Why
12
INTRODUCTION
suffering? For the instruction of the soul and the joy of
sacrifice. Why the infinite play of creation and evolution?
For Anandam , pure joy.
In the rising from non-Self to Self, from unconsciousness
to consciousness, and from this to supreme Consciousness,
there is a process of unselfishness. The more the lower self
is forgotten in good works, and in the realization of the
beautiful and the true, the quicker becomes the process of
evolution.
The self-training for the vision of the unity of Atman and
Brahman is called Yoga. Later on it was developed with
such a wealth of detail and observation that its study should
offer much deep interest to the Western psychologist. In
the Upanishads is found the conception of a fourth state of
consciousness, above waking, dreaming and deep sleep.
The law of evolution called Karma explains the apparent
injustice in the world with sublime simplicity. There is
a law of cause and effect in the moral world. We are the
builders of our own destiny, and the results are not limited
to one life, since our Spirit that was never bom and will
never die must come again and take to itself a body, that
the lower self may have the reward of its works. Good shall
lead to good, and evil to evil. From good, joy shall come,
and from evil shall come suffering. And thus the great evolu¬
tion flows on towards perfection.
There are two points that seem to have puzzled readers
of these sacred texts: the problem of personality, and of the
final union with Brahman.
It has been thought that because matter and the lower
personality have only a relative reality, later on to be
called may a - illusion, something that passes away and is
not eternal reality - our personality, that personality so dear
to us, has been considered unimportant and neglected.
Does it mean, because Shakespeare transformed his mind
into a thousand minds, because in his all-embracing sym¬
pathy he became for a time a Hamlet or a Falstaff, that his
personality is forgotten ? In the process of creation the little
13
INTRODUCTION
self is forgotten, only to emerge much greater in the march
towards the Eternal; the transient is left behind, but the
transient becomes Eternal. ‘Who knows God becomes God’,
says the Mundaka Upanishad.
And when all the transient has been left behind, when
final liberation has been attained, when our little self is lost
in the greater Self in us and in all, as a drop of water is lost
in the sea, does it mean that all consciousness is lost? After
the death of the lower self, when the small drop of human
consciousness has become one with the ocean of Conscious¬
ness, when in the suggestive words of the Brihad-aranyaka
Upanishad the seer is alone in an ocean, 1 Salila eko drastdd-
vaito bhavati’, does it mean that consciousness is lost? Yes,
says Yajnavalkya to his wife in the same Upanishad ; for
‘How can the Knower be known?* But does not this mean
that the little self has then become the Self supreme and not
only has the consciousness of his long experience, but has
access to the Consciousness of all, not only has the book of
his own past, but also the Book of the Universe ?
How could the union with God be unconsciousness, unless
God was unconsciousness? In the image of St Teresa, the
silkworm has died and has become a beautiful butterfly. Free
from its limitations, the little self forgets its limited life in
the boundless ocean of life. It is not a death, but a victory
over death, a rising and a resurrection.
So little is this our life neglected in the Upanishads that
on our actions during this life depends all our future life, and
even life everlasting. So important is this life that in the
Katha Upanishad it is stated that the Spirit can only be seen
in this life, or in the highest heaven, but not in the regions
of the departed or in the lower heavens. The importance
given to this life is clear behind the symbolism.
The joy of the final union is felt by St John of the Cross
when he describes the Beloved as the ‘silent music* and ‘the
sound of solitude’. And this final union is described by St
Teresa in words that remind us of the Upanishads two thous¬
and years before. It is like ‘water falling from heaven into a
14
INTRODUCTION
river or fountain, when all becomes water, and it is not pos¬
sible to divide or separate the water of the river from that
which fell from heaven; or when a little stream enters the
sea so that henceforth there shall be no means of separation/
And in a different way it is the joy felt by Wordsworth, or
by the greatest poet of the Catalan literary renaissance,
Maragall, when he exclaims :
Tot semblava un m6n en flor
i r&nima n’era jo.
‘All seemed a world in flower, and I was the soul of this
world/ *
As the visions of the Upanishads are based on a conscious¬
ness of our own being in relation to the Being of the universe,
whatever may be the mental progress of man upon this
earth he can never go beyond the visions of the Upanishads:
he can never go beyond himself, his own consciousness, his
own life. Could he think if he were not alive ?
Each one of us is a centre of life, a unique event in the
universe, and whatever our external relations to people and
things may be, the absolute fact remains that we have to live
our inner life alone even as we have to die our own death :
no one can live our own inner life for us; and no one can
go through our own death. In the infinite struggle of man
to know this world and the universe around him, and also
to know the mind that allows him to think, he comes before
the simple fact that life is above thought: when he sees a
fruit he can think about the fruit, but in the end he must eat
it if he wants to know its taste: the pleasure and nourish¬
ment he may get from eating the fruit is not an act of thought.
If we consider that food is necessary for life, that food is
something material and that we do not live in a world of
incorporeal spirits, we may think that the basis of life is
material, that ‘It rests on a material basis’, and that before
man can enjoy life he must eat and be alive. This is true, but
many in power forgot this truth and piously thought that
instead of bread they could give the stones of religious
IS
INTRODUCTION
dogmas and pious consolations. It is no wonder that thinkers
arose in fury and prophetic indignation, and believing that
the material violence of power can only be fought by
violence and power they gave a material gospel of faith in
life, against the gospel of an external religion based, accord¬
ing to them, on fanaticism and selfish self-deception. Can we
wonder? The words of Shylock may come to our mind: Tf
a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: if
a Christian wrong a Jew what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? why, revenge/ Or, as Macbeth said: ‘It
will have blood; they say, blood will have blood/
We thus have the old law of an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth, and violence against violence. This law is
so much consciously or unconsciously accepted that when a
historian writes about past events of men or nations we
often feel that he takes this law for granted; and he there¬
fore does not write from a point of view which is free in
that love which breaks the old law, in that love which is
infinite liberty.
A material view of the universe seems therefore quite
possible, so much so that we might call it the general view
of modem man, ruled by a modern mechanism based on
scientific materialism.
But is this all ? Is a rationalistic interpretation of the uni¬
verse quite reasonable? Is a scientific humanism quite human
or quite scientific ?
The answer of the Upanishads is quite definite: atman,
the mystery of our life, the light of our soul, the love which
is the source of infinite joy, the vision of the good and the
beautiful which is the source of everything beautiful or
good that man can create upon this earth, is something
which is above reason and therefore it can never be attained
by reason alone. And we hear the words of the Upani¬
shads :
Not through much learning is the Atman reached, not through
the intellect and sacred teaching. Katha Up.
He comes to the thought of those who know him beyond
16
INTRODUCTION
thought, not to those who imagine he can be attained by
thought: he is unknown to the learned and known to the
simple. Kena Up.
Or, in the words of Jesus, seeds of spiritual life: ‘Except
ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven/
What does all this mean? That besides a material view
of the universe that in the end reduces all to matter, or elec¬
trons, or energy, and our brain to a machine, a wonderful
machine indeed but a part of a material body; and which
reduces consciousness to an energy merely emanating from
the brain, and of course non-existent in the universe apart
from it; and which reduces the universe to a universe of
quantity and intellectual abstractions where in the end all
things are dust and fall into dust and death, we have a uni¬
verse of spiritual radiance from which this universe of mat¬
ter is only a reflection, a world of Spirit so much more
wonderful to the soul than the physical universe is to the
mind, the universe of eternal beauty which has been felt
by all the greatest seers and poets and spiritual men of all
times, where all things are in life and go into life. This led
Bradley to say:
That the glory of this world in the end is appearance leaves
the world more glorious, if we feel it is a show of some fuller
splendour; but the sensuous curtain is a deception and a cheat,
if it hides some colourless movement of atoms, some spectral
woof of impalpable abstractions.
And Rabindranath Tagore can write with faith:
For the world is not atoms or molecules or radio-activity or
other forces, the diamond is not carbon, and light is not vibra¬
tions of ether. You can never come to the reality of creation by
contemplating it from the point of view of destruction.
And Shelley, speaking of poetry, can say:
It is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge; it is
that which comprehends all science, and that to which all science
17
INTRODUCTION
must be referred. It is as the odour and the colour of the rose
to the texture of the elements which compose it, as the form
and splendour of unfaded beauty to the secrets of anatomy and
corruption.
The world of modem science is becoming more and more
interesting, more poetical, and therefore more spiritual: but
it is still concerned with matter. We are on the threshold of
this great world of science and who knows the wonders the
mind of man can discover? But however far the mind of
man can go there will still be the tremendous assertion of
the Taittiriya Upanishad : ‘Words and mind go to Him, but
reach Him not and return. But he who knows the joy of
Brahman, fears no more.’ Or, in the words of the Kaushitaki
Upanishad: ‘It is not thought which we should want to
know: we should know the thinker.’
A flower can be an object of trade: something to buy and
sell for money. This is its lowest value. It can also be an
object of intellectual interest, but then it becomes an ab
straction and from a purely intellectual point of view a
nettle may sometimes be more interesting than a flower. But
to the soul the flower is an object of joy, and to the poet it
can be a thing of beauty and truth: a window from which
we may look in wonder into the Beauty and Truth of the
universe, and the Truth and Beauty in our own souls. Blake
saw this when he wrote:
To see a World in a grain of sand.
And a Heaven in a wild flower.
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand.
And Eternity in an hour.
All things on earth, from a flower to a human being, can
be an object of love or contemplation, an object of intel¬
lectual interest, and an object of possession. In the first case
they give us the freedom of joy in the Infinite; in the sec¬
ond they give us that knowledge which is power; in the
third they give us the chains that bind us to matter, drag us
18
INTRODUCTION
down to the darkness of death, to the miseries of competi¬
tion for selfish power, instead of cooperation for unselfish
joy. Those three attitudes of mind, those three types of
knowledge, are well described in the Bhagavad Gita:
When one sees Eternity in things that pass away and Infinity
in finite things, then one has pure knowledge.
But if one merely sees the diversity of things, with their
divisions and limitations, then one has impure knowledge.
And if one selfishly sees a thing as if it were everything, inde¬
pendent of the one and the many, then one is in the darkness of
ignorance. xviii. 20-22
What a wonderful relation do we establish with a human
being when in spite of his limitations we see his Infinity!
But if we merely consider him as an object of intellectual
curiosity, a fixed number in static statistics, or even as a
mere machine whose work we can buy and sell, we degrade
both him and ourselves.
‘Know thyself’ is supreme wisdom; but how can we
know ourselves ? Is it a mere intellectual knowledge that we
want? Modern psychology may explain a good many of the
workings of the mind and make interesting and helpful
guesses; but this is a study of the mind as an object. How
can the mind be known as a subject, except by experience?
We all know different values in our inner life: the differ¬
ence of inner life when the routine of daily tribulations,
great or small, makes us feel that we are not really living,
or when we hear a symphony of Beethoven, or read Shakes¬
peare or Dante or the Upanishads, if we can read or listen;
but can we know what allows us to be conscious of our
own consciousness ? Can we know that essence of our life
which allows us to live and to feel and to think? If we did,
we would then know ourselves, our Atman, we would know
God. We could then know, even as we know that we are
alive but with a far greater intensity, that there is a centre
in us which gives us that oneness which we call conscious-
19
INTRODUCTION
ness and that can be one with the one, the invisible link
that gives the unity of our little lives and is the oneness of
this vast universe.
This is the great adventure and the great discovery. No
one can do it for us. Until we have reached the top of the
mountain we cannot see in full glory the view that lies be¬
yond ; but glimpses of light illumine our path to the moun¬
tain. These glimpses of light give us faith, because then we
know, not with the external knowledge of reading books,
but with that certainty of faith that comes from moments
of inner life. But if in intellectual pride or in the laziness of
dullness we deny the light, thereby denying ourselves, how
can we avoid being in darkness ?
This is why the greatest prayers of men have always been
prayers for light and love. We cannot buy light and love in
the market place of men; but they are given to us ‘without
money and without price’.
In the external world where our body moves and has its
life we are not free. We have to obey the laws of nature, the
laws of God, or we suffer; and it is the task of our intellect
gradually to discover those laws. But there is our little
world of inner life. Here we have limited freedom, but we
are free enough to deny the light and even to deny God.
Here in our inner world there is something which is not
bound by the laws of nature, by the laws of time and space.
In the inmost of our soul there is the world of the Spirit and
the world of the Spirit is free: ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.’ But the more we deny the Spirit of the
Lord, our Atman, our own Self, the more are we bound. We
could live in the centre of our soul and thus feel the infinite
joy of Brahman, but instead of yearning towards the centre
we make infinite centres of selfishness in the circumference
of our souls. The farther those centres are from the Centre,
the farther we are from the light: selfishness becomes
stronger and stronger, the chains that bind us and which we
so laboriously make with our thoughts and works are more
and more difficult to break. In the struggle for goods that
20
INTRODUCTION
can give pleasure and power we clash with others who also
want power and pleasure, and instead of a cooperation in
love that would lead to the joy of light we have the vast
competition that leads down to darkness and destruction.
Why should men worry about the ‘why?’ of evil and ugli¬
ness when so much of the ugliness and evil of this world is
the work of man? This is why Buddha refused to answer
metaphysical questions: he gave the path of love that leads
to Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven, where all questions
shall be answered, and the answer will be life.
Our Masters of the spiritual life want us to be at least
as practical in the work that leads to joy as others are ‘prac¬
tical’ in the work that leads to the illusion of self-exaltation.
‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you’, says Jesus
whose words are Truth, and he also says, ‘Behold the king¬
dom of God is within you’. We pray ‘Thy kingdom come’,
and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; but we also pray
‘Thy will be done’, and what is the will but the will of
love ? The Truth of the Spirit is not found by the arguing of
philosophical or metaphysical questions. How can we ask
a question about something so near at hand? It is as if we
were asking whether we are alive; and in fact we might
well ask this question since so much of our life is mere
vegetable or animal life. We know that we are alive, but
not alive to the Highest Life. If, however, we are tempted to
argue about the supreme problems, forgetting the words of
Indian wisdom that ‘Those things which are beyond thought
should not be subjected to argument’ and that ‘When we
can argue about a thing it shows that it is not worth argu¬
ing about’, we may listen to the words of Buddha:
Imagine a man that has been pierced by an arrow well soaked
in poison, and his relatives and friends go at once to fetch a
physician or a surgeon. Imagine now that this man says:
‘I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know the name
of the man who shot it, and the name of his family, and whether
he is tall or short or of medium height; until I know whether he
21
INTRODUCTION
is black or dark or yellow; until I know his village or town. 1
will not have the arrow pulled out until I know about the bow
that shot it, whether it was a long bow or a cross bow.
I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know about the
bow-string, and the arrow, and the feathers of the arrow,
whether they are feathers of vulture, or kite or peacock.
I will not have the arrow pulled out until I know whether the
tendon which binds it is of an ox, or deer, or monkey.
I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know whether
it is an arrow, or the edge of a knife, or a splinter, or the tooth
of a calf, or the head of a javelin.’
Well, that man would die, but he would die without having
found out all these things.
In the same way, any one who would say: ‘ I will not follow
the holy life of Buddha until he tells me whether the world is
eternal or not; whether the life and the body are two things, or
one thing; whether the one who has reached the Goal is beyond
death or not; whether he is both beyond death and not beyond
death; whether he is neither beyond death nor is not beyond
death.’
Well, that man would die, but he would die without Buddha
having told these things.
Because I am one who says: Whether the world is eternal or
not, there is birth, and death, and suffering, and woe, and lamen¬
tation, and despair. And what I do teach is the means that lead
to the destruction of these things.
Remember therefore that what I have said, I have said; and
that what I have not said, I have not said. And why have I not
given an answer to these questions ? Because these questions are
not profitable, they are not a principle of the holy life, they lead
not to peace, to supreme wisdom, to Nirvana.
Majjhima Nikaya i. 63
Yes, our spiritual life is a vision and a creation: doubts
and unprofitable questions do not help. We have to build
our inner house. Blake who saw, as perhaps no one else has
better seen, the relation between spiritual vision and poetry,
expressed this idea in these words:
1 must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s;
I will not reason and compare; my business is to create.
22
INTRODUCTION
Our spiritual life must be a work of creation. Whether
we are within a religion, or outside a religion, or against re¬
ligion, we can only live by faith, a burning faith in the
spiritual values of man. This faith can only come from life,
from the deep fountain of life within us, the Atman of the
Upanishads, Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven. A deep faith
in life cannot but be spiritual, even if only partially
spiritual. That is why the faith in science and in man that
makes men speak of ‘One for all and all for one’; ‘Man is
to man a friend and a brother*; ‘Honesty and truthfulness,
moral purity and modesty* is a faith that cannot be material
because it comes from the Spirit within us. A scientific
humanism based on science, if illumined by love and the
light of beauty, is bound to lead to the Atman of the
Upanishads , to the glory of the Spirit in man. The path of
Truth may not be a path of parallel lines but a path that
follows one circle: by going to the right and climbing the
circle, or by going to the left and climbing the circle we are
bound to meet at the top, although we started in apparently
contrary directions. This is bound to be in the end, because
Truth is one. This is expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, the
Song of God:
In any way that men love me in that same way they find my
love: for many are the paths of men, but they all in the end
come to me.
And when Keats was only twenty-two years old he could
write deep thoughts that have a curious similarity to ideas
in the Mundaka Upanishad and the verse of the Gita just
quoted:
Now it appears to me that almost any Man may like the spider
spin from his own inwards his own airy Citadel - the points
of leaves and twigs on which the spider begins her work are
few, and she fills the air with a beautiful circuiting. Man should
be content with as few points to tip with the fine Web of his
Soul, and weave a tapestry empyrean - full of symbols for his
23
INTRODUCTION
spiritual eye, of softness for his spiritual touch, of space for his
wanderings, of distinctness for his luxury. But the minds of mor¬
tals are so different and bent on such diverse journeys that it may
at first appear impossible for any common taste and fellowship
to exist between two or three under these suppositions. It is
however quite the contrary. Minds would leave each other in
contrary directions, traverse each other in numberless points,
and at last greet each other at the journey’s end. An old man and
a child would talk together and the old man be led on his path
and the child left thinking. Man should not dispute or assert, but
whisper results to his Neighbour, and thus by every germ of
spirit sucking the sap from mould ethereal every human might
become great, and humanity instead of being a wide heath of
furze and briars, with here and there a remote Oak or Pine,
would become a great democracy of forest trees.
All men of good will are bound to meet if they follow the
wisdom of the words of Shakespeare in Hamlet where, if we
write self for self , we find the doctrine of the Upanishads:
This above all, - to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day.
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
*
There are two ideas around which the deepest problems of
thought and of all spiritual vision and life revolve: the idea
of Being and the idea of Love.
The central vision of the Upanishads is Brahman, and
although Brahman is beyond thoughts and words, he can
be felt by each one of us as Atman, as our own being. The
words of Hamlet, which are applied to a definite dramatic
situation but which have, as so often in Shakespeare, a
meaning far beyond their context, express the great problem:
TO BE, OR NOT TO BE : THAT IS THE QUESTION.
That is the question. Is there an infinite Being in the uni¬
verse within and beyond the vastness of space and the revo¬
lutions of the stars? Is there an eternal Being behind the
INTRODUCTION
perpetual movement of our minds and the beatings of our
heart of life ? Because if there were not this Being we could
never be: we could only be a perpetual becoming until our
end in dust.
The answer of the Upanishads is yes, and this means that
the essence of the universe and of ourselves is positive: it is
the holy word of the Upanishads, om, one of the meanings
of which is yes. How can we know? This Truth can be
known in the silence of the soul. We are told again and again
that in the deep silence of the soul man can be in union with
himself: not with his transitory consciousness, not with the
apparent nothingness of deep sleep, not with the vagueness
of dreams; but when man is in union with the background
of his consciousness, the centre of his soul, then he is in
union with himself, his own Self: only when man is in union
with God is he in union with himself, one with himself and
with all creation. Then he sees by that inner light which is in
the secret place of his soul, in that place where, in the words
found in the Katha, Mundaka and Svetasvatara Upanishads:
There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars; light¬
nings shine not there and much less earthly fire. From his light
all these give light, and his radiance illumines all creation.
Then the words of Isaiah become true for that soul;
The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for bright¬
ness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be
unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Glimpses of this joy of Being are found in all great poets,
and Wordsworth can say:
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal silence.
The joy that irradiates the poetry of the great modem
Spanish poet Jorge Guillen springs from the joy of Being :
Ser, nada mds. Y basta.
Es la absolute dicha.
‘To be. No more. This is all. This is the joy supreme/
25
INTRODUCTION
Wordsworth felt the Brahman of the Upanishads. That is
why he can write in the first edition of The Vrelude :
I felt the sentiment of Being spread
O’er all that moves, and all that seemeth still,
... Wonder not
If such my transports were; for in all things now
I saw one life and felt that it was joy.
This is the pure spirit of the Upanishads . Later on he des¬
cended to a less poetical religion and suppressing what is
perhaps the most sublime verse in all his poetry - T saw
one life, and felt that it was joy * - he wrote:
Wonder not
If high the transport, great the joy I felt.
Communing in this sort through earth and heaven
With every form of creature, as it looked
Towards the Uncreated with a countenance
Of adoration, with an eye of love.
The two versions reveal that the truly spiritual is always
poetical: the Lord wants to be worshipped in the beauty
of holiness. The words of the prayer which Jesus taught,
‘Hallowed be thy name’, express this truth.
The two versions also reveal that the truly spiritual comes
from the power of a high Imagination, not from weak pious
beliefs, nor from intellectual activities of the mind. Theo¬
logy may help to make clear our thoughts, but its relation
to spiritual vision is that of grammar to living language, or
of poetics to soul-uplifting poetry. The spiritual vision, like
the poetical vision, is not an analysis, it is not even a syn¬
thesis : it is the joy of truth revealed to a living soul.
Every spiritual and poetical vision comes from imagina¬
tion: because imagination is the light of the soul. Without
imagination we cannot have faith, because ‘Faith is the sub¬
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’:
things not seen of course by reason or by the eyes of the
body, but seen by the spirit. Without imagination there is
no vision and no creation. Most of the miseries of man, such
2 6
INTRODUCTION
as selfishness, injustice, and cruelty, have their root in a lack
of imagination. But imagination is not fancy. As Rabin¬
dranath Tagore says, ‘The stronger is the imagination, the
less imaginary it is*. Fancies disturb the mind and they may
lead to destruction; but imagination is an inner light which
with the help of reason leads to construction. All faith
comes from true imagination, but fancy, or distorted imag¬
ination, is the source of all fanaticism and superstition.
Since faith and fanaticism, imagination and fancy, vision and
superstition are so much intermingled in the history of
religions, it is no wonder that those who, through lack of
spiritual discrimination, cannot see the difference between
faith based on vision and fear based on superstition may be
bound by a merely external religion or condemn all religion.
It was the splendour of a poetical imagination that in¬
spired the greatest poetry of Blake and Wordsworth, of
Coleridge and Shelley and Keats. Wordsworth could say
that ‘Spiritual love acts not nor can exist without imagina¬
tion’ and in The Vrelude when he describes the crossing of
the Alps he can give us a splendid vision where imagination
and faith are one:
Imagination - here the Power so-called
Through sad incompetence of human speech.
That awful Power rose from the mind’s abyss
Like an unfathered vapour that enwraps.
At once, some lonely traveller. I was lost ,*
Halted without an effort to break through;
But to my conscious soul I now can say -
‘I recognize thy glory’; in such strength
Of usurpation, when the light of sense
Goes out, but with a flash that has revealed
The invisible world, doth greatness make abode.
There harbours; whether we be young or old.
Our destiny, our being’s heart and home.
Is with infinitude, and only there;
With hope it is, hope that can never die.
Effort, and expectation, and desire,
And something evermore about to be.
27
INTRODUCTION
Coleridge describes Imagination in words that could be
applied to the Brahman of the Upanishads :
The primary Imagination I hold to be the living power and
prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the
finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.
And his description of ‘secondary Imagination* might be
applied to the Atman, our soul:
The secondary Imagination I consider an echo of the former,
co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as identical with
the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in
degree , and in the mode of its operation.
Coleridge’s description of fancy as ‘a mode of memory*
with ‘fixities and definites* shows us how visions which
are creations of faith can become in minds without imagina¬
tion the ‘fixities and definites’ of fanaticism:
Fancy, on the contrary, has no other counters to play with,
but fixities and definites. The fancy is indeed no other than a
mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space.
How can we know the true light of the higher Imagina¬
tion from the distorted wanderings of fancies? This is the
task of wisdom, of a wisdom that is not taught in schools.
‘Watch and pray* can lead us on our path. When we watch
in inner silence and our prayer is love, light shines, since
the light of our Atman is ever in us. Just as in literary criti¬
cism we slowly learn to distinguish the true from the false,
the good from the less good, our spiritual criticism can be
developed so that we can distinguish true spiritual values
from their imitations; and then we can choose the guides
of our spiritual life. The Upanishads and all great spiritual
masters warn us of the wrong teachers. ‘He cannot be
taught by one who has not reached Him*, says the Katha
Upanishad; and Jesus repeatedly warns us against false
teachers and pharisees: ‘If the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch.’ All help from outside, whether
from books or from men, must pass the test of our reason
28
INTRODUCTION
and of our own spiritual watch and prayer. A Master is
ever in us, as Ramanuja says:
Thou my mother, and my father Thou.
Thou my friend, and my teacher Thou.
Thou my wisdom, and my riches Thou.
Thou art all to me, O God of all gods.
*
From the idea of Brahman found in its most pure form in
the oldest Upanishads, we find in the Isa Upanishad, and
especially in the Svetasvatara Upanishad , an evolution to¬
wards that idea of God afterwards to be developed in full
splendour in the Bhagavad Gita. When Krishna, as God,
speaks to Arjuna in the Gita he says.
By love he knows me in truth, who I am and what I am. And
when he knows me in truth he enters into my Being. 18. 55
He uses in Sanskrit the words ‘visate Tad Anantaram*,
‘enters into That Eternal - my Being’ and this reminds us
of the ‘tat tvam asT, ‘That thou art’ of the Upanishads .
The suggestion is that Brahman is the Being of God, even as
God is the centre of our Being. God beyond creation is
Brahman. Brahman in the universe is God. In the first case
Brahman is beyond the historical ever-changing process of
the universe, even as our Atman is beyond our ‘childhood,
youth and old age’, as the Gita sings. In the second case
Brahman is the God of the universe, ever watching and
helping the work of creation, the God who is in the centre
of our hearts, whom we can move and, what is even more
wonderful, whose love we can feel.
And what is love? We know that it cannot be defined.
The words of Lao Tzu remind us of this truth, if instead of
his word tao we use the word god or love.
People think that Tao is foolishness because it lacks definition:
But Tao lacks definition because it is infinite.
If Tao could be defined, it would be small and not great.
29
INTRODUCTION
And if we want to argue about the nature of love, the
words of Lao Tzu also come to our mind:
He who loves does not dispute:
He who disputes does not love.
That is why we find love expressed by contradictions, by
those efforts of the human mind when words cannot be
found for the Ineffable. Ramon Llull, the great medieval
spiritual thinker and poet of the Island of Majorca, 1235-
1316, who knew what love is, could say:
Love is that which places the free in bondage and to those in
bondage gives freedom.
We think we are free, but in our darkness
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to
keep us in perpetual bondage; and all the longing and
yearning expressed by the German word Sehnsucht or the
Catalan word anyoranga are an expression of this bondage.
Our soul longs for freedom, for the mukti of the Upanishads,
for liberation. And where can the finite find freedom except
in the Infinite? Where can the bird in a cage find freedom
except in the infinite sky?
The light of Truth is the End of the journey. The path
of the Upanishads is essentially the path of Light, the con¬
sciousness of Brahman which is far beyond all mental con¬
sciousness. This has been considered in the Upanishads the
highest path and even in the Bhagavad Gita which is a
gospel of love, and of works in love, the J NAN I, the man of
vision, is placed above all men, because as Krishna says,
‘The man of vision and I are one’, ‘ Jhdni tv Atma eva me
matam' When by love the full communion of man with
God has taken place, when man sees God in all and all in
God, then that man is one with Brahman, he has crossed the
river of life and he has heard the songs of immortality wel¬
coming him on the other shore. This is what all the masters
of the Spirit tell us.
30
INTRODUCTION
When the End of wisdom is described in the Bhagavad
Gita some of the words of the Isa Upanishad are used:
Now I shall tell thee of the End of Wisdom. When a man
knows this he goes beyond death. It is Brahman, beginningless,
supreme: beyond what is and beyond what is not.
He is invisible: he cannot be seen. He is far and he is near, he
moves and he moves not, he is within all and he is outside all.
He is the Light of all lights which shines beyond all darkness.
It is vision, the end of vision, to be reached by vision, dwelling
in the hearts of all. xm. 12, 15, 17
And in the full spirit of the Upanishads the Gita says in
words sublime:
He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is,
immortal in the field of mortality - he sees the truth.
And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God
in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others: then he
goes indeed to the highest Path. xm. 27-28
In this way, as Paul Deussen says, the doctrine of the
Upanishads explains and complements the doctrine of the
Gospels, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’. Why?
Because our Atman, our higher Self, dwells in us and dwells
in our neighbour: if we love our neighbour, we love the
God who is in us all and in whom we all are; and if we hurt
our neighbour, in thought or in words or in deeds, we hurt
ourselves, we hurt our soul: this is the law of spiritual
gravitation.
Love is undefinable, but we know that love is joy: not in¬
deed a transient pleasure, but an eternal joy of the soul. The
Katha Upanishad speaks of the two paths:
There is the path of joy and there is the path of pleasure. Both
attract the soul. The two paths lie in front of man. Pondering
on them, the wise chooses the path of joy: the fool takes the
path of pleasure.
It is the law of Karma, suggested in Omar Khayydm,
where amongst the loveliness of roses and wine and earthly
love we can find glimpses of the unearthly beauty found
in the Sufis.
3i
INTRODUCTION
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ.
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
One of the tasks of education is to reveal the joy of the
Infinite which is the joy of love. It is well expressed in the
Chandogya Upanishad :
Where there is creation there is progress. Where there is no
creation there is no progress: know the nature of creation.
Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy
there is no creation: know the nature of joy.
Where there is the Infinite there is joy. There is no joy in the
finite.
All true progress is an inner creation that leads to the joy
of the Infinite. When in the progress of our soul our God
of love has been found then the words of beauty of the
Sufis come true :
In this world I feel joyful because He is the source of joy: I
am in love with all creation because He is the Creator.
I shall drink with joy the cup of sorrow because my Beloved
is the cup-bearer: I will bear pain with gladness, because
through Him I shall be healed. sadi 1193-1291
Bergson compares the love of God for his creation to
the love of creation that moves the soul of the artist. It is
worth considering that whilst science makes concrete things
abstract, art makes abstract things concrete: in the art of
loving God the Upanishads lead us to a concrete God, so
concrete that He is ever the very centre of our soul, the
permanent background of our consciousness, the Life that
gives life to our life. The passage of Bergson is interesting,
because it is in the mystic, the poet of the Infinite, that we
get a concrete God:
If the thinker wanted to use the words of the mystic, he could
soon define the nature of God. God is love and also the end of
love: herein we find the whole contribution of mysticism. The
mystic will never grow tired of speaking of this twofold love.
32
INTRODUCTION
His descriptions have no end, because what he wants to describe
is undescribable. But he is definite on one point: that divine love
is not something belonging to God: it is God Himself.
The thinker who holds God to be a person, and yet wishes to
avoid anything like a gross assimilation with man, will do well
to fasten on this point. He will think, for example, of the en¬
thusiasm that can set a soul on fire, that can burn whatever is
within, and henceforth only fill it wholly with itself. The person
and the emotion are then one; and yet the person had never
been his own self so much; and he is more simple, more unified,
more himself.
Is there anything of more perfect structure, more elaborate,
than a symphony of Beethoven ? And yet all through the labour
of arranging, rearranging, and selecting that took place on the
intellectual plane the composer was striving towards a point be¬
yond his intellectual plane where he could feel a sense of accep¬
tance or rejection, a sense of direction, an inspiration. An indi¬
visible emotion was living in that plane. No doubt the intellect
was trying to express it in music, but the emotion itself was
more than mere intellect and more than music. In contrast to a
lower emotion which is below the intellect, that higher emotion
was under the control of the will. An emotion of this kind
doubtless resembles, however remotely, the sublime love which
is for the mystic the very essence of God.
All mystics are unanimous in declaring that God has need of
us, even as we have need of God. Why should God need us, un¬
less it were to give us His love ?
This is the conclusion to which the philosopher who accepts
the mystical experience must come. The whole creation will
then appear to him as a vast work of God for the creation of
creators, for the possession of beings co-workers with Him and
worthy of His love. henri bergson 1859-1941
A song of love is heard as a background to all great
prayers. Chaitanya, the great Indian mystic, a.d. 1500, pours
out his heart in these words :
I pray not for wealth, I pray not for honours, I pray not for
pleasures, or even the joys of poetry. I only pray that during all
my life I may have love: that I may have pure love to love
Thee.
33
INTRODUCTION
And Kabir, 1440-1518, the Indian saint and poet, tells 11s:
‘Listen to me, friend: he understands who loves.’ For love is
a beauty which is joy: a beauty which is truth. The truth
of love is the Truth of the universe: it is the lamp of the
soul that reveals the secrets of darkness.
And this love must be found in this life: that is the real
message of the spiritual teachers. ‘The kingdom of heaven
is at hand*, says Jesus. And in Ecclesiastes we find these
words of wisdom:
Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for
there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the
grave, whither thou goest. 9. 10
In the Maitri Upanishad we find a striking passage that
shows that the idea of rebirth or reincarnation had already
found a spiritual interpretation:
Samsara, the transmigration of life, takes place in one’s mind.
Let one therefore keep the mind pure, for what a man thinks
that he becomes.
From a spiritual point of view what matters is not trans¬
migration, or an after-death: what matters is immortality,
and this is not a long life, or many lives, or a life after death.
Immortality is Atman, the Spirit of Eternity within our
mortal body and our mortal consciousness. Only in God
there is immortality, ‘beyond the birth and rebirth of life*.
That is why the spiritual masters always give us a sense of
practical wisdom. They do not want words: they want life,
immortal life. When an Indian sage was asked, 'What is
death?’ he answered, 'I should ask: what is life?* Kabir
expresses these thoughts in his simple and sublime way:
0 friend ! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live,
understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliv¬
erance in death ?
It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with
Him because it has passed from the body:
34
INTRODUCTION
If He is found now. He is found then. If not, we do but go to
dwell in death.
Yes, this love which is the joy of the Infinite, the ananda
of Brahman, this love that is God, is here and now. In the
Taittiriya Upanishad Bhrigu Varuni asks his father to ex¬
plain to him the mystery of Brahman, the mystery of the
universe. His father speaks to him of the earth and the
food of the earth, of life and the breath of life, of the mind
and of reason, and of consciousness behind reason and
mind. In the end Bhrigu Varuni saw the Truth expressed in
these words sublime:
*
AND THEN HE SAW THAT BRAHMAN WAS JOY: FOR FROM
JOY ALL BEINGS HAVE COME, BY JOY THEY ALL LIVE, AND
UNTO JOY THEY ALL RETURN.
God is love, and love is joy. All the universe has come
from love and unto love all things return.
*
Those who found light and love give us their help for our
journey. They speak to us of a path. According to the Katha
Upanishad , the path is ‘narrow as the edge of a razor’ or,
in the words of Jesus, ‘Narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life’. And yet they all tell us that this narrow path
leads to infinite freedom. Every step of light and love is a
step towards a new life, a new view from the path that
leads up to the mountain. The narrow path leads us safely
through the jungle of life; but a moment comes when St
John of the Cross can say: ‘Ya por aqui no hay camino. Que
para el justo no hay ley\ - ‘And now there is no path here;
since for the pure man there is no law.’
We find in the Upanishads more inspiration than definite
teaching; but we find the beginnings of Yoga, of that com¬
munion of love and light which was going to be the main
subject of the Bhagavad Gita and of a vast spiritual litera¬
ture in India. Thus the Katha Upanishad tells us:
ZS
INTRODUCTION
When the five senses and the mind are still, and reason itself
rests in silence, then begins the Path supreme.
This calm steadiness of the senses is called Yoga. Then one
should become watchful, because Yoga comes and goes.
In those two verses there is a suggestion of the prayer
of recollection as described by St Teresa, leading to the
prayer of quietness and the final prayer of union.
In the Svetasvatara Upanishad we find verses that sound
very similar to those found in Chapter VI of the Bhagavad
Gita :
With upright body, head and neck lead the mind and its pow¬
ers into the heart; and the o m of Brahman will then be thy boat
with which to cross the rivers of fear.
The om of Brahman is here the love of God. In the Gita ,
devotion to Krishna, to God, is the chief means of concen¬
tration ; and the silence of the soul is described in an image
of beauty:
Then his soul is a lamp whose light is steady, for it burns in
a shelter where no winds come. 6. 19
Just as the living words of Shakespeare are far above all
the books that critics or scholars have written or may ever
write on Shakespeare - critics have to write books on poets
but poets do not write poems on critics - the living words
of sacred books are infinitely above those of their commen¬
tators: the words of the Upanishads are far above those of
the writers on Yoga. Analysis is of course necessary, since
by analysis we ‘observe, collect and classify', in fact we
become clearly conscious of what may be a vague general
impression; but we can only analyse by making abstrac¬
tions, and we must ever return to life. Many intellectual
books could be written on love by a man of keen intellect;
but they would be merely intellectual books, and the writer
might never have felt a flash of universal love. Most works
on Yoga, beginning with the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, those
short definitions and spiritual rules worked out by a sup¬
remely great analytical mind, have their use; but we cannot
36
INTRODUCTION
see a country by merely looking at maps of the country, we
cannot go on a journey if we merely stop at reading guides
about the journey.
When the power of the intellect was applied to the spirit¬
ual ideas of the Upanishads and the Gita , it was found that
there is a great relation between the mind and the body:
that certain postures of the physical body helped concen¬
tration, and others hindered it, that our breath varies with
our emotions, and that a deep quiet silent breath is a re¬
flection of a quiet mind; and then the elaborate rules found
in the teachings of Yoga were composed. All these teachings
can be useful, but they can mislead the most sincere seeker
of a spiritual path; because the path is the path of love,
of love that leads to light. Once a single flash of love or
light has illumined our darkness, there is one and only one
thing to do, and this is summed up by St John of the Cross
in the words ‘Silence and work’. In one of his spiritual
letters we read :
What is wanting, if indeed anything be wanting, is not writing
or speaking - whereof ordinarily there is more than enough - but
silence and work. For whereas speaking distracts, silence and ac¬
tion collect the thoughts, and strengthen the spirit. As soon
therefore as a person understands what has been said to him
for his good, he has no further need to hear or to discuss; but to
set himself in earnest to practise what he has learnt with silence
and attention.
Later in the letter he writes these words of light: ‘Never
fail, whatever may befall you, be it good or evil, to keep
your heart quiet and calm in the tenderness of love.’
With this one sentence St John of the Cross explains the
doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita. When in the Gita we read
again and again that a man must be the same in heat or in
cold, in pleasure or in pain, in victory or defeat, the meaning
is, of course, that whatever may be the events of our outer
or inner life we must ever have the peace of love: in fact
that our life should perpetually breathe the air of love,
since love is the living breath of the soul. And far from an
37
INTRODUCTION
evenness of love making us insensitive, it is that love which
leads to that sublime state described in the Bhagavad Gita:
And he is the greatest Yogi he whose vision is ever one: when
the pleasure and pain of others is his own pleasure and pain.
Although love is the very first condition for entering the
path, how can the waters of love be given to one who is not
thirsty? That is why we find that meditation, longing and
sorrow are the first prayers of the soul:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks.
So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, for the living God :
When shall I come and appear before God ?
In the spirit of this longing we find the lovely prayer of
Rabindranath Tagore:
Day after day, O lord of my life, shall I stand before thee face
to face? With folded hands, O lord of all worlds, shall I stand
before thee face to face ?
Under thy great sky in solitude and silence, with humble
heart shall I stand before thee face to face ?
In this laborious world of thine, tumultuous with toil and with
struggle, among hurrying crowds, shall I stand before thee face
to face ?
And when my work shall be done in this world, O king of
kings, alone and speechless shall I stand before thee face to face ?
There may be moments of desolation on the path of love
but if even Jesus could say ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death’, need we be afraid? The words of the
Hebrew prophet Habakkuk give expression to this faith:
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be
in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall
yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there
shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation.
38
INTRODUCTION
It is in the inner battle for concentrating on the higher,
and thus rejecting the lower, that Yoga, psychology, philo¬
sophy, and wisdom can help. In his unequalled power of
language Shakespeare can give us in Hamlet a vision of the
man who is master of his fate:
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice.
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal’d thee for herself: for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing;
A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled.
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart.
As I do thee.
When this power of self-control, and intelligence and
mental energy are at the service of a good will, at the
service of love, then a man can make quick progress on the
path that leads to Brahman. When mental powers, and
energy and self-control are not at the service of a good will,
then history, literature, wisdom, and the daily events of the
present world, tell us what are the results.
Any interest in Yoga, in miracles or psychic powers, not
based on that humbleness of the soul which is the beginning
and the end of all true spiritual light and love is at its best
something of scientific interest, and at its worst it is that
pride and desire for power which are the surest signs of
spiritual darkness.
Let us take an interesting psychological experiment:
thought-transmission or thought-reading. A person who
knows something about hypnosis can easily ask a group of
people to practise an exercise of relaxation whilst standing
and then induce them to imagine that they are falling back¬
wards or forwards. This quickly gives him an idea of those
who are sensitive to auto-suggestion - all suggestion is
39
INTRODUCTION
auto-suggestion - and then the suggestions leading to a deep
hypnotic sleep can be given. In the state of deep sleep a
word or a number can be written on a paper and the person
in deep sleep can be asked to read the word or the number
placed behind him. The person in deep sleep reads accurate¬
ly what is written, and when the same experiment is re¬
peated with success several times with different words and
numbers not the slightest doubt is left in the mind of the
operator that thought-transmission, or thought-reading, is a
fact. And when he hears long arguments to the contrary
by those who of course have not practised the experiment
he cannot but smile.
Well, what does the experiment prove? Only that, to
quote Hamlet again.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
But supposing that after this experiment we could attain
all the psychic powers promised in Yoga, does this mean
that we have advanced a single step on the spiritual path?
Of course not. We have learnt something of amazing psy¬
chological interest; but we have not advanced on the path
of love. We may even have gone backwards if the slightest
pride or self-satisfaction has infected our mind.
Those who rely on physical miracles to prove the truth
of spiritual things forget the ever-present miracle of the
universe and of our own lives. The lover of the physical
miracle is in fact a materialist: instead of making material
things spiritual, as the poet or the spiritual man does, he
simply makes spiritual things material, and this is the source
of all idolatry and superstition. Leaving aside the question
that matter and spirit may simply be ‘different modes, or de¬
grees in perfection, of a common substractum ’, as Coleridge
says, and the Upanishads suggest, there is the far greater ques¬
tion that in everything spiritual there is an element of beauty
which is truth, and which we find in faith, but which is lack¬
ing in fanaticism and superstition. The noble longing for
40
INTRODUCTION
truth of the scientist is exactly the same as the longing of the
spiritual man for God, because God is Truth. The difference is
that the scientist is busy finding facts in the outer world,
whether in the stars that are millions of light-years from
our little earth, or in the world discovered by the micro¬
scope; whilst the spiritual man is trying by the experience
of Being and of Love to find the Truth of his inner world,
the same Truth in the inner world of us all.
The external events of the world and the inner events of
our minds are spiritually all external to our Atman, to our
higher Self. They are things that happen in time and space.
The nearer we are to that centre in us which is beyond time
and space, the better can we watch those events and say
‘They happen*, as the Gita tells us, or as Jesus sums up in
the eternal words ‘Watch and pray*.
According to the mystics, it is important to know in
prayer the difference between meditation and contempla¬
tion: meditation is a movement of thought limited within
a circle, but in contemplation there is a silence of thought.
Meditation is the mental activity of the thinker; contempla¬
tion is the silence of the poet. St Peter of Alcantara, 1499-
1562, the Spanish saint who helped St Teresa, gives us in
clear words the difference between the two :
In meditation we consider carefully divine things, and we pass
from one to another, so that the heart may feel love. It is as
though we should strike a flint, to draw a spark of fire.
But in contemplation the spark is struck: the love we were
seeking is here. The soul enjoys silence and peace, not by many
reasonings, but by simply contemplating the Truth.
Meditation is the means, contemplation is the end: the one
is the path, the other is the end of the path. Even as the vessel
is still and at rest when it has arrived in port, when the soul has
reached contemplation through meditation it should cease its
toils and inquiries; and happy in the vision of God, even as if
He were present, be one in feelings of love, of wonder, of joy,
or other such.
Let a man return into his own self, and there in the centre of
41
INTRODUCTION
his soul, let him wait upon God, as one who listens to another
speaking from a high tower, as though he had God in his heart,
as though in the whole creation there was only God and his soul.
It has been said that ‘Prayer is perfect, when he who prays,
remembers not that he is praying ’.
Those beginners who try inner silence should, however,
be careful to listen to the words of the true spiritual teach¬
ers. St Teresa, in her delightful human way, says that some
people close their eyes and keep quiet and they think that
this is ‘ecstasy’. ‘I do not call this ecstasy, arrobamiento',
she says, ‘ call it stupidity, abobamiento\ And she makes
clear that the most sure sign of love is to do works of love.
In her wonderful book ‘Interior Castle’ she writes:
When I see people very anxious to know what sort of prayer
they practise, covering their faces and afraid to move or think,
lest they should lose any slight tenderness and devotion they feel,
I know now how little they understand how to obtain union
with God, since they think it consists in such things as these.
No, sisters, no; our Lord expects works of us.
I have often spoken on this subject elsewhere, because, my
sisters, if we fail in this I know all is lost; please God this may
never be our case. If you possess fraternal charity, I assure
you that you will certainly obtain the union I have described.
If you are conscious that you are wanting in this charity, al¬
though you may feel devotion and sweetness and a short ab¬
sorption in the prayer of quiet - which makes you think you
have obtained the union with God - believe me you have not
yet reached it. Beg our Lord to grant you perfect love for your
neighbour, and leave the rest to Him. He will give you more
than you know how to desire.
Amongst the signs that a nun who had ‘visions' was
simply in a state of abobamiento, St John of the Cross gives
these: i. Too much desire to enjoy visions. 2. Too much
self-assurance. 3. A desire to convince others that she has a
great good. 4. That those ‘visions’ have not given her a
great sense of humbleness; and 3. That the style of her
language shows that it is not the language of truth. And St
42
INTRODUCTION
John of the Cross ends by saying: ‘And all that she says
that she said to God and God said to her seems absolute
nonsense/
A seeker of the Truth of life will seek the Truth of Being
and of Love, since a single flash of this Truth gives us faith
far stronger than life. This faith is confirmed by the words
of sacred books, by the life of those whose life was a book
of life, and by the inner whisperings of our soul.
Amongst the sacred books of the past, the Upanishads
can be called in truth Himalayas of the Soul. Their passion¬
ate wanderings of discovery to find that sun of the Spirit in
us, from whom we have the light of our consciousness and
the fire of our life; the greatness of their questions, and the
sublime simplicity of their answers; their radiance of joy
when the revelation of the Supreme comes to their soul,
and one of their poets can say, ‘The light of the sun is my
light’; their paradoxes and contradictions where we find a
living truth; their simple stories where with concrete ex¬
amples the greatest metaphysical truths are explained in the
language of a child; their flashes of vision that reveal to us
the infinite greatness of our inner world; their great variety
and yet their absolute unity in the awe-inspiring concep¬
tion of Brahman; their burning uplifting faith in the soul
of man which is one with the Soul of the universe; their
tolerance of the Vedas , but their spiritual and therefore sym¬
bolical interpretation of external ritual, thus showing the
true path of spiritual upliftment to all men in times to
come; their seeds of great psychological and philosophical
ideas; the vast harmonies that ring through their words;
their spiritual wisdom that can satisfy different minds in
their search for light; their simple images which we find
again in saints and poets of other ages who had never
known of the Upanishads , and thus confirm to us the unity
of all spiritual vision and life; the splendour of their roman¬
tic imagination that makes their creators brothers in spirit
with the creators of beauty of all times, and which show us
how to make our life a work of beauty: are all like trumpets
43
INTRODUCTION
sounding the glory of light and love and, over the darkness
of doubts and death, proclaiming the victory of life.
The Retreat , Juan Mascaro
Comber ton, Cambridge
Summer 1964
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATIONS
There is much in the Upanishads which belongs to their
own time. This has a historical interest, but not the spiritual
value that belongs to all times. The same could be said of the
Old Testament of the Bible.
That is why the spirit of the Upanishads can better be
felt in a selection. I have translated the greatest Upanishads
that happen not to be too long, and I have given the great¬
est passages of other Upanishads , including the sublime
parts of the Chandogya and Brihad-aranyaka Upanishads .
These are at the end of the book because, although in time
they are the earliest, they lead the work to a culmination of
greatness. The chronological order of the chief Upanishads
is probably as follows: Brihad-aranyaka, Chandogya, Tail -
tiriya, Kaushitaki, Kena, Katha, Isa, Mundaka, Trasna, Man -
dukya, Svetasvatara, and Maitri . I followed an Indian tradi¬
tion by placing the Isa Upanishad at the beginning.
I took infinite pains to make the translations clear and
simple. When an expression ‘How can the Knower be
known?’ is a literal translation of the Sanskrit ‘Vijnataram
are kena vijaiyat?’ how a translator could say, ‘Lo, where¬
by would one understand the understander?’ is beyond my
understanding!
This leads me to an earnest request to the reader of these
translations: that they should be read aloud, whether orally
or mentally. Unless they are, the meaning intended by the
sound will be missed. This of course should always be done
when one reads literature: if we say, for instance, 2 + 2 = 4,
our intellect grasps the inner meaning, and this is all that
is necessary; but the words of Housman cannot be written
in numbers:
To think that two and two are four
And neither five nor three
NOTE ON THE TRANSLATIONS
The heart of man has long been sore
And long ’tis like to be.
The sound of the numbers is in this case essential, since
the sound is part of the meaning.
A good many of these translations were done over twenty-
five years ago when I was living above Tintern Abbey, not
far from the place that inspired Wordsworth’s immortal
poem. To the eighteen verses of the Isa Upanishad I devoted
a whole month of thought and work.
The whole of the Svetasvatara Upanishad and other selec¬
tions have been done during the last two years.
A few pages of the Introduction belong to the earlier
work. As I could not improve them, I left them as they
were. They are the second part of the five parts of the
Introduction.
I hope that I have been true to the Spirit of the Upani -
shads , and thus to our own Spirit.
J.M.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to tender grateful acknowledgements to Messrs John
Murray for so generously allowing me to use the transla¬
tions from the Upanishads I made for them in the ‘Wisdom
of the East’ series, and which were published in 1938 under
the title Himalayas of the Soul. My gratitude is very sincere,
as I do not think that I could have done the work again.
J.M.
THE UPANISHADS
ISA UPANISHAD
Behold the universe in the glory of God: and all that lives
and moves on earth. Leaving the transient, find joy in the
Eternal: set not your heart on another’s possession.
Working thus, a man may wish for a life of a hundred
years. Only actions done in God bind not the soul of man.
There are demon-haunted worlds, regions of utter dark¬
ness. Whoever in life denies the Spirit falls into that dark¬
ness of death.
The Spirit, without moving, is swifter than the mind; the
senses cannot reach him: He is ever beyond them. Standing
still, he overtakes those who run. To the ocean of his being,
the spirit of life leads the streams of action.
He moves, and he moves not. He is far, and he is near. He
is within all, and he is outside all.
Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in
all beings, loses all fear.
When a sage sees this great Unity and his Self has be¬
come all beings, what delusion and what sorrow can ever
be near him ?
The Spirit filled all with his radiance. He is incorporeal
and invulnerable, pure and untouched by evil. He is the
supreme seer and thinker, immanent and transcendent. He
placed all things in the path of Eternity.
Into deep darkness fall those who follow action. Into
deeper darkness fall those who follow knowledge.
One is the outcome of knowledge, and another is the
outcome of action. Thus have we heard from the ancient
sages who explained this truth to us.
He who knows both knowledge and action, with action
overcomes death and with knowledge reaches immortality.
Into deep darkness fall those who follow the immanent.
Into deeper darkness fall those who follow the transcendent.
49
THE UPANISHADS
One is the outcome of the transcendent, and another is
the outcome of the immanent. Thus have we heard from the
ancient sages who explained this truth to us.
He who knows both the transcendent and the immanent,
with the immanent overcomes death and with the transcen¬
dent reaches immortality.
The face of truth remains hidden behind a circle of gold.
Unveil it, O god of light, that I who love the true may see!
O life-giving sun, off-spring of the Lord of creation, soli¬
tary seer of heaven! Spread thy light and withdraw thy
blinding splendour that I may behold thy radiant form:
that Spirit far away within thee is my own inmost Spirit.
May life go to immortal life, and the body go to ashes.
om. O my soul, remember past strivings, remember! O my
soul, remember past strivings, remember!
By the path of good lead us to final bliss, O fire divine
thou god who knowest all ways. Deliver us from wandering
evil. Prayers and adoration we offer unto thee.
KENA UPANISHAD
PART I
Who sends the mind to wander afar? Who first drives life
to start on its journey ? Who impels us to utter these words ?
Who is the Spirit behind the eye and the ear ?
It is the ear of the ear, the eye of the eye, and the Word
of words, the mind of mind, and the life of life. Those who
follow wisdom pass beyond and, on leaving this world,
become immortal.
There the eye goes not, nor words, nor mind. We know
not, we cannot understand, how he can be explained: He
is above the known and he is above the unknown. Thus
have we heard from the ancient sages who explained this
truth to us.
What cannot be spoken with words, but that whereby
words are spoken: Know that alone to be Brahman, the
Spirit; and not what people here adore.
What cannot be thought with the mind, but that whereby
the mind can think: Know that alone to be Brahman, the
Spirit; and not what people here adore.
What cannot be seen with the eye, but that whereby the
eye can see: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit;
and not what people here adore.
What cannot be heard with the ear, but that whereby the
ear can hear: Know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit;
and not what people here adore.
What cannot be indrawn with breath, but that whereby
breath is indrawn: Know that alone to be Brahman, the
Spirit; and not what people here adore.
PART 2
Master . If you think T know well’, little truth you know.
5i
THE UPANISHADS
You only perceive that appearance of Brahman that lies in
the senses and is in you. Pursue your meditation.
Disciple. I mean to know.
I do not imagine *1 know him weir, and yet I cannot say
‘I know him not’. Who of us knows this, knows him; and
not who says ‘I know him not'.
He comes to the thought of those who know him beyond
thought, not to those who imagine he can be attained by
thought. He is unknown to the learned and known to the
simple.
He is known in the ecstasy of an awakening which opens
the door of life eternal. By the Self we obtain power, and
by vision we obtain Eternity.
For a man who has known him, the light of truth shines;
for one who has not known, there is darkness. The wise
who have seen him in every being, on leaving this life,
attain life immortal.
PART 3
Once upon a time. Brahman, the Spirit Supreme, won a vict¬
ory for the gods. And the gods thought in their pride:
‘We alone attained this victory, ours alone is the glory.’
Brahman saw it and appeared to them, but they knew him
not. ‘Who is that being that fills us with wonder?' they
cried.
And they spoke to Agni, the god of fire: ‘O god all¬
knowing, go and see who is that being that fills us with
wonder.'
Agni ran towards him and Brahman asked: ‘Who are you?'
‘I am the god of fire,’ he said, ‘the god who knows all
things.'
‘What power is in you?’ asked Brahman. ‘I can bum all
things on earth.'
And Brahman placed a straw before him, saying: ‘Bum
this.’ The god of fire strove with all his power, but was
unable to bum it. He then returned to the other gods and
KENA UPANISHAD
said: ‘I could not find out who was that being that fills us
with wonder.’
Then they spoke to Vayu, the god of the air. *0 Vayu, go
and see who is that being that fills us with wonder.’
Vayu ran towards him and Brahman asked: ‘Who are
you?’ ‘I am Vayu, the god of the air,’ he said, ‘Matarisvan,
the air that moves in space.’
‘What power is in you?’ asked Brahman. ‘In a whirlwind
I can carry away all there is on earth.’
And Brahman placed a straw before him saying: ‘Blow
this away.' The god of the air strove with all his power, but
was unable to move it. He returned to the other gods and
said: ‘I could not find out who was that being that fills
us with wonder.’
Then the gods spoke to Indra, the god of thunder: ‘O
giver of earthly goods, go and see who is that being that
fills us with wonder.’ And Indra ran towards Brahman, the
Spirit Supreme, but he disappeared.
Then in the same region of the sky the god saw a lady of
radiant beauty. She was Uma, divine wisdom, the daughter
of the mountains of snow. ‘Who is that being that fills us
with wonder?’ he asked.
PART 4
‘He is Brahman, the Spirit Supreme’, she answered. ‘Rejoice
in him, since through him you attained the glory of victory.’
And the gods Agni, Vayu and Indra excelled the other
gods, for they were the first that came near Brahman and
they first knew he was the Spirit Supreme.
And thus Indra, the god of thunder, excelled all other
gods, for he came nearest to Brahman and he first knew
that he was the Spirit Supreme.
Concerning whom it is said :
He is seen in Nature in the wonder of a flash of lightning.
He comes to the soul in the wonder of a flash of vision.
His name is Tadvanam, which translated means ‘the End
S3
THE UPANISHADS
of love-longing’. As Tadvanam he should have adoration.
All beings will love such a lover of the Lord.
Master . You asked me to explain the Upanishad, the
sacred wisdom. The Upanishad has been explained to you.
In truth I have been telling you the sacred teaching concern¬
ing Brahman.
KATHA UPANISHAD
PART I
Vajasravasa gave away all his possessions at a sacrifice;
but it was out of desire for heaven.
He had a son called Nachiketas who, although he was
only a boy, had a vision of faith when the offerings were
given and thus he thought :
‘This poor offering of cows that are too old to give milk
and too weak to eat grass or drink water must lead to a
world of sorrow/
And he thought of offering himself, and said to his father:
‘Father, to whom will you give me?’ He asked once, and
twice, and three times; and then his father answered in
anger: ‘ I will give you to Death/
Nachiketas. At the head of many I go, and I go in the
midst of many. What may be the work of Death that today
must be done through me ?
Remember how the men of old passed away, and how
those of days to come will also pass away: a mortal ripens
like corn, and like corn is born again.
Nachiketas had to wait three nights without food in the abode
of yam a, the god of death.
A Voice. As the spirit of fire a Brahmin comes to a house:
bring the offering of water, O god of Death.
How unwise is the man who does not give hospitality to
a Brahmin! He loses his future hopes, his past merits, his
present possessions: his sons and his all.
Death. Since you have come as a sacred guest to my
abode, and you have had no hospitality for three nights,
choose then three boons.
Nachiketas. May my father’s anger be appeased, and may
55
THE UPANISHADS
he remember me and welcome me when I return to him. Let
this be my first boon.
Death. By my power your father will remember you and
love you as before; and when he sees you free from the
jaws of death, sweet will be his sleep at night.
Nachiketas. There is no fear in heaven: old age and death
are not there. The good, beyond both, rejoice in heaven,
beyond hunger and thirst and sorrow.
And those in heaven attain immortality. You know, O
Death, that sacred fire which leads to heaven. Explain it to
me, since I have faith. Be this my second boon.
Death. I know, Nachiketas, that sacred fire which leads
to heaven. Listen. That fire which is the means of attaining
the infinite worlds, and is also their foundation, is hidden
in the sacred place of the heart.
And Death told him of the fire of creation, the beginning of
the worlds, and of the altar of the fire-sacrifice, of how many
bricks it should be built and how they should be placed. Nachi¬
ketas repeated the teaching. Death was pleased and went on:
A further boon I give you today. This fire of sacrifice
shall be known by your name. Take also from me this chain
of many forms.
One who lights three times this sacred fire, and attains
union with the Three, and performs the three holy actions,
passes beyond life and death; for then he knows the god of
fire, the god who knows all things, and through knowledge
and adoration he attains the peace supreme.
He who, knowing the Three, builds up the altar of fire-
sacrifice and performs three times the sacrifice of Nachi¬
ketas, casts off the bonds of death and, passing beyond sor¬
row, finds joy in the regions of heaven.
This is the fire that leads to heaven which you chose as
the second gift. Men will call it the fire-sacrifice of Nachi¬
ketas. Choose now the third boon.
Nachiketas. When a man dies, this doubt arises: some
say ‘he is’ and some say ‘he is not’. Teach me the truth.
56
KATHA UPANISHAD
Death . Even the gods had this doubt in times of old; for
mysterious is the law of life and death. Ask for another
boon. Release me from this.
Nachiketas . This doubt indeed arose even to the gods,
and you say, O Death, that it is difficult to understand; but
no greater teacher than you can explain it, and there is no
other boon so great as this.
Death . Take horses and gold and cattle and elephants;
choose sons and grandsons that shall live a hundred years.
Have vast expanses of land, and live as many years as you
desire.
Or choose another gift that you think equal to this, and
enjoy it with wealth and long life. Be a ruler of this vast
earth. I will grant you all your desires.
Ask for any wishes in the world of mortals, however hard
to obtain. To attend on you I will give you fair maidens
with chariots and musical instruments. But ask me not,
Nachiketas, the secrets of death.
Nachiketas . All these pleasures pass away, O End of all!
They weaken the power of life. And indeed how short is all
life! Keep thy horses and dancing and singing.
Man cannot be satisfied with wealth. Shall we enjoy
wealth with you in sight? Shall we live whilst you are in
power ? I can only ask for the boon I have asked.
When a mortal here on earth has felt his own immortal¬
ity, could he wish for a long life of pleasures, for the lust
of deceitful beauty ?
Solve then the doubt as to the great beyond. Grant me
the gift that unveils the mystery. This is the only gift Nachi¬
ketas can ask.
PART 2
Death. There is the path of joy, and there is the path
of pleasure. Both attract the soul. Who follows the first
comes to good; who follows pleasure reaches not the
End.
The two paths lie in front of man. Pondering on them,
57
THE UPANISHADS
the wise man chooses the path of joy; the fool takes the
path of pleasure.
You have pondered, Nachiketas, on pleasures and you
have rejected them. You have not accepted that chain of
possessions wherewith men bind themselves and beneath
which they sink.
There is the path of wisdom and the path of ignorance.
They are far apart and lead to different ends. You are,
Nachiketas, a follower of the path of wisdom: many pleas¬
ures tempt you not.
Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves
wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like
blind led by the blind.
What lies beyond life shines not to those who are child¬
ish, or careless, or deluded by wealth. ‘This is the only
world: there is no other’, they say; and thus they go from
death to death.
Not many hear of him; and of those not many reach him.
Wonderful is he who can teach about him; and wise is he
who can be taught. Wonderful is he who knows him when
taught.
He cannot be taught by one who has not reached him;
and he cannot be reached by much thinking. The way to
him is through a Teacher who has seen him: He is higher
than the highest thoughts, in truth above all thought.
This sacred knowledge is not attained by reasoning; but
it can be given by a true Teacher. As your purpose is steady
you have found him. May I find another pupil like you!
I know that treasures pass away and that the Eternal is
not reached by the transient. I have thus laid the fire of
sacrifice of Nachiketas, and by burning in it the transient I
have reached the Eternal.
Before your eyes have been spread, Nachiketas, the fulfil¬
ment of all desire, the dominion of the world, the eternal
reward of ritual, the shore where there is no fear, the great¬
ness of fame and boundless spaces. With strength and wis¬
dom you have renounced them all.
58
* TH* SpjAXT OP VSAtAfd
KATHA UPANISHAD
When the wise rests his mind in contemplation on our
God beyond time, who invisibly dwells in the mystery of
things and in the heart of man, then he rises above pleasures
and sorrow.
When a man has heard and has understood and, finding
the essence, reaches the Inmost, then he finds joy in the
Source of joy. Nachiketas is a house open for thy Atman,
thy God.
Nachiketas. Tell me what you see beyond right and wrong,
beyond what is done or not done, beyond past and future.
Death . I will tell you the Word that all the Vedas glorify,
all self-sacrifice expresses, all sacred studies and holy life
seek. That Word is om.
That Word is the everlasting Brahman: that Word is the
highest End. When that sacred Word is known, all longings
are fulfilled.
It is the supreme means of salvation: it is the help sup¬
reme. When that great Word is known, one is great in the
heaven of Brahman.
Atman, the Spirit of vision, is never born and never dies.
Before him there was nothing, and he is one for evermore.
Never-born and eternal, beyond times gone or to come, he
does not die when the body dies.
If the slayer thinks that he kills, and if the slain thinks
that he dies, neither knows the ways of truth. The Eternal
in man cannot kill: the Eternal in man cannot die.
Concealed in the heart of all beings is the Atman, the
Spirit, the Self; smaller than the smallest atom, greater
than the vast spaces. The man who surrenders his human
will leaves sorrows behind, and beholds the glory of the
Atman by the grace of the Creator.
Resting, he wanders afar; sleeping, he goes everywhere.
Who else but my Self can know that God of joy and of
sorrows ?
When the wise realize the omnipresent Spirit, who rests
invisible in the visible and permanent in the impermanent,
then they go beyond sorrow.
59
THE UPANISHADS
Not through much learning is the Atman reached, not
through the intellect and sacred teaching. It is reached by
the chosen of him - because they choose him. To his chosen
the Atman reveals his glory.
Not even through deep knowledge can the Atman be
reached, unless evil ways are abandoned, and there is rest
in the senses, concentration in the mind and peace in one's
heart.
Who knows in truth where he is? The majesty of his
power carries away priests and warriors, and death itself is
carried away.
PART 3
In the secret high place of the heart there are two beings
who drink the wine of life in the world of truth. Those who
know Brahman, those who keep the five sacred fires and
those who light the three-fold fire of Nachiketas call them
Tight' and ‘shade'.
May we light the sacred fire of Nachiketas, the bridge
to cross to the other shore where there is no fear, the
supreme everlasting Spirit!
Know the Atman as Lord of a chariot; and the body as
the chariot itself. Know that reason is the charioteer; and
the mind indeed is the reins.
The horses, they sav f are the senses : and th eir patKg-arq
t he objects of sense. When the soul becomes one with the
mind and the senses he is called ‘one who has joys and
sorrows'.
He who has not right understanding and whose mind is
never steady is not the ruler of his life, like a bad driver with
wild horses.
But he who has right understanding and whose mind is
ever steady is the ruler of his life, like a good driver with
well-trained horses.
He who has not right understanding, is careless and never
pure, reaches not the End of the journey; but wanders on
from death to death.
60
KATHA UPANISHAD
But he who has understanding, is careful and ever pure,
reaches the End of the journey, from which he never re¬
turns.
The man whose chariot is driven by reason, who watches
and holds the reins of his mind, reaches the End of the
journey, the supreme everlasting Spirit.
Beyond the senses are their objects, and beyond the ob¬
jects is the mind. Beyond the mind is pure reason, and be¬
yond reason is the Spirit in man.
Beyond the Spirit in man is the Spirit of the universe,
and beyond is Purusha, the Spirit Supreme. Nothing is be¬
yond Purusha: He is the End of the path.
The light of the Atman, the Spirit, is invisible, concealed
in all beings. It is seen by the seers of the subtle, when their
vision is keen and is clear.
The wise should surrender speech in mind, mind in the
knowing self, the knowing self in the Spirit of the universe,
and the Spirit of the universe in the Spirit of peace.
Awake, arise! Strive for the Highest, and be in the Light!
Sages say the path is narrow and difficult to tread, narrow
as the edge of a razor.
The Atman .is beyond sound and form. .without touch and
taste fl)nd..perfiMie-.Tt k gfer-nal anrj
beginning, pt ,end ^ove xeapnin^ . When conscious¬
ness of the Atman manifests itself, man becomes free from
the jaws of death.
The wise who can learn and can teach this ancient story
of Nachiketas, taught by Yama, the god of death, finds glory
in the world of Brahman.
He who, filled with devotion, recites this supreme mys¬
tery at the gathering of Brahmins, or at the ceremony of the
Sradha for the departed, prepares for Eternity, he prepares
in truth for Eternity.
PART 4
The Creator made the senses outward-going: they go to
the world of matter outside, not to the Spirit within. But
61
THE UPANISHADS
a sage who sought immortality looked within himself and
found his own Soul.
The foolish run after outward pleasures and fall into the
snares of vast-embracing death. But the wise have found
immortality, and do not seek the Eternal in things that pass
away.
This by which we perceive colours and sounds, perfumes
and kisses of love; by which alone we attain knowledge;
by which verily we can be conscious of anything:
This in truth is That.
When the wise knows that it is through the great and
omnipresent Spirit in us that we are conscious in waking
or in dreaming, then he goes beyond sorrow.
When he knows the Atman, the Self, the inner life, who
enjoys like a bee the sweetness of the flowers of the senses,
the Lord of what was and of what will be, then he goes
beyond fear:
This in truth is That.
The god of creation, who in the beginning was born from
the fire of thought before the waters were; who appeared in
the elements and rests, having entered the heart :
This in truth is That.
The goddess of Infinity who comes as Life-power and
Nature; who was born from the elements and rests, having
entered the heart:
This in truth is That.
Agni, the all-knowing god of fire, hidden in the two
friction fire-sticks of the holy sacrifice, as a seed of life in the
womb of a mother, who receives the morning adoration of
those who follow the path of light or the path of work:
This in truth is That.
Whence the rising sun does come, and into which it sets
again; wherein all the gods have their birth, and beyond
which no man can go :
This in truth is That.
What is here is also there, and what is there is also here.
62
KATHA UPANISHAD
Who sees the many and not the one, wanders on from
death to death.
Even by the mind this truth is to be learned: there are
not many but only one. Who sees variety and not the
unity wanders on from death to death.
The soul dwells within us, a flame the size of a thumb.
When it is known as the Lord of the past and the future,
then ceases all fear:
This in truth is That.
Like a flame without smoke, the size of a thumb, is the
soul; the Lord of the past and the future, the same both
today and tomorrow:
This in truth is That.
As water raining on a mountain-ridge runs down the rocks
on all sides, so the man who only sees variety of things runs
after them on all sides.
But as pure water raining on pure water becomes one and
the same, so becomes, O Nachiketas, the soul of the sage
who knows.
PAP.T 5
The pure eternal Spirit dwells in the castle of eleven gates
of the body. By ruling this castle, man is free from sorrows
and, free from all bondage, attains liberation.
‘In space he is the sun, and he is the wind and the sky;
at the altar he is the priest, and the Soma wine in the jar.
He dwells in men and in gods, in righteousness and in the
vast heavens. He is in the earth and the waters and in the
rocks of the mountains. He is Truth and Power. *
The powers of life adore that god who is in the heart,
and he rules the breath of life, breathing in and breathing
out.
When the ties that bind the Spirit to the body are un¬
loosed and the Spirit is set free, what remains then?
This in truth is That.
A mortal lives not through that breath that flows in and
63
THE UPANISHADS
that flows out. The source of his life is another and this
causes the breath to flow.
I will now speak to you of the mystery of the eternal
Brahman; and of what happens to the soul after death.
The soul may go to the womb of a mother and thus ob¬
tain a new body. It even may go into trees or plants, accord¬
ing to its previous wisdom and work.
There is a Spirit who is awake in our sleep and creates
the wonder of dreams. He is Brahman, the Spirit of Light,
who in truth is called the Immortal. All the worlds rest on
that Spirit and beyond him no one can go:
This in truth is That.
As fire, though one, takes new forms in all things that
burn, the Spirit, though one, takes new forms in all things
that live. He is within all, and is also outside.
As the wind, though one, takes new forms in whatever it
enters, the Spirit, though one, takes new forms in all things
that live. He is within all, and is also outside.
As the sun that beholds the world is untouched by earthly
impurities, so the Spirit that is in all things is untouched by
external sufferings.
There is one Ruler, the Spirit that is in all things, who
transforms his own form into many. Only the wise who see
him in their souls attain the joy eternal.
He is the Eternal among things that pass away, pure Con¬
sciousness of conscious beings, the one who fulfils the
prayers of many. Only the wise who see him in their souls
attain the peace eternal.
‘This is That’ - thus they realize the ineffable joy sup¬
reme. How can ‘This’ be known ? Does he give light or does
he reflect light?
There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars;
lightnings shine not there and much less earthly fire. From
his light all these give light, and his radiance illumines all
creation.
64
KATHA UPANISHAD
PART 6
The Tree of Eternity has its roots in heaven above and its
branches reach down to earth. It is Brahman, pure Spirit,
who in truth is called the Immortal. All the worlds rest on
that Spirit and beyond him no one can go:
This in truth is That.
The whole universe comes from him and his life burns
through the whole universe. In his power is the majesty of
thunder. Those who know him have found immortality.
From fear of him fire burns, and from fear of him the
sun shines. From fear of him the clouds and the winds, and
death itself, move on their way.
If one sees him in this life before the body passes away,
one is free from bondage; but if not, one is born and dies
again in new worlds and new creations.
Brahman is seen in a pure soul as in a mirror clear, and
also in the Creator’s heaven as clear as light; but in the
land of shades as remembrance of dreams, and in the world
of spirits as reflections in trembling waters.
When the wise man knows that the material senses come
not from the Spirit, and that their waking and sleeping
belong to their own nature, then he grieves no more.
Beyond the senses is the mind, and beyond mind is reason,
its essence. Beyond reason is the Spirit in man, and beyond
this is the Spirit of the universe, the evolver of all.
And beyond is Purusha, all-pervading, beyond definitions.
When a mortal knows him, he attains liberation and reaches
immortality.
His form is not in the field of vision: no one sees him
with mortal eyes. He is seen by a pure heart and by a mind
and thoughts that are pure. Those who know him attain life
immortal.
When the five senses and the mind are still, and reason
itself rests in silence, then begins the Path supreme.
This calm steadiness of the senses is called Yoga. Then
65
At MM. S4F> * TH« ScPtP
THE UPANISHADS
one should become watchful, because Yoga comes and
goes.
Words and thoughts cannot reach him and he cannot be
seen by the eye. How can he then be perceived except by
him who says ‘He is’ ?
In the faith of ‘He is* his existence must be perceived,
and he must be perceived in his essence. When he is per¬
ceived as ‘He is’, then shines forth the revelation of his
essence.
When all d esires iharxlinZ-t o the h^art are sjiTTp.nd^ jgj.
then ajnojj fll herpm es immor tal, and even in t his world he
is one with Brahman .
When all the ties that bind the heart are unloosened,
then a mortal becomes immortal. This is the sacred teach¬
ing.
One hundred and one subtle ways come from the heart.
One of them rises to the crown of the head. This is the way
that leads to immortality; the others lead to different ends.
Always dwelling within all beings is the Atman, the
Purusha, the Self, a little flame in the heart. Let one with
steadiness withdraw him from the body even as an inner
stem is withdrawn from its sheath. Know this pure immor-
tal light; k now in truth this pure immortal ligh t.
And Nachiketas learnt the supreme wisdom taught by the
god of after-life, and he learnt the whole teaching of
inner-union, of Yoga. Then he reached Brahman, the Spirit
Supreme, and became immortal and pure. So in truth will
anyone who knows his Atman, his higher Self.
PRASNA UPANISHAD
FIRST QUESTION
Sukesa Bharadvaja, Saibya Satyakama, Sauryayani Gar-
gya, Kausalya Asvalayana, Bhargava Vaidarbhi and Kaban-
dhi Katyayana were students filled with devotion for Brah¬
man, the Supreme Spirit; their minds rested on Brahman,
and they were in search of the Highest Brahman. Once they
said: The holy Pippalada can explain all the sacred teach¬
ing’; and, thus thinking, they approached him, bringing as
a sign of reverence fuel for the sacred fire.
The sage said to them: Remain another year in steadi¬
ness, purity and faith. Ask then anything you desire and, if
I know, I will tell you all.
When the time came, Kabandhi Katyayana approached
the sage and said: Master, whence came all created beings?
The sage replied: In the beginning, the Creator longed
for the joy of creation. He remained in meditation, and
then came Rayi, matter, and Prana, life. These two',
thought he, ‘will produce beings for me*.
The sun is life and the moon is matter. All that has form,
solid or subtle, is matter: therefore form is matter.
When the rising morning sun enters the eastern skies,
then he bathes in his light all life that is in the East. And
then the South and the West and the North and all the
sky are illumined by that light that gives life to all that
lives.
Thus rises the sun as fire, as life in its infinite variety. It
was said in a verse of the Rig Veda:
The sun is rising in golden radiance! The sun of a thous¬
and rays in a hundred regions abiding; the god omniscient,
the aim of all prayers; the light and fire supreme, the infinite
life of all beings.’
The Lord of Creation is in truth the time of the year.
67
THE UPANISHADS
This has two paths: the way of the South and the way of
the North. Those who worship thinking, 4 We have done
sacrifices and pious works 4 , attain only the regions of the
moon and return to life and death. That is why those sages
who desire children and the life of the family follow the path
of the South. This is the path that leads to the ancestors.
But those who in search of the inner Spirit follow the
spiritual path of the North with steadiness, purity, faith,
and wisdom attain the regions of the sun. And there is the
ocean of life, the refuge supreme, the land of immortality
where there is no fear. From there they do not return again :
it is the end of the journey. There is a verse of the Rig Veda
that says :
‘Some speak of a Father who sends rain from the heaven
of the North, resting on the seasons and showing himself in
twelve ways. Others speak of a sage in the heaven of the
South with a chariot of seven wheels and six spokes. 4
The day and night are the Lord of Creation. Day is life
and night is matter. Those who join in love by day waste
life; but they follow the good path, those who join in love
by night.
The dark fortnight is indeed matter, and the bright fort¬
night is life. Some sages perform their rituals in the bright
fortnight; but some in the time of darkness.
Food is in truth the Lord of Creation. From food seed
is produced and from this beings are bom.
f Those who obey the Law of the Lord of Creation, they
in turn become creators and like him produce a pair. They
^attain the pale regions of the moon.
But those in whom there is no deceit, untruth or bad
faith, who live in steadiness, purity, and truth, theirs are
the radiant regions of the sun.
SECOND QUESTION
Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked: Master, what are the pow¬
ers that keep the union of a being, how many keep bum-
68
PRASNA UPANISHAD
ing the lamps of life, and which amongst them is supreme?
The sage replied: The powers are space, air, fire, water,
and earth; and voice, mind, the eye, and the ear. These
powers light the lamps of life and say: ‘We keep the union
of this being and we are its foundation'.
But Life, the power supreme, said to them: ‘Do not fall
into delusion. It is I who, in my fivefold division, keep the
union of this being and I am its foundation.’ But they be¬
lieved him not.
Life was offended and rose aloft to leave the body, and
all the powers of life had to rise and. Life coming again to
rest, all the powers had to rest. As when a queen-bee arises,
all the bees with her arise, and when she comes to rest
again, then all again come to rest, even so it happened to
the powers of the voice, the mind, the eye, and the ear.
The powers then understood and sang in joy this song of
life:
‘Life is the fire that bums and is the sun that gives light.
Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky.
Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and
what beyond is in Eternity.
On Life all things are resting, as spokes in the centre of a
wheel. On Life are resting the Vedas and prayers and war¬
riors and priests.
To thee, resting with thy powers, 0 Life, all beings offer
adoration. As Lord of Creation thou movest in the womb of
the mother, thence to be reborn.
Thou art the chief bearer of gifts to the gods, the first
offering made to the departed; thou art the poetry of the
seers, the truth of ancient sages.
Thou art Rudra, the god of protection; thou art Indra
in thy radiance, O Life. As the sun that wanders in heaven,
thou art Lord of all heavenly lights.
When the rain pours down from heaven, O Life, all thy
creatures rejoice and they say: ‘Food for us shall be in
abundance'.
Thou art pure, O Life, supreme seer, lord and consumer
69
THE UPANISHADS
of all. We, the givers of what thou enjoyest, thou, our father,
the breath of all life.
Be favourable unto us, O Life, with that invisible form
of thine which is in the voice, the eye, and the ear, and
which lives in the mind. Go not from us.
In thy power is all this world and even the third most
sacred heaven. As a mother her child, protect us, O Life:
give us glory and give us wisdom.*
THIRD QUESTION
Then Kausalya Asvalayana asked: Master, this life, whence
does it arise? How does it come to this body? How, after
diffusing itself, does it abide here? How does it leave the
body? How does it sustain the universe without and the
universe within?
The sage replied: Great are the questions you ask from
me, but you are a great lover of Brahman: I will answer.
Life comes from the Spirit. Even as a man casts a shadow,
so the Spirit casts the shadow of life, and, as a shadow of
former lives, a new life comes to this body.
As when a ruler commands his officials and appoints
them cities to be ruled, in his name, even so Prana, the
power of life, rules the other living powers of the body.
Apana rules its lower regions. Prana itself lives in the
eye and the ear and moves through the nose and the mouth.
Samana rules the middle regions, and distributes the life-
giving offering of food. From Samana come the seven flames.
In the heart dwells the Atman, the Self. It is the centre
of a hundred and one little channels. From each one of them
come a hundred channels more. Seventy-two thousand smal¬
ler channels branch from each one of these. In all these
millions of little channels moves the power of Vyana.
Rising by one of them, the living power of Udana leads
to the heaven of purity by good actions, to the hell of evil
by evil actions, and if by both again to this land of man.
The sun is Prana, the life of this universe, and he rises
70
PRASNA UPANISHAD
giving joy to the life in human eyes. The divinity of the
earth rules the lower regions of Apana. Between the sun
and the earth there is space or Samana. Air is Vyana.
Fire is Udana. When that fire of life is gone, senses are
absorbed in mind, and man comes to life again. His last
thoughts lead him to Prana and, accompanied by the living
fire of Udana and led by Atman, the Spirit himself, he goes
to the regions deserved and desired in imagination.
He who thus knows the meaning of life, his off-spring
never dies and attains life everlasting. There is a verse that
says:
‘He who knows the rising of life and how it comes to
the body, how it abides there in its fivefold division, and
knows its relation to the inner Spirit, enjoys eternal life, in
truth enjoys eternal life.’
FOURTH QUESTION
Then Sauryayani Gargya asked: Master, how many powers
sleep in man and how many remain awake? Who is that
Spirit that beholds the wonder of dreams? Who enjoys the
mystery of sleep with no dreams? Who is that Spirit on
whom all the others find rest?
The sage replied: As when, before darkness falls, the
rays of the setting sun seem all to become one in its circle
of light, though at the hour of sunrise they all spread out
again, even so all the powers of the senses become one in
the higher power of the mind. Then a person does not see,
hear, smell, taste or touch; does not speak, receive or give,
move, or enjoy joys of love. Then people say ‘he sleeps*.
But in the city of the body the fires of life are burning:
they sleep not. Apana is like the sacred home-fire for ever
kept burning from father to son. Vyana is like the fire of
the South for offerings to the ancestors. Prana is like the
fire of the East lit up by the home-fire.
Samana is like the Hotri priest evenly distributing the
two offerings of expiration and inspiration. The mind is
71
THE UPANISHADS
the performer of the sacrifice; and Udana is its fruit, since
every day it takes the mind in sleep to Brahman, the Al¬
mighty.
And in dreams the mind beholds its own immensity.
What has been seen is seen again, and what has been heard
is heard again. What has been felt in different places or far¬
away regions returns to the mind again. Seen and unseen,
heard and unheard, felt and not felt, the mind sees all,
since the mind is all.
But when the mind is overcome by its own radiance,
then dreams are no longer seen: joy and peace come to the
body.
Even as birds, O beloved, return to their tree for rest,
thus all things find their rest in Atman, the Supreme Spirit.
All things find their final peace in their inmost Self, the
Spirit: earth, water, fire, air, space, and their invisible ele¬
ments; sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and their various
fields of sense; voice, hands, and all powers of actioi mind,
reason, the sense of T, thought, inner light, and their ob¬
jects ; and even life and all that life sustains.
It is the Spirit of man who sees, hears, feels perfumes,
touches and tastes, thinks and acts and has all conscious¬
ness. And the Spirit of man finds peace in the Spirit Supreme
and Eternal.
He who knows, O my son, that Eternal Spirit, incorpo¬
real and shadowless, luminous and everlasting, attains that
Eternal Spirit. He knows the All and becomes the All. A
verse there is that says:
‘He who knows, O my beloved, that Eternal Spirit where¬
in consciousness and the senses, the powers of life and the
elements find final peace, knows the All and has gone into
the All.*
FIFTH QUESTION
Then Saibya Satyakama asked: Master, that man who until
the end of his life rests on om his meditation, where does
he go after life?
72
PRASNA UPANISHAD
The sage replied: The Word om, O Satyakama, is the
transcendent and the immanent Brahman, the Spirit Sup¬
reme. With the help of this sacred Word the wise attains
the one or the other.
om, or aum, has three sounds. He who rests on the
first his meditation is illumined thereby and after death
returns speedily to this world of men led by the harmonies
of the Rig Veda. Remaining here in steadiness, purity, and
truth he attains greatness.
And if he rests his mind in meditation on the first two
sounds, he is led by the harmonies of the Yajur Veda to the
regions of the moon. After enjoying their heavenly joys, he
returns to earth again.
But if, with the three sounds of the eternal om, he places
his mind in meditation upon the Supreme Spirit, he comes
to the regions of light of the sun. There he becomes free
from all evil, even as a snake sheds its old skin, and with
the harmonies of the Sama Veda he goes to the heaven of
Brahma wherefrom he can behold the Spirit that dwells in
the city of the human body and which is above the highest
life. There are two verses that say:
‘The three sounds not in union lead again to life that
dies; but the wise who merge them into a harmony of
union in outer, inner and middle actions becomes steady:
he trembles no more/
With the harmonies of the Rdg Veda unto this world of
man, and with those of the Yajur Veda to the middle heaven¬
ly regions; but, with the help of om, the sage goes to those
regions that the seers know in the harmonies of the Sama
Veda . There he finds the peace of the Supreme Spirit where
there is no dissolution or death and where there is no fear.
SIXTH QUESTION
Then Sukesa Bharadvaja said: Master, Prince Hiranyanabha
Kausalya came once to me and asked this question: ‘Do
you know the Spirit of sixteen forms?’ ‘I know him not’.
73
THE UPANISHADS
I answered the young prince. ‘If I knew him, how could I
say that I knew him not ? For he who speaks untruth withers
like a tree to the roots: I will not speak untruth.’ The
prince became silent and, mounting his chariot, departed.
And now I ask you. Where is that Spirit?
The sage replied: O my son, the Spirit in whom sixteen
forms arise is here within this body.
The Spirit thought: ‘In whose going out shall I go out,
and in whose staying shall I stay ? ’
And he created life, and from life faith and space and
air, light, water, and earth, the senses and the mind. He
created food and from food strength, austerity, sacred
poems, holy actions, and even the worlds. And in the
worlds, name was created.
As when rivers flowing towards the ocean find there
final peace, their name and form disappear, and people
speak only of the ocean, even so the sixteen forms of the
seer of all flow towards the Spirit and find there final peace,
their name and form disappear and people speak only of
Spirit. There is a verse that says:
‘These forms in him find rest like spokes in the centre
of a wheel. Know ye the Spirit that should be known that
death may afflict you not.*
Then the sage said to the disciples: Thus far I know the
Supreme Spirit. There is nothing beyond.
Bowing to him in adoration, the disciples said: You are
in truth our father who has saved us from ignorance and
has led us to the shore beyond.
Adoration to the supreme seers! Adoration to the sup¬
reme seers!
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
PART I
CHAPTER I
Brahma was before the gods were, the Creator of all, the
Guardian of the Universe. The vision of Brahman, the foun¬
dation of all wisdom, he gave in revelation to his first-born
son Atharvan.
That vision and wisdom of Brahman given to Atharvan,
he in olden times revealed to Angira. And Angira gave it to
Satyavaha, who in succession revealed it to Angiras.
Now there was a man whose name was Saunaka, owner
of a great household, who, approaching one day Angiras
with reverence, asked him this question: ‘Master, what is
that which, when known, all is known?’ The Master replied:
Sages say that there are two kinds of wisdom, the higher
and the lower.
The lower wisdom is in the four sacred Vedas , and in the
six kinds of knowledge that help to know, to sing, and to
use the Vedas: definition and grammar, pronunciation and
poetry, ritual and the signs of heaven. But the higher
wisdom is that which leads to the Eternal.
He is beyond thought and invisible, beyond family and
colour. He has neither eyes nor ears; he has neither hands
nor feet. He is everlasting and omnipresent, infinite in the
great and infinite in the small. He is the Eternal whom the
sages see as the source of all creation.
Even as a spider sends forth and draws in its thread, even
as plants arise from the earth and hairs from the body of
man, even so the whole creation arises from the Eternal.
By Tapas , the power of meditation. Brahman attains
expansion and then comes primeval matter. And from this
75
THE UPANISHADS
comes life and mind, the elements and the worlds and the
immortality of ritual action.
From that Spirit who knows all and sees all, whose Tapas
is pure vision, from him comes Brahma, the creator, name
and form and primal matter.
CHAPTER 2
This is the truth: The actions of devotion that sages heard
in sacred verses were told in many ways in the three Vedas.
Perform them always, O lovers of the true: they are your
path of holy action in this world.
When the flames of the sacred fire are rising, place then
in faith the sacred offerings.
If at the sacred fire of Agnihotra no heed is taken of the
new moon, or of the full moon, or of the seasons of the
year, or of the first fruits of spring; if no guests are present,
if the offering of the sacrifice is left undone, or not done
according to rule, or the offering to all the gods is forgotten,
then the offerer does not attain the reward of the seven
worlds.
The dancing flames of the sacred fire are seven: the black,
the terrific, that which is swift as the mind, that which is
dark with smoke, the deep red, the spark-blazing and the
luminous omniformed flame.
If a man begins his sacrifice when the flames are lumin¬
ous, and considers for the offerings the signs of heaven, then
the holy offerings lead him on the rays of the sun where
the Lord of all gods has his high dwelling.
And when on the rays of sunlight the radiant offerings
raise him, then they glorify him in words of melody:
‘Welcome’, they say, ‘welcome here. Enjoy the heaven of
Brahma won by pure holy actions.’
But unsafe are the boats of sacrifice to go to the farthest
shore; unsafe are the eighteen books where the lower
actions are explained. The unwise who praise them as the
highest end go to old age and death again.
76
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
Abiding in the midst of ignorance, but thinking them¬
selves wise and learned, fools aimlessly go hither and
thither, like blind led by the blind.
Wandering in the paths of unwisdom, ‘We have attained
the end of life', think the foolish. Clouds of passion conceal
to them the beyond, and sad is their fall when the reward
of their pious actions has been enjoyed.
Imagining religious ritual and gifts of charity as the final
good, the unwise see not the Path supreme. Indeed they have
in high heaven the reward of their pious actions; but thence
they fall and come to earth or even down to lower regions.
But those who in purity and faith live in the solitude of
the forest, who have wisdom and peace and long not for
earthly possessions, those in radiant purity pass through
the gates of the sun to the dwelling-place supreme where
the Spirit is in Eternity.
Beholding the worlds of creation, let the lover of God
attain renunciation: what is above creation cannot be at¬
tained by action. In his longing for divine wisdom, let him
go with reverence to a Teacher, in whom live the sacred
words and whose soul has peace in Brahman.
To a pupil who comes with mind and senses in peace the
Teacher gives the vision of Brahman, of the Spirit of truth
and eternity.
PART 2
CHAPTER I
This is the truth: As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks
come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings
have life and to him return again.
But the spirit of light above form, never-born, within all,
outside all, is in radiance above life and mind, and beyond
this creation’s Creator.
From him comes all life and mind, and the senses of all
life. From him comes space and light, air and fire and water,
and this earth that holds us all.
77
THE UPANISHADS
The head of his body is fire, and his eyes the sun and the
moon; his ears, the regions of heaven, and the sacred Vedas
his word. His breath is the wind that blows, and this whole
universe is his heart. This earth is his footstool. He is the
Spirit that is in all things.
From him comes the sun, and the source of all fire is the
sun.
From him comes the moon, and from this comes the rain
and all herbs that grow upon earth. And man comes from
him, and man unto woman gives seed; and thus an infinity
of beings come from the Spirit supreme.
The verses of the Rig Veda and songs of the Sama Veda ,
prayers of the Yajur Veda and rites of initiation, sacrifices
and offerings and gifts, the offerer of the sacrifice, the year
and the worlds purified by the light from the sun and the
moon, all come from the Spirit.
From him the oceans and mountains; and all rivers come
from him. And all herbs and the essence of all whereby
the Inner Spirit dwells with the elements: all come from
him.
The spirit in truth is all: action, and the power of Tapas,
and Brahma the creator, and immortality. He who knows
him dwelling in the secret place of the heart cuts asunder
the bonds of ignorance even in this human life.
CHAPTER 2
Radiant in his light, yet invisible in the secret place of the
heart, the Spirit is the supreme abode wherein dwells all
that moves and breathes and sees. Know him as all that is,
and all that is not, the end of love-longing beyond under¬
standing, the highest in all beings.
He is self-luminous and more subtle than the smallest;
but in him rest all the worlds and their beings. He is the
everlasting Brahman, and he is life and word and mind. He
is truth and life immortal. He is the goal to be aimed at:
attain that goal, O my son!
78
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
Take the great bow of the Upanishads and place in it an
arrow sharp with devotion. Draw the bow with concentra¬
tion on him and hit the centre of the mark, the same ever¬
lasting Spirit.
The bow is the sacred om, and the arrow is our own soul.
Brahman is the mark of the arrow, the aim of the soul. Even
as an arrow becomes one with its mark, let the watchful
soul be one in him.
In him are woven the sky and the earth and all the regions
of the air, and in him rest the mind and all the powers of
life. Know him as the one and leave aside all other words.
He is the bridge of immortality.
Where all the subtle channels of the body meet, like
spokes in the centre of a wheel, there he moves in the heart
and transforms his one form unto many. Upon om, Atman,
your Self, place your meditation. Glory unto you in your
far-away journey beyond darkness!
He who knows all and sees all, and whose glory the
universe shows, dwells as the Spirit of the divine city of
Brahman in the region of the human heart. He becomes
mind and drives on the body and life, draws power from
food and finds peace in the heart. There the wise find him
as joy and light and life eternal.
And when he is seen in his immanence and transcendence,
then the ties that have bound the heart are unloosened, the
doubts of the mind vanish, and the law of Karma works no
more.
In the supreme golden chamber is Brahman indivisible
and pure. He is the radiant light of all lights, and this knows
he who knows Brahman.
There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars;
lightnings shine not there and much less earthly fire. From
his light all these give light; and his radiance illumines all
creation.
Far spreading before and behind and right and left, and
above and below, is Brahman, the Spirit eternal. In truth
Brahman is all.
79
THE UPANISHADS
PART 3
CHAPTER I
There are two birds, two sweet friends, who dwell on the
self-same tree. The one eats the fruits thereof, and the other
looks on in silence.
The first is the human soul who, resting on that tree,
though active, feels sad in his unwisdom. But on beholding
the power and glory of the higher Spirit, he becomes free
from sorrow.
When the wise seer beholds in golden glory the Lord, the
Spirit, the Creator of the god of creation, then he leaves
good and evil behind and in purity he goes to the unity
supreme.
In silent wonder the wise see him as the life flaming in all
creation. This is the greatest seer of Brahman, who, doing all
his work as holy work, in God, in Atman, in the Self, finds
all his peace and joy.
This Atman is attained by truth and tapas whence come
true wisdom and chastity. The wise who strive and who are
pure see him within the body in his pure glory and light.
Truth obtains victory, not untruth. Truth is the way that
leads to the regions of light. Sages travel therein free from
desires and reach the supreme abode of Truth.
He is immeasurable in his light and beyond all thought,
and yet he shines smaller than the smallest. Far, far away is
he, and yet he is very near, resting in the inmost chamber
of the heart.
He cannot be seen by the eye, and words cannot reveal
him. He cannot be reached by the senses, or by austerity or
sacred actions. By the grace of wisdom and purity of mind,
he can be seen indivisible in the silence of contemplation.
This invisible Atman can be seen by the mind, wherein
the five senses are resting. All mind is woven with the
senses; but in a pure mind shines the light of the Self.
Whatever regions the pure in heart may see in his mind,
80
w£w-Z£
AauSUUT^
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
whatever desires he may have in his heart, he attains those
regions and wins his desires: let one who wishes for success
reverence the seers of the Spirit.
CHAPTER 2
Then he knows the supreme dwelling of Brahman wherein
the whole universe shines in radiance. The wise who, free
from desires, adore the Spirit pass beyond the seed of life in
death.
A man whose mind wanders among desires, and is long¬
ing for objects of desire, goes again to life and death accord¬
ing to his desires. But he who possesses the End of all
longing, and whose self has found fulfilment, even in this
life his desires will fade away.
Not through much learning is the Atman reached, not
through the intellect or sacred teaching. He is reached by
the chosen of him. To his chosen the Atman reveals his glory.
The Atman is not reached by the weak, or the careless, or
those who practise wrong austerity; but the wise who strive
in the right way lead their soul into the dwelling of
Brahman.
Having reached that place supreme, the seers find joy in
wisdom, their souls have fulfilment, their passions have
gone, they have peace. Filled with devotion, they have
found the Spirit in all and go into the All.
Those ascetics who know well the meaning of the
Vedanta , whose minds are pure by renunciation, at the
hour of departing find freedom in the regions of Brahman,
and attain the supreme everlasting life.
The fifteen forms return to their sources and the senses
to their divinities. Actions and the self and his knowledge
go into the Supreme everlasting.
As rivers flowing into the ocean find their final peace and
their name and form disappear, even so the wise become
free from name and form and enter into the radiance of the
Supreme Spirit who is greater than all greatness.
In truth who knows God becomes God.
81
MANDUKYA UPANISHAD
om. This eternal Word is all: what was, what is and what
shall be, and what beyond is in eternity. All is om.
Brahman is all and Atman is Brahman. Atman, the Self,
has four conditions.
The first condition is the waking life of outward-moving
consciousness, enjoying the seven outer gross elements.
The second condition is the dreaming life of inner-moving
consciousness, enjoying the seven subtle inner elements in
its own light and solitude.
The third condition is the sleeping life of silent conscious¬
ness when, a person has no desires and beholds no dreams.
That condition of deep sleep is one of oneness, a mass of
silent consciousness made of peace and enjoying peace.
This silent consciousness is all-powerful, all-knowing,
the inner ruler, the source of all, the beginning and end of
all beings.
The fourth condition is Atman in his own pure state: the
awakened life of supreme consciousness. It is neither outer
nor inner consciousness, neither semi-consciousness, nor
sleeping-consciousness, neither consciousness nor uncon¬
sciousness. He is Atman, the Spirit himself, that cannot be
seen or touched, that is above all distinction, beyond thought
and ineffable. In the union with him is the supreme proof
of his reality. He is the end of evolution and non-duality. He
is peace and love.
This Atman is the eternal Word om. Its three sounds, a,
u, and m, are the first three states of consciousness, and
these three states are the three sounds.
The first sound a is the first state of waking conscious¬
ness, common to all men. It is found in the words Apti ,
‘attaining’, and Adimatvam, 'being first’. Who knows this
33
THE UPANISHADS
attains in truth all his desires, and in all things becomes
first.
The second sound u is the second state of dreaming con¬
sciousness. It is found in the words Utkarsha, ‘uprising’, and
Ubhayatvam, ‘bothness’. Who knows this raises the tradi¬
tion of knowledge and attains equilibrium. In his family is
never born any one who knows not Brahman.
The third sound m is the third state of sleeping conscious¬
ness. It is found in the words Miti, ‘measure’, and in the
root Mi, ‘to end’, that gives Apiti, ‘final end’. Who knows
this measures all with his mind and attains the final End.
The word om as one sound is the fourth state of supreme
consciousness. It is beyond the senses and is the end of
evolution. It is non-duality and love. He goes with his self
to the supreme Self who knows this, who knows this.
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
PART i
The lovers of Brahman ask:
What is the source of this universe? What is Brahman?
From where do we come? By what power do we live?
Where do we find rest? Who rules over our joys and sor¬
rows, O seers of Brahman ?
Shall we think of time, or of the own nature of things, or
of a law of necessity, or of chance, or of the elements, or of
the power of creation of woman or man? Not a union of
these, for above them is a soul who thinks. But our soul is
under the power of pleasure and pain!
By the Yoga of meditation and contemplation the wise
saw the power of God, hidden in his own creation. It is he
who rules over all the sources of this universe, from time to
the soul of man.
And they saw the Wheel of his power made of one circle,
three layers, sixteen parts, fifty spokes, twenty counter¬
spokes, six groups of eight, three paths, one rope of innu¬
merable strands, and the great illusion:
‘Three layers’ - the three constituents of nature: light, fire and
darkness; ‘sixteen parts or segments of the rim of the Wheel’ -
the five elements, five means to know, five means to do, and the
mind; ‘fifty spokes’- fifty states of consciousness as taught
in the Sankhya wisdom: five kinds of error, twenty-eight of
weakness, nine of joy and eight of achievement; ‘twenty coun¬
terspokes’ - ten senses and their ten objects; ‘six groups of
eight’ - forms of nature, constituents of the body, powers of
Yoga, modes of feeling, gods, and virtues; ‘three paths’ - the
Yoga of light, of love, and of life; ‘one rope of innumerable
strands - desire of innumerable forms; ‘the great illusion’ -
the illusion which sees the one as two.
85
THE UPANISHADS
They also saw the river of life impetuously rushing with
the five streams of sense-feelings which come from five
sources, the five elements. Its waves are moved by five
breathing winds, and its origin is a fivefold fountain of
consciousness. This river has five whirlpools, and the violent
waves of five sorrows. It has five stages of pain and five
dangerous windings and turnings.
In this vast Wheel of creation wherein all things live and
die, wanders round the human soul like a swan in restless
flying, and she thinks that God is afar. But when the love of
God comes down upon her, then she finds her own immortal
life.
Exalted in songs has been Brahman. In him are God and
the world and the soul, and he is the imperishable supporter
of all. When the seers of Brahman see him in all creation,
they find peace in Brahman and are free from all sorrows.
God upholds the oneness of this universe: the seen and
the unseen, the transient and the eternal. The soul of man
is bound by pleasure and pain; but when she sees God she
is free from all fetters.
There is the soul of man with wisdom and unwisdom,
power and powerlessness; there is nature, Prakriti, which
is creation for the sake of the soul; and there is God, in¬
finite, omnipresent, who watches the work of creation.
When a man knows the three he knows Brahman.
Matter in time passes away, but God is for ever in Etern¬
ity, and he rules both matter and soul. By meditation on
him, by contemplation of him, and by communion with
him, there comes in the end the destruction of earthly
delusion.
When a man knows God, he is free: his sorrows have an
end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union
he is beyond the world of the body, then the third world,
the world of the Spirit, is found, where the power of the
All is, and man has all: for he is one with the one.
Know that Brahman is for ever in thee, and nothing
higher is there to be known. When one sees God and the
86
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
world and the soul, one sees the Three: one sees Brahman.
Even as fire is not seen in wood and yet by power it comes
to light as fire, so Brahman in the universe and in the soul
is revealed by the power of om.
The soul is the wood below that can bum and be fire,
and om is the whirling friction-rod above. Prayer is the
power that makes om turn round and then the mystery of
God comes to light.
God is found in the soul when sought with truth and
self-sacrifice, as fire is found in wood, water in hidden
springs, cream in milk, and oil in the oil-fruit.
There is a Spirit who is hidden in all things, as cream is
hidden in milk, and who is the source of self-knowledge and
self-sacrifice. This is Brahman, the Spirit Supreme. This is
Brahman, the Spirit Supreme.
PART 2
Savitri, the god of inspiration, sent the mind and its powers
to find truth. He saw the light of the god of fire and spread
it over the earth.
By the grace of god Savitri, our mind is one with him
and we strive with all our power for light.
Savitri gives life to our souls and then they shine in great
light. He makes our mind and its powers one and leads our
thoughts to heaven.
The seers of the god who sees all keep their mind and
their thoughts in oneness. They sing the glory of god Savitri
who has given every man his work.
I sing the songs of olden times with adoration: may my
own songs follow the path of the sun. Let all the children
of immortality hear me, even those who are in the highest
heaven.
Where the fire of the Spirit burns, where the wind of the
Spirit blows, where the Soma-wine of the Spirit overflows,
there a new soul is born.
Inspired then by Savitri let us find joy in the prayers of
87
THE UPANISHADS
olden times: for if we make them our rock we shall be
made pure of past sins.
With upright body, head, and neck lead the mind and its
powers into thy heart; and the om of Brahman will then
be thy boat with which to cross the rivers of fear.
And when the body is in silent steadiness, breathe rhyth¬
mically through the nostrils with a peaceful ebbing and
flowing of breath. The chariot of the mind is drawn by wild
horses, and those wild horses have to be tamed.
Find a quiet retreat for the practice of Yoga, sheltered
from the wind, level and clean, free from rubbish, smoulder¬
ing fires, and ugliness, and where the sound of waters and
the beauty of the place help thought and contemplation.
These are the imaginary forms that appear before the
final vision of Brahman : a mist, a smoke, and a sun; a wind,
fire-flies, and a fire; lightnings, a clear crystal, and a moon.
When the Yogi has full power over his body composed
of the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, then he
obtains a new body of spiritual fire which is beyond illness,
old age, and death.
The first fruits of the practice of Yoga are: health, little
waste matter, and a clear complexion; lightness of the
body, a pleasant scent, and a sweet voice; and an absence
of greedy desires.
Even as a mirror of gold, covered by dust, when cleaned
well shines again in full splendour, when a man has seen
the Truth of the Spirit he is one with him, the aim of his
life is fulfilled and he is ever beyond sorrow.
Then the soul of man becomes a lamp by which he finds
the Truth of Brahman. Then he sees God, pure, never-born,
everlasting; and when he sees God he is free from all bond¬
age.
This is the God whose light illumines all creation, the
Creator of all from the beginning. He was, he is and for ever
he shall be. He is in all and he sees all.
Glory be to that God who is in the fire, who is in the
waters, who is in plants and in trees, who is in all things
88
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
in this vast creation. Unto that Spirit be glory and glory.
PART 3
There is one in whose hands is the net of Maya, who rules
with his power, who rules all the worlds with his power. He
is the same at the time of creation and at the time of dis¬
solution. Those who know him attain immortality.
He is Rudra, he alone is the one who governs the worlds
with his power. He watches over all beings and rules over
their creation and their destruction.
His eyes and mouths are everywhere, his arms and feet
are everywhere. He is God who made heaven and earth,
who gave man his arms and who gave to the birds their wings.
May Rudra, the seer of Eternity, who gave to the gods
their birth and their glory, who keeps all things under his
protection, and who in the beginning created the Golden
Seed, grant us the grace of pure vision.
Come down to us, Rudra, who art in the high mountains.
Come and let the light of thy face, free from fear and evil,
shine upon us. Come to us with thy love.
Let not the arrow in thy hand hurt man or any living
being: let it be an arrow of love.
Greater than all is Brahman, the Supreme, the Infinite.
He dwells in the mystery of all beings according to their
forms in nature. Those who know him who knows all, and
in whose glory all things are, attain immortality.
I know the Spirit supreme, radiant like the sun beyond
darkness. He who knows him goes beyond death, for he is
the only path to life immortal.
His infinity is beyond what is great or small, and greater
than him there is nothing. Like a tree everlasting he stands
in the centre of heaven, and his radiance illumines all
creation.
Those who know him who is greater than all, beyond
form and beyond pain, attain immortality: those who know
not go to the worlds of sorrow.
89
THE UPANISHADS
All this universe is in the glory of God, of Siva the god of
love. The heads and faces of men are his own and he is in
the hearts of all.
He is indeed the Lord supreme whose grace moves the
hearts of men. He leads us unto his own joy and to the
glory of his light.
He is the inmost soul of all, which like a little flame the
size of a thumb is hidden in the hearts of men. He is the
master of wisdom ever reached by thought and love. He is
the immortality of those who know him.
He has innumerable heads and eyes and feet, and his
vastness enfolds the universe, and even a measure of ten
beyond.
God is in truth the whole universe: what was, what is,
and what beyond shall ever be. He is the god of life im¬
mortal, and of all life that lives by food.
His hands and feet are everywhere, he has heads and
mouths everywhere: he sees all, he hears all. He is in all and
he is.
The Light of consciousness comes to him through infinite
powers of perception, and yet he is above these powers. He
is God, the ruler of all, the infinite refuge of all.
The wandering swan of the soul dwells in the castle of
nine gates of the body and flies away to enjoy the outer
world. He is the master of the universe: of all that moves
and of all that moves not.
Without hands he holds all things, without feet he runs
everywhere. Without eyes he sees all things, without ears
all things he hears. He knows all, but no one knows him,
the Spirit before the beginning, the Spirit Supreme everlast¬
ing.
Concealed in the heart of all beings lies the Atman, the
Spirit, the Self; smaller than the smallest atom, greater than
the greatest spaces. When by the grace of God man sees
the glory of God, he sees him beyond the world of desire
and then sorrows are left behind.
I know that Spirit whose infinity is in all, who is ever one
90
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
beyond time. I know the Spirit whom the lovers of Brahman
call eternal, beyond the birth and rebirth of life.
PART 4
May God, who in the mystery of his vision and power trans¬
forms his white radiance into his many-coloured creation,
from whom all things come and into whom they all return,
grant us the grace of pure vision.
He is the sun, the moon, and the stars. He is the fire, the
waters, and the wind. He is Brahma the creator of all, and
Prajapati, the Lord of creation.
Thou this boy, and thou this maiden; Thou this man, and
thou this woman; Thou art this old man who supports him¬
self on a staff; Thou the God who appears in forms infinite.
Thou the blue bird and thou the green bird; Thou the
cloud that conceals the lightning and thou the seasons and
the oceans. Beyond beginning, thou art in thy infinity, and
all the worlds had their beginning in thee.
There is nature, never-born, who with her three elements
- light, fire, and darkness - creates all things in nature. There
is the never-born soul of man bound by the pleasures of
nature; and there is the Spirit of man, never-born, who has
left pleasures behind in the joy of the Beyond.
There are two birds, two sweet friends, who dwell on the
self-same tree. The one eats the fruits thereof, and the other
looks on in silence.
The first is the human soul who, resting on that tree,
though active, feels sad in his unwisdom. But on beholding
the power and the glory of the higher Spirit, he becomes free
from sorrow.
Of what use is the Rig Veda to one who does not know
the Spirit from whom the Rig Veda comes, and in whom all
things abide? For only those who have found him have
found peace.
For all the sacred books, all holy sacrifice and ritual and
prayers, all the words of the Vedas , and the whole past and
9i
THE UPANISHADS
present and future, come from the Spirit. With Maya, his
power of wonder, he made all things, and by Maya the
human soul is bound.
Know therefore that nature is Maya, but that God is the
ruler of Maya; and that all beings in our universe are parts
of his infinite splendour.
He rules over the sources of creation. From him comes
the universe and unto him it returns. He is the Lord, the
giver of blessings, the one God of our adoration, in whom
there is perfect peace.
May Rudra, the seer of Eternity, who gave to the gods
their birth and their glory, who keeps all things under his
protection, and who in the beginning saw the Golden Seed,
grant us the grace of pure vision.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer adoration? The
God of gods, in whose glory the worlds are, and who rules
this world of man and all living beings.
He is the God of forms infinite in whose glory all things
are, smaller than the smallest atom, and yet the Creator of
all, everliving in the mystery of his creation. In the vision
of this God of love there is everlasting peace.
He is the Lord of all who, hidden in the heart of things,
watches over the world of time. The gods and the seers of
Brahman are one with him; and when a man knows him he
cuts the bonds of death.
When one knows God who is hidden in the heart of all
things, even as cream is hidden in milk, and in whose glory
all things are, he is free from all bondage.
This is the God whose work is all the worlds, the supreme
Soul who dwells for ever in the hearts of men. Those who
know him through their hearts and their minds become
immortal.
There is a region beyond darkness where there is neither
day nor night, nor what is, nor what is not. Only Siva, the
god of love, is there. It is the region of the glorious splen¬
dour of God from whom came the light of the sun, and
from whom the ancient wisdom came in the beginning.
92
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
The mind cannot grasp him above, or below, or in the
space in between. With whom shall we compare him whose
glory is the whole universe ?
Far beyond the range of vision, he cannot be seen by
mortal eyes; but he can be known by the heart and the
mind, and those who know him attain immortality.
A man comes to thee in fearful wonder and says: ‘Thou
art God who never was born. Let thy face, Rudra, shine
upon me, and let thy love be my eternal protection.
‘Hurt not my child, nor the child of my child; hurt not
my life, my horses, or my cows. Kill not in anger our brave
men, for we ever come to thee with adorations/
PART 5
Two things are hidden in the mystery of infinity of Brah¬
man : knowledge and ignorance. Ignorance passes away and
knowledge is immortal; but Brahman is in Eternity above
ignorance and knowledge.
He is the one in whose power are the many sources of
creation, and the root and the flower of all things. The
Golden Seed, the Creator, was in his mind in the beginning;
and he saw him born when time began.
He is God who spreads the net of transmigration and
then withdraws it in the field of life. He is the Lord who
created the lords of creation, the supreme Soul who rules
over all.
Even as the radiance of the sun shines everywhere in
space, so does the glory of God rule over all his creation.
In the unfolding of his own nature he makes all things
blossom into flower and fruit. He gives to them all their
fragrance and colour. He, the one, the only God who rules
the universe.
There is a Spirit hidden in the mystery of the Upanishads
and the Vedas ; and Brahma, the god of creation, owns him as
his own Creator. It is the Spirit of God, seen by gods and seers
of olden times who, when one with him, became immortal.
93
THE UPANISHADS
When a man is bound by the three powers of nature, he
works for a selfish reward and in time he has his reward.
His soul then becomes the many forms of the three powers,
strays along the three paths, and wanders on through life
and death.
The soul is like the sun in splendour. When it becomes
one with the self-conscious ‘I am* and its desires, it is a
flame the size of a thumb; but when one with pure reason
and the inner Spirit, it becomes in concentration as the
point of a needle.
The soul can be thought as the part of a point of a hair
which divided by a hundred were divided by a hundred
again; and yet in this living soul there is the seed of Infinity.
The soul is not a man, nor a woman, nor what is neither
a woman nor a man. When the soul takes the form of a
body, by that same body the soul is bound.
The soul is born and unfolds in a body, with dreams and
desires and the food of life. And then it is reborn in new
bodies, in accordance with its former works.
The quality of the soul determines its future body: earth¬
ly or airy, heavy or light. Its thoughts and its actions can
lead it to freedom, or lead it to bondage, in life after life.
But there is the God of forms infinite, and when a man
knows God he is free from all bondage. He is the Creator of
all, everliving in the mystery of his creation. He is beyond
beginning and end, and in his glory all things are.
He is an incorporeal Spirit, but he can be seen by a heart
which is pure. Being and non-being come from him and he
is the Creator of all. He is God, the God of love, and when
a man knows him then he leaves behind his bodies of trans¬
migration.
PART 6
Some sages speak of the nature of things as the cause of
the world, and others, in their delusion, speak of time. But
it is by the glory of God that the Wheel of Brahman re¬
volves in the universe.
94
SVETAS VAT AR A UPANISHAD
The whole universe is ever in his power. He is pure con¬
sciousness, the creator of time: all-powerful, all-knowing.
It is under his rule that the work of creation revolves in its
evolution, and we have earth, and water, and ether, and
fire and air.
God ended his work and he rested, and he made a bond
of love between his soul and the soul of all things. And the
one became one with the one, and the two, and the three
and the eight, and with time and with the subtle mystery
of the human soul.
His first works are bound by the three qualities, and he
gives to each thing its place in nature. When the three are
gone, the work is done, and then a greater work can begin.
His Being is the source of all being, the seed of all things
that in this life have their life. He is beyond time and space,
and yet he is the God of forms infinite who dwells in our
inmost thoughts, and who is seen by those who love him.
He is beyond the tree of life and time, and things seen
by mortal eyes; but the whole universe comes from him.
He gives us truth and takes away evil, for he is the Lord of
all good. Know that he is in the inmost of thy soul and that
he is the home of thy immortality.
May we know the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the
God of gods: God, the God of love, the Lord of all.
We cannot see how he works, or what are the tools of his
work. Nothing can be compared with him, and how can
anything be greater than he is? His power is shown in in¬
finite ways, and how great is his work and wisdom!
No one was before he was, and no one has rule over him;
because he is the source of all, and he is also the ruler of all.
May God who is hidden in nature, even as the silkworm
is hidden in the web of silk he made, lead us to union with
his own Spirit, with Brahman.
He is God, hidden in all beings, their inmost soul who is
in all. He watches the works of creation, lives in all things,
watches all things. He is pure consciousness, beyond the
three conditions of nature, the one who rules the work of
95
THE UPANISHADS
silence of many, the one who transforms one seed into
many. Only those who see God in their soul attain the joy
eternal.
He is the Eternal among things that pass away, pure Con¬
sciousness of conscious beings, the one who fulfils the
prayers of many. By the vision of Sankhya and the har¬
mony of Yoga a man knows God, and when a man knows
God he is free from all fetters.
There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars;
lightnings shine not there and much less earthly fire. From
his light all these give light; and his radiance illumines all
creation.
He is the wandering swan everlasting, the soul of all in the
universe, the Spirit of fire in the ocean of life. To know him
is to overcome death, and he is the only Path to life eternal.
He is the never-created Creator of all: he knows all. He is
pure consciousness, the creator of time: all-powerful, all¬
knowing. He is the Lord of the soul and of nature and of the
three conditions of nature. From him comes the transmigra¬
tion of life and liberation: bondage in time and freedom in
Eternity.
He is the God of light, immortal in his glory, pure con¬
sciousness, omnipresent, the loving protector of all. He is
the everlasting ruler of the world: could there be any ruler
but he?
Longing therefore for liberation, I go for refuge to God
who by his grace reveals his own light; and who in the
beginning created the god of creation and gave to him the
sacred Vedas.
I go for refuge to God who is one in the silence of
Eternity, pure radiance of beauty and perfection, in whom
we find our peace. He is the bridge supreme which leads to
immortality, and the Spirit of fire which bums the dross of
lower life.
If ever for man it were possible to fold the tent of the
sky, in that day he might be able to end his sorrow without
the help of God.
96
SVETASVATARA UPANISHAD
By the power of inner harmony and by the grace of God
Svetasvatara had the vision of Brahman. He then spoke to
his nearest hermit-students about the supreme purification,
about Brahman whom the seers adore.
This supreme mystery of the Vedanta which was revealed
in olden times must only be given to one whose heart is
pure and who is a pupil or a son.
If one has supreme love for God and also loves his master
as God, then the light of this teaching shines in a great soul:
it shines indeed in a great soul.
From the
MAITRI UPANISHAD
This is the knowledge of Brahman as found in all the
Upanishads and as revealed by the sage Maitri.
The glorious Valakhilyas were pure and good, and once
they asked Kratu Prajapati:
‘Since this body is like a chariot without consciousness,
who is the Spirit who has the power to make it conscious?
Who is the driver of the chariot ? ’
Prajapati answered:
‘There is a Spirit who is amongst the things of this world
and yet he is above the things of this world. He is clear and
pure, in the peace of a void of vastness. He is beyond the
life of the body and the mind, never-born, never-dying,
everlasting, ever one in his own greatness. He is the Spirit
whose power gives consciousness to the body: he is the
driver of the chariot.*
Then the Valakhilyas said:
‘Master, how does this pure Being give consciousness to
the unconscious body? How is he the driver of the char¬
iot?’
Kratu Prajapati answered:
‘Even as a man who is asleep awakes, but when he is
asleep does not know that he is going to awake, so a part of
the subtle invisible Spirit comes as a messenger to the body
without the body being conscious of his arrival.
A part of Infinite Consciousness becomes our own finite
consciousness with powers of discrimination and definition,
and with false conceptions. He is in truth Prajapati and
Visva, the Source of creation and the Universal in us all.
This Spirit is consciousness and gives consciousness to
the body: he is the driver of the chariot.* 2. 3-5
99
THE UPANISHADS
The poets say that this is the Spirit who wanders on
this earth from body to body, free from the light and dark¬
ness which follow our works. He is free because he is free
from selfishness, and he is invisible, incomprehensible, hid¬
den in darkness. He seems to work and not to be; but in
truth he works not, and he is. He is in his own Being, pure,
never-changing, never-moving, unpollutable; and in peace
beyond desires he watches the drama of the universe. He is
hidden behind the veil of the three conditions and consti¬
tuents of the universe; but in the joy of his law of righteous¬
ness he is ever one, he is ever one. 2. 7
*
The Valakhilyas said:
‘Master, you have spoken to us of the greatness of the
Atman, the Spirit, the Supreme Soul; but what is the soul
who is bound by the light or darkness which follow works,
and who, born again from good and evil, rises or falls in its
wanderings, under the impulse of two contrary powers?*
Prajapati answered:
‘There is indeed the other soul composed of the elements
of the body, the bhutatman, who is bound by the light or
darkness which follow works and who, born again from
good and evil, rises or falls in its wanderings under the im¬
pulse of two contrary powers.
And this is the explanation:
There are five subtle elements, tan-matras, and these are
called elements. There are also five gross elements, maha -
bhutas, and these are also called elements. The union of these
is called the human body. The human soul rules the body;
but the immortal spiritual Soul is pure like a drop of water
on a lotus leaf. The human soul is under the power of the
three constituents and conditions of nature, and thus it falls
into confusion. Because of this confusion the soul cannot
become conscious of the God who dwells within and whose
power gives us power to work. The soul is thus whirled
along the rushing stream of muddy waters of the three con-
100
FROM THE MAITRI UPANISHAD
ditions of nature, and becomes unsteady and wavering, filled
with confusion and full of desires, lacking concentration and
disturbed with pride. Whenever the soul has thoughts of
44 I” and “mine” it binds itself with its lower self, as a bird
with the net of a snare.’ 3. 2
‘Brahman is’, thus says the seer of Brahman.
‘Brahman is the door’, thus speaks the man of austere
harmony whose sins have been washed away.
‘om is the glory of Brahman’, says the man of contempla¬
tion for ever thinking on Brahman.
It is therefore by vision, by harmony, and by contempla¬
tion that Brahman is attained. 4. 4
♦
In the beginning all was Brahman, one and infinite. He is
beyond north and south, and east and west, and beyond what
is above or below. His infinity is everywhere. In him there
is neither above, nor across, nor below; and in him there is
neither east nor west.
The Spirit supreme is immeasurable, inapprehensible, be¬
yond conception, never-born, beyond reasoning, beyond
thought. His vastness is the vastness of space.
At the end of the worlds, all things sleep: he alone is
awake in Eternity. Then from his infinite space new worlds
arise and awake, a universe which is a vastness of thought.
In the consciousness of Brahman the universe is, and into
him it returns.
He is seen in the radiance of the sun in the sky, in the
brightness of fire on earth, and in the fire of life that burns
the food of life. Therefore it has been said :
He who is in the sun, and in the fire and in the heart of
man is one. He who knows this is one with the one.
6.17
*
101
THE UPANISHADS
When a wise man has withdrawn his mind from all things
without, and when his spirit of life has peacefully left inner
sensations, let him rest in peace, free from the movements of
will and desire. Since the living being called the spirit of life
has come from that which is greater than the spirit of life,
let the spirit of life surrender itself into what is called turya,
the fourth condition of consciousness. For it has been said:
There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence
within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.
Let one’s mind and one’s subtle body rest upon that and not rest
on anything else. 6. 19
*
There are two ways of contemplation of Brahman: in
sound and in silence. By sound we go to silence. The sound
of Brahman is om. With om we go to the End: the silence
of Brahman. The End is immortality, union and peace.
Even as a spider reaches the liberty of space by means of
its own thread, the man of contemplation by means of om
reaches freedom. 6. 22
*
The sound of Brahman is om. At the end of om there is
silence. It is a silence of joy. It is the end of the journey
where fear and sorrow are no more: steady, motionless,
never-falling, ever-lasting, immortal. It is called the omni¬
present Vishnu.
In order to reach the Highest, consider in adoration the
sound and the silence of Brahman. For it has been said:
God is sound and silence. His name is om. Attain therefore
contemplation - contemplation in silence on him. ^ ^
*
Even as fire without fuel finds peace in its resting-place,
when thoughts become silence the soul finds peace in its
own source.
102
FROM THE MAITRI UPANISHAD
And when a mind which longs for truth finds the peace of
its own source, then those false inclinations cease which
were the result of former actions done in the delusion of the
senses.
Samsara, the transmigration of life, takes place in one’s
own mind. Let one therefore keep the mind pure, for what
a man thinks that he becomes: this is a mystery of Etern¬
ity.
A quietness of mind overcomes good and evil works, and
in quietness the soul is one: then one feels the joy of Etern¬
ity.
If men thought of God as much as they think of the world,
who would not attain liberation ?
The mind of man is of two kinds, pure and impure: im¬
pure when in the bondage of desire, pure when free from
desire.
When the mind is silent, beyond weakness or non-concen¬
tration, then it can enter into a world which is far beyond
the mind: the highest End.
The mind should be kept in the heart as long as it has not
reached the Highest End. This is wisdom, and this is libera¬
tion. Everything else is only words.
Words cannot describe the joy of the soul whose impuri¬
ties are cleansed in deep contemplation - who is one with his
Atman, his own Spirit. Only those who feel this joy know
what it is.
Even as water becomes one with water, fire with fire, and
air with air, so the mind becomes one with the Infinite Mind
and thus attains final freedom.
103
THE UPANISHADS
Mind is indeed the source of bondage and also the source
of liberation. To be bound to things of this world: this is
bondage. To be free from them: this is liberation.
from 6. 24
Glory be unto Agni, the god of fire, who dwells in the
earth, who remembers the world. Give this world to him
who adores thee.
Glory be unto Vayu, the god of the wind, who dwells in
the air, who remembers this world. Give this world to him
who adores thee.
Glory be unto Aditya, the god of the sun, who dwells in
the sky, who remembers this world. Give this world to him
who adores thee. from 6. 35
From the
KAUSHITAKI UPANISHAD
When a man is speaking, he cannot be breathing: this is the
sacrifice of breath to speech. And when a man is breathing
he cannot be speaking: this is the sacrifice of speech to breath.
These are the two never-ending immortal offerings of man,
whether he is awake or whether he is asleep. 2. 5
These are the three adorations of the all-conquering Kau-
shitaki:
At the rising of the sun he said, ‘You who give liberty,
make me free from my sins’.
When the sun was mid-way in heaven he said, ‘You who
are on high and give liberty, set me on high and make me
free from my sins’.
At the hour of sunset he uttered this prayer, ‘You who
give full liberty, make me fully free from my sins’. 2. 7
When the fire burns. Brahman shines; and when the fire
dies. Brahman goes. Its light goes to the sun, and its breath
of life to the wind.
When the sun shines. Brahman shines; and when the sun
sets. Brahman goes. Its light goes to the moon, and its breath
of life to the wind.
When the moon shines. Brahman shines; and when the
moon sets. Brahman goes. Its light goes to a flash of lightning,
and its breath of life to the wind.
When a flash of lightning shines, Brahman shines; and
when it goes. Brahman goes. Its light goes to the regions of
heaven, and its breath of life to the wind. 2. 12
♦
105
THE UPANISHADS
Pratardana, the son of Devadasa, fought the inner fight
with all his soul and thus he reached the house of Indra, the
house of the love of God.
Indra said to him: ‘Pratardana, ask for a gift.' To this
Pratardana replied: ‘I ask for that gift which you think is
best for mankind.'
‘A master imposes not a gift upon his pupil/ said Indra,
‘ask for any gift you like/
‘I shall then not have a gift/ said Pratardana.
But Indra left not the path of truth, for God is truth. He
thus said to Pratardana: ‘Know me, for this is the best for
man: to know God.’ 3. 1
Then Indra spoke:
I am the breath of life, and I am the consciousness of life.
Adore me and think of me as life and immortality.
The breath of life is one:
When we speak, life speaks.
When we see, life sees.
When we hear, life hears.
When we think, life thinks.
When we breathe, life breathes.
And there is something greater than the breath of life.
For one can live without speech: we can see the dumb.
One can live without sight: we can see the blind.
One can live without hearing: we can see the deaf.
One can live without a right mind: we can see those who
are mad.
But it is the consciousness of life which becomes the
breath of life and gives life to a body. The breath of life is
the consciousness of life, and the consciousness of life is
the breath of life. 3. 2-3
When consciousness rules speech, with speech we can
speak all words.
When consciousness rules breath, with inbreath we can
smell all perfumes.
106
FROM THE KAUSHITAKI UPANISHAD
When consciousness rules the eye, with the eye we can
see all forms.
When consciousness rules the ear, with the ear we can
hear all sounds.
When consciousness rules the tongue, with the tongue we
can savour all tastes.
When consciousness rules the mind, with the mind we
can think all thoughts. 3. 6
*
It is not speech which we should want to know: we
should know the speaker.
It is not things seen which we should want to know:
we should know the seer.
It is not sounds which we should want to know: we
should know the hearer.
It is not mind which we should want to know: we
SHOULD KNOW THE THINKER. 3. 8
■
From the
TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD
I will speak words of truth and the words of the divine law
shall be on my lips. i. i
Master and disciple .
May the light of sacred knowledge illumine us, and may
we attain the glory of wisdom. i. 3
O Lord, let me come unto thee and come thou unto me,
O Lord. In thy waters, O my Lord, may I wash my sins away.
i-4
What is needful ?
Righteousness, and sacred learning and teaching.
Truth, and sacred learning and teaching.
Meditation, and sacred learning and teaching.
Self-control, and sacred learning and teaching.
Peace, and sacred learning and teaching.
Ritual, and sacred learning and teaching.
Humanity, and sacred learning and teaching.
*
Satyavacas, the Truthful, says: ‘Truth/
Taponitya, the Austere, says: ‘Austerity/
But Naka, who is beyond pain, says: ‘Learning and teach¬
ing. For they are austerity, for they are austerity/ 1. 9
*
He who knows Brahman who is Truth, consciousness, and
109
THE UPANISHADS
infinite joy, hidden in the inmost of our soul and in the
highest heaven, enjoys all things he desires in communion
with the all-knowing Brahman. From Atman - Brahman -
in the beginning came space. From space came air. From air,
fire. From fire, water. From water came solid earth. From
earth came living plants. From plants food and seed; and
from seed and food came a living being, man. 2. i
Who denies God, denies himself. Who affirms God, affirms
himself. 2. 6
Joy comes from God. Who could live and who could
breathe if the joy of Brahman filled not the universe ?
2.7
If a man places a gulf between himself and God, this gulf
will bring fear. But if a man finds the support of the In¬
visible and Ineffable, he is free from fear. 2. 7
Words and mind go to him, but reach him not and re¬
turn. But he who knows the joy of Brahman, fears no more.
2. 9
*
Once Bhrigu Varuni went to his father Varuna and said:
‘Father, explain to me the mystery of Brahman.’
Then his father spoke to him of the food of the earth,
of the breath of life, of the one who sees, of the one who
hears, of the mind that knows, and of the one who speaks.
And he further said to him: ‘Seek to know him from whom
all beings have come, by whom they all live, and unto whom
they all return. He is Brahman.’
So Bhrigu went and practised tapas, spiritual prayer. Then
he thought that Brahman was the food of the earth: for
from the earth all beings have come, by food of the earth
they all live, and unto the earth they all return.
After this he went again to his father Varuna and said:
no
FROM THE TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD
‘Father, explain further to me the mystery of Brahman.* To
him his father answered: ‘Seek to know Brahman by tapas,
by prayer, because Brahman is prayer.’
So Bhrigu went and practised tapas , spiritual prayer. Then
he thought that Braham was life: for from life all beings
have come, by life they all live, and unto life they all return.
After this he went again to his father Varuna and said:
‘Father, explain further to me the mystery of Brahman.* To
him his father answered: ‘Seek to know Brahman by tapas,
by prayer, because Brahman is prayer.*
So Bhrigu went and practised tapas, spiritual prayer. Then
he thought that Brahman was mind: for from mind all be¬
ings have come, by mind they all live, and unto mind they all
return.
After this he went again to his father Varuna and said:
‘Father, explain further to me the mystery of Brahman.* To
him his father answered: ‘Seek to know Brahman by tapas,
by prayer, because Brahman is prayer.*
So Bhrigu went and practised tapas, spiritual prayer. Then
he thought that Brahman was reason: for from reason all
beings have come, by reason they all live, and unto reason
they all return.
He went again to his father, asked the same question, and
received the same answer.
So Bhrigu went and practised tapas, spiritual prayer. And
then he saw that Brahman is joy: for from joy all
BEINGS HAVE COME, BY JOY THEY ALL LIVE, AND
UNTO JOY THEY ALL RETURN.
This was the vision of Bhrigu Varuni which came from
the Highest; and he who sees this vision lives in the Highest.
3-1-6
Oh, the wonder of joy!
I am the food of life, and I am he who eats the food of
life: I am the two in one.
I am the first-born of the world of truth, bom before the
gods, born in the centre of immortality.
hi
THE UPANISHADS
He who gives me is my salvation.
I am that food which eats the eater of food.
I have gone beyond the universe, and the light of the sun
is my light. 3. 10. 6
From the
CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
Wherefrom do all these worlds come? They come from
space. All beings arise from space, and into space they re¬
turn : space is indeed their beginning, and space is their final
end. 2.9.1
#
Prajapati, the Creator of all, rested in life-giving medita¬
tion over the worlds of his creation; and from them came
the three Vedas. He rested in meditation and from those
came the three sounds: bhur, bhuvas, svar, earth,
air, and sky. He rested in meditation and from the three
sounds came the sound om. Even as all leaves come from a
stem, all words come from the sound om. om is the whole
universe, om is in truth the whole universe. 2. 23. 2
*
Great is the Gayatri, the most sacred verse of the Vedas;
but how much greater is the Infinity of Brahman! A quarter
of his being is this whole vast universe: the other three
quarters are his heaven of Immortality. 3. 12. 5
*
There is a Light that shines beyond all things on earth,
beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the
very highest heavens. This is the Light that shines in our
heart. 3. 13. 7
♦
213
THE UPANISHADS
All this universe is in truth Brahman. He is the beginning
and end and life of all. As such, in silence, give unto him
adoration.
Man in truth is made of faith. As his faith is in this life, so
he becomes in the beyond: with faith and vision let him
work.
There is a Spirit that is mind and life, light and truth and
vast spaces. He contains all works and desires and all per¬
fumes and all tastes. He enfolds the whole universe, and in
silence is loving to all.
This is the Spirit that is in my heart, smaller than a grain
of rice, or a grain of barley, or a grain of mustard-seed, or a
grain of canary-seed, or the kernel of a grain of canary-seed.
This is the Spirit that is in my heart, greater than the earth,
greater than the sky, greater than heaven itself, greater than
all these worlds.
He contains all works and desires and all perfumes and
all tastes. He enfolds the whole universe and in silence is
loving to all. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, this is
Brahman.
To him I shall come when I go beyond this life. And to
him will come he who has faith and doubts not. Thus said
Sandilya, thus said Sandilya. 3. 14
*
I go to the Imperishable Treasure: by his grace, by his
grace, by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of life: by his grace, by his grace, by his
grace.
I go to the Spirit of the earth: by his grace, by his grace,
by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of the air: by his grace, by his grace, by
his grace.
I go to the Spirit of the heavens: by his grace, by his grace,
by his grace. 3.15. 3
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
A man is a living sacrifice. The first twenty-four years of
his life are the morning offering of the Soma-wine; because
the holy Gayatri has twenty-four sounds, and the chanting
of the Gayatri is heard in the morning offering. The Vasus,
the gods of the earth, rule this offering. If a man should be ill
during that time, he should pray: ‘With the help of the
Vasus, the powers of my life, may my morning offering last
until my midday offering and may not my sacrifice perish
whilst the Vasus are the powers of my life/
The next forty-four years of his life are the midday offer¬
ing of the Soma-wine; because the holy Trishtubh has forty-
four sounds, and the chanting of the Trishtubh is heard with
the midday offering. The Rudras, the gods of the air, rule this
offering. If a man should be ill during that time, he should
pray: ‘With the help of the Rudras, the powers of my life,
may my midday offering last until my evening offering, and
may not my sacrifice perish whilst the Rudras are the powers
of my life.’
The next forty-eight years of his life are the evening offer¬
ing ; because the holy Jagati has forty-eight sounds, and the
chanting of the Jagati is heard with the evening offering.
The Adityas, the gods of light, rule this offering. If a man
should be ill during that time, he should pray: ‘With the
help of the Adityas, the powers of my life, let my evening
offering last until the end of a long life; and may not my
sacrifice perish whilst the Adityas are the powers of my
life/
Mahidasa Aitareya knew this when he used to say: ‘Why
should I suffer an illness when I am not going to die?’ And
he lived one hundred and sixteen years. 3. 16
*
We should consider that in the inner world Brahman is
consciousness; and we should consider that in the outer
world Brahman is space. These are the two meditations.
3.18.1
«5
THE UPANISHADS
Once Satyakama went to his mother and said: ‘Mother, I
wish to enter upon the life of a religious student. Of what
family am I?’
To him she answered: ‘I do not know, my child, of what
family thou art. In my youth, I was poor and served as a
maid many masters, and then I had thee: I therefore do not
know of what family thou art. My name is Jabala and thy
name is Satyakama. Thou mayest call thyself Satyakama
Jabala/
The boy went to the Master Haridrumata Gautama and
said: ‘I want to become a student of sacred wisdom. May I
come to you. Master?*
To him the Master asked: ‘Of what family art thou, my
son?*
T do not know of what family I am/ answered Satyakama.
‘I asked my mother and she said: “I do not know, my child,
of what family thou art. In my youth, I was poor and served
as a maid many masters, and then I had thee: I therefore do
not know of what family thou art. My name is Jabala and thy
name is Satyakama/' I am therefore Satyakama Jabala, Master/
To him Master Gautama said: ‘Thou art a Brahman, since
thou hast not gone away from truth. Come, my son, I will
take thee as a student/ 4. 4
*
om. There lived once a boy, Svetaketu Aruneya by name.
One day his father spoke to him in this way: ‘Svetaketu, go
and become a student of sacred wisdom. There is no one in
our family who has not studied the holy Vedas and who
might only be given the name of Brahman by courtesy/
The boy left at the age of twelve and, having learnt the
Vedas, he returned home at the age of twenty-four, very
proud of his learning and having a great opinion of himself.
His father, observing this, said to him: ‘Svetaketu, my
boy, you seem to have a great opinion of yourself, you think
you are learned, and you are proud. Have you asked for
that knowledge whereby what is not heard is heard, what is
116
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
not thought is thought, and what is not known is known?’
‘What is that knowledge, father?’ asked Svetaketu.
‘Just as by knowing a lump of clay, my son, all that is
clay can be known, since any differences are only words and
die reality is clay;
Just as by knowing a piece of gold all that is gold can
be known, since any differences are only words and the
reality is only gold;
And just as by knowing a piece of iron all that is iron is
known, since any differences are only words and the reality
is only iron.’
Svetaketu said: ‘Certainly my honoured masters knew not
this themselves. If they had known, why would they not
have told me ? Explain this to me, father/
‘So be it, my child/ 6. i
*
‘Bring me a fruit from this banyan tree/
‘Here it is, father/
‘Break it/
‘It is broken. Sir/
‘What do you see in it?'
‘Very small seeds. Sir/
‘Break one of them, my son/
‘It is broken. Sir/
‘What do you see in it?'
‘Nothing at all. Sir/
Then his father spoke to him: ‘My son, from the very es¬
sence in the seed which you cannot see comes in truth this
vast banyan tree.
Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is
the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is
Atman, thou art that/
‘Explain more to me, father/ said Svetaketu.
‘So be it, my son.
Place this salt in water and come to me tomorrow
morning/
ii 7
THE UPANISHADS
Svetaketu did as he was commanded, and in the morning
his father said to him: ‘Bring me the salt you put into the
water last night.’
Svetaketu looked into the water, but could not find it, for
it had dissolved.
His father then said: ‘Taste the water from this side.
How is it?’
‘It is salt.*
‘Taste it from the middle. How is it?'
‘It is salt.’
‘Taste it from that side. How is it?*
‘It is salt.*
‘Look for the salt again and come again to me/
The son did so, saying: T cannot see the salt. I only see
water/
His father then said: ‘In the same way, O my son, you
cannot see the Spirit. But in truth he is here.
An invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the
whole universe. That is Reality. That is Truth, thou art
that/
‘Explain more to me, father/
‘So be it, my son.
Even as a man, O my son, who had been led blindfolded
from his land of the Gandharas and then left in a desert
place, might wander to the East and North and South, be¬
cause he had been taken blindfolded and left in an unknown
place, but if a good man took off his bandage and told him
“In that direction is the land of the Gandharas, go in that
direction,” then, if he were a wise man, he would go asking
from village to village until he would have reached his land
of the Gandharas; so it happens in this world to a man who
has a Master to direct him to the land of the Spirit. Such a
man can say: “I shall wander in this world until I attain
liberation; but then I shall go and reach my Home.”
This invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole
universe. That is Reality. That is Truth, thou art that/
6.12-14
118
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
Is there anything higher than thought?
Meditation is in truth higher than thought. The earth
seems to rest in silent meditation; and the waters and the
mountains and the sky and the heavens seem all to be in
meditation. Whenever a man attains greatness on this earth,
he has his reward according to his meditation. 7.6
*
When a man speaks words of truth he speaks words of
greatness: know the nature of truth.
When a man knows, he can speak truth. He who does
not know cannot speak truth: know the nature of know¬
ledge.
When a man thinks then he can know. He who does not
think does not know: know the nature of thought.
When a man has faith then he thinks. He who has not
faith does not think: know the nature of faith.
Where there is progress one sees and has faith. Where
there is no progress there is no faith: know the nature of
progress.
Where there is creation there is progress. Where there is
no creation there is no progress: know the nature of cre¬
ation.
Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no
joy there is no creation: know the nature of joy.
Where there is the Infinite there is joy. There is no joy
in the finite. Only in the Infinite there is joy: know the
nature of the Infinite.
Where nothing else is seen, or heard, or known there is
the Infinite. Where something else is seen, or heard, or
known there is the finite. The Infinite is immortal; but the
finite is mortal.
‘Where does the Infinite rest?* On his own greatness, or
not even on his own greatness.
In this world they call greatness the possession of cattle
and horses, elephants and gold, servants and wives, lands and
THE UPANISHADS
houses. But I do not call this greatness, for here one thing
depends upon another.
But the Infinite is above and below. North and South and
East and West. The Infinite is the whole universe.
I am above and below. North and South and East and
West. I am the whole universe.
Atman is above and below. North and South and East and
West. Atman is the whole universe.
He who sees, knows, and understands this, who finds in
Atman, the Spirit, his love and his pleasure and his union
and his joy, becomes a Master of himself. His freedom then
is infinite.
But those who see not this become the servants of other
masters and in the worlds that pass away attain not their
liberation. 7. 16-25
*
om. In the centre of the castle of Brahman, our own body,
there is a small shrine in the form of a lotus-flower, and
within can be found a small space. We should find who
dwells there, and we should want to know him.
And if anyone asks, ‘Who is he who dwells in a small
shrine in the form of a lotus-flower in the centre of the
castle of Brahman? Whom should we want to find and to
know ? * we can answer :
‘The little space within the heart is as great as this vast
universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun,
and the moon, and the stars; fire and lightning and winds are
there; and all that now is and all that is not: for the whole
universe is in Him and He dwells within our heart/
And if they should say, ‘If all things are in the castle of
Brahman, all beings and all desires, what remains when old
age overcomes the castle or when the life of the body is
gone?’ we can answer:
‘The Spirit who is in the body does not grow old and does
not die, and no one can ever kill the Spirit who is ever¬
lasting. This is the real castle of Brahman wherein dwells all
120
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
the love of the universe. It is Atman, pure Spirit, beyond sor¬
row, old age, and death; beyond evil and hunger and thirst.
It is Atman whose love is Truth, whose thoughts are Truth.
Even as here on earth the attendants of a king obey their
king, and are with him wherever he is and go with him
wherever he goes, so all love which is Truth and all thoughts
of Truth obey the Atman, the Spirit. And even as here on
earth all work done in time ends in time, so in the worlds to
come even the good works of the past pass away. Therefore
those who leave this world and have not found their soul,
and that love which is Truth, find not their freedom in other
worlds. But those who leave this world and have found their
soul and that love which is Truth, for them there is the
liberty of the Spirit, in this world and in the worlds to come/
8.1
#
There is a bridge between time and Eternity; and this
bridge is Atman, the Spirit of man. Neither day nor night
cross that bridge, nor old age, nor death nor sorrow.
Evil or sin cannot cross that bridge, because the world
of the Spirit is pure. This is why when this bridge has been
crossed, the eyes of the blind can see, the wounds of the
wounded are healed, and the sick man becomes whole from
his sickness.
To one who goes over that bridge, the night becomes like
unto day; because in the worlds of the Spirit there is a Light
which is everlasting. 8. 4. 1
♦
‘There is a Spirit which is pure and which is beyond old
age and death; and beyond hunger and thirst and sorrow.
This is Atman, the Spirit in man. All the desires of this Spirit
are Truth. It is this Spirit that we must find and know: man
must find his own Soul. He who has found and knows his
Soul has found all the worlds, has achieved all his desires/
Thus spoke Prajapati.
121
THE UPANISHADS
The gods and the devils heard these words and they said:
‘Come, let us go and find the Atman, let us find the Soul, so
that we may obtain all our desires/
Then Indra amongst the gods and Virochana amongst the
devils went without telling each other to see Prajapati, carry¬
ing fuel in their hands as a sign that they wanted to be his
pupils.
And so for thirty-two years they both lived with Prajapati
the life of religious students. At the end of that time Praja¬
pati asked them: ‘Why have you been living the life of
religious students ? *
Indra and Virochana answered: ‘People say that you know
the Atman, a Spirit which is pure and which is beyond old
age and death, and beyond hunger and thirst and sorrow, a
Spirit whose desires are Truth and whose thoughts are
Truth; and that you say that this Spirit must be found and
known, because when he is found all the worlds are found
and all desires are obtained. This is why we have been
living here as your pupils/
Prajapati said to them: ‘What you see when you look into
another person’s eyes, that is the Atman, immortal, beyond
fear, that is Brahman/
‘And who is he whom we see when we look in water or in
a mirror?’ they asked.
‘The same is seen in all/ he answered. And then he said
to them: ‘Go and look at yourselves in a bowl of water and
ask me anything you want to know about the Atman, your
own self/
The two went and looked in a bowl of water. ‘What do
you see?* asked Prajapati.
‘We see ourselves clearly from our hair down to our
nails/ they said.
‘Adorn yourselves and dress in clothes of beauty/ said
Prajapati, ‘and look at yourselves again in a bowl of
water/
They did so and looked again in the bowl of water. ‘What
do you see?’ asked Prajapati.
122
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
‘We see ourselves as we are/ they answered, ‘adorned and
dressed in clothes of beauty/
‘This is the Immortal beyond all fear: this is Brahman/
said Prajapati.
Then they left with peace in their hearts.
Prajapati looked at them and said: ‘They have seen but
they have not understood. They have not found the Atman,
their soul. Anyone who holds their belief, be he god or
devil, shall perish/
Then Virochana went to the devils full of self-satisfaction,
and gave them this teaching: ‘We ourselves are our own
bodies, and those must be made happy on earth. It is our
bodies that should be in glory, and it is for them that we
should have servants. He who makes his body happy, he
who for his body has servants, he is well in this world and
also in the world to come/
That is why when here on earth a man will not give any
gifts, when a man has no faith and will not sacrifice, people
say ‘This man is a devil’; for this is in truth their devilish
doctrine. They dress their dead bodies with fine garments,
and glorify them with perfumes and ornaments, thinking
that thereby they will conquer the other world.
But before Indra had returned to the gods he saw the dan¬
ger of this teaching and he thought: ‘If our self, our Atman,
is the body, and is dressed in clothes of beauty when the
body is, and is covered with ornaments when the body is,
then when the body is blind the self is blind, and when the
body is lame the self is lame; and when the body dies, our
self dies. I cannot find any joy in this doctrine/
He therefore went back to Prajapati with fuel in hand as
a sign that he wanted to be his pupil.
‘Why have you returned, great Maghavan?’ asked Praja¬
pati. ‘You went away with Virochana with peace in your
heart/
Indra replied: ‘Even as the Atman, the self, our soul, is
dressed in clothes of beauty when the body is, and is covered
with ornaments when the body is, when the body is blind
123
THE UPANISHADS
the self is blind, and when the body is lame the self is lame,
and when the body dies the self dies. I cannot find any joy
in this doctrine.’
’It is even so, Maghavan,’ said Prajapati. ‘I will teach you
a higher doctrine. Live with me for another thirty-two
years.’
Indra was with Prajapati for another thirty-two years, and
then Prajapati said: ’The spirit that wanders in joy in the
land of dreams, that is the Atman, that is the Immortal be¬
yond fear: that is Brahman.’
Then Indra left with peace in his heart; but before he had
returned to the gods he saw the danger of this teaching and
he thought: ‘Even if in dreams when the body is blind the
self is not blind, or when the body is lame the self is not
lame, and does not indeed suffer the limitations of the body,
so that when the body is killed the self is not killed; yet in
dreams the self may seem to be killed and to suffer, and to
feel much pain and weep. I cannot find any joy in this
doctrine.’
He therefore went with fuel in hand back to Prajapati,
who said to him: ‘You left, Maghavan, with peace in your
heart; why have you returned?’
Indra replied: ‘Even if in dreams when the body is blind
the Atman is not blind, or when the body is lame the Atman
is not lame, and indeed does not suffer the limitations of the
body, so that when the body is killed the self is not killed;
yet in dreams the self may seem to be killed and suffer, and
to feel much pain and weep. I cannot find any joy in this
doctrine.’ '
‘What you say is true, Maghavan,’ said Prajapati. ‘I will
teach you a higher doctrine. Live with me for another thirty-
two years.’
Indra was with Prajapati another thirty-two years.
And then Prajapati said:
‘The spirit who is sleeping without dreams in the silent
quietness of deep sleep, that is the Atman, that is the Im¬
mortal beyond fear: that is Brahman.’
124
FROM THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD
Then Indra left with peace in his heart, but before he had
reached the gods he saw the danger of this teaching and he
thought: ‘If a man is in deep sleep without dreams he
cannot even say “I am” and he cannot know anything. He
in truth falls into nothingness. I cannot find any joy in this
doctrine/ And he went again to Prajapati with fuel in hand.
‘Why have you returned, Maghavan? You left with peace
in your heart/ asked Prajapati.
Indra replied: ‘If a man is in deep sleep without dreams
he cannot even say ‘‘I am” and he cannot know anything.
He in truth falls into nothingness. I cannot find any joy in
this doctrine/
‘What you say is true, Maghavan/ said Prajapati. ‘I will
teach you a higher doctrine, the highest that can be taught.
Live with me now for five years/
And Indra lived with Prajapati for five years. He lived
with Prajapati a total of years one hundred and one. This
is why people say: ‘Great Indra lived with Prajapati the life
of chastity of a Brahmacharya spiritual student for one hun¬
dred and one years/
Prajapati then spoke to Indra:
‘It is true that the body is mortal, that it is under the
power of death; but it is also the dwelling of Atman, the
Spirit of immortal life. The body, the house of the Spirit, is
under the power of pleasure and pain; and if a man is ruled
by his body then this man can never be free. But when a
man is in the joy of the Spirit, in the Spirit which is ever
free, then this man is free from all bondage, the bondage of
pleasure and pain.
The wind has not a body, nor lightning, nor thunder, nor
clouds; but when those rise into the higher spheres then
they find their body of light. In the same way, when the
soul is in silent quietness it arises and leaves the body, and
reaching the Spirit Supreme finds there its body of light. It
is the land of infinite liberty where, beyond its mortal body,
the Spirit of man is free. There can he laugh and sing of his
glory with ethereal women and friends. He enjoys ethereal
12 5
THE UPANISHADS
chariots and forgets the cart of his body on earth. For as
a beast is attached to a cart, so on earth the soul is attached
to a body.
Know that when the eye looks into space it is the Spirit
of man that sees: the eye is only the organ of sight. When
one says “I feel this perfume,” it is the Spirit that feels:
he uses the organ of smell. When one says ”1 am speaking,”
it is the Spirit that speaks: the voice is the organ of speech.
When one says “I am hearing,” it is the Spirit that hears:
the ear is the organ of hearing. And when one says ”1
think,” it is the Spirit that thinks: the mind is the organ
of thought. It is because of the light of the Spirit that the
human mind can see, and can think, and enjoy this world.
All the gods in the heaven of Brahman adore in contem¬
plation their Infinite Spirit Supreme. This is why they have
all joy, and all the worlds and all desires. And the man who
on this earth finds and knows Atman, his own Self, has all
his holy desires and all the worlds and all joy.*
Thus spoke Prajapati. Thus in truth spoke Prajapati.
8.7-12
From the
BRIHAD-ARANYAKA UPANISHAD
From delusion lead me to Truth.
From darkness lead me to Light.
From death led me to immortality. i. 3. 28
This universe is a trinity and this is made of name, form,
and action.
The source of all names is the word, for it is by the word
that all names are spoken. The word is behind all names,
even as Brahman is behind the word.
The source of all forms is the eye, for it is by the eye that
all forms are seen. The eye is behind all forms, even as
Brahman is behind the eye.
The source of all actions is the body, for it is by the body
that all actions are done. The body is behind all actions, even
as Brahman is behind the body.
Those three are one, atman, the Spirit of life; and
atman, although one, is those three.
The Immortal is veiled by the real. The Spirit of life is the
immortal. Name and form are the real, and by them the
Spirit is veiled. 1. 6
*
Once Gargya, a Brahmin proud of his learning, went to
Ajatasatru, the king of Benares and said: I am willing to
teach you about Brahman.
I will give you a thousand gifts, if you can, said the king,
and then the people will run and say: ‘Our king’s bounty
is as great as that of king Janaka.’
So Gargya began and said: There is a spirit in the sun high
above, and that spirit I adore as Brahman.
How can you say that? replied Ajatasatru. I only consider
127
THE UPANISHADS
the sun as the ruler of radiance, the source of all beings on
earth.
Then Gargya said: There is a spirit in the moon far away,
and that spirit I adore as Brahman.
Ajatasatru answered: I only consider the moon as the
ruler of the sacred Soma-wine dressed in whiteness.
There is a spirit in lightning, then said Gargya, and that
spirit I adore as Brahman.
I only consider lightning, said Ajatasatru, as a thing of
brightness.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in the ethereal spaces, and
that spirit I adore as Brahman.
How can you say that? replied Ajatasatru. I only consider
the ethereal space as a non-evolving fulness.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in the wind, and that spirit
I adore as Brahman.
Ajatasatru answered: I only consider the winds as the
unconquerable army of powerful Indra.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in fire, and that spirit I
adore as Brahman.
I only consider fire, said Ajatasatru, as a great power.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in water, and that spirit I
adore as Brahman.
Ajatasatru answered: I only consider water as a beautiful
reflection.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in a mirror, and that spirit
I adore as Brahman.
I only consider a mirror, said Ajatasatru, as something
brilliant.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in the sound of the steps
of man, and that spirit I adore as Brahman.
How can you say that? said Ajatasatru. I only consider
that sound as a sign of life.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in the quarters of heaven,
and that spirit I adore as Brahman.
I only consider the quarters of heaven, said Ajatasatru,
as friends who are ever with us.
128
FROM THE BRIHAD-ARANYAKA UPANISHAD
There is a spirit which is a shadow, said Gargya, and
that spirit I adore as Brahman.
How can you say that? said Ajatasatru. I only consider
this shadow as death.
Gargya said: There is a spirit in the human body, and
that spirit I adore as Brahman.
I only consider a body, said Ajatasatru, as the covering
of a soul.
Is this all ? asked Ajatasatru.
Gargya replied: This is all.
If this is all, we know nothing, said Ajatasatru.
On hearing this, Gargya said: Allow me to be your pupil.
It is indeed contrary to custom, said Ajatasatru, that a
Brahmin should go to a Kshatriya for instruction. But come,
I will in truth teach you about Brahman.
And he arose and took him by the hand, and the two walk¬
ing together came up to a man who was in deep sleep. They
called him by different names such as ‘You great man dress¬
ed in whiteness, you Soma the king', but he did not rise.
Then Ajatasatru shook him with his hand and he awoke.
When this man was asleep, said Ajatasatru, where had
his consciousness gone; and when he awoke, wherefrom did
it return ? But Gargya did not know.
Then spoke Ajatasatru:
When a man is asleep his soul takes the consciousness of
the several senses and goes to rest with them on the Supreme
Spirit who is in the human heart. When all the senses are
quiet the man is said to be asleep. Then the soul holds the
powers of life - breath, voice, eye, ear, and mind - and they
rest in quietness.
When the soul is in the land of dreams, then all the
worlds belong to the soul. A man can be a great king or a
great Brahmin, and live in conditions high or low. And even
as a great king of this earth takes his attendants with him
and goes about his dominions wherever he desires, so the
soul of man takes the powers of life with him and wanders
in the land of dreams according to his desires.
129
THE UPANISHADS
When a man is in deep sleep and all consciousness is
gone through the seventy-two thousand little channels which
lead to the centre of the heart from its circumference, then
the soul rests in the covering around the heart. And as a
prince, or a king, or a great Brahmin might find the peace of
a fulness of joy, so the soul of man has now found peace.
Even as airy threads come from a spider, or small sparks
come from a fire, so from Atman, the Spirit in man, come all
the powers of life, all the worlds, all the gods: all beings. To
know the Atman is to know the mystery of the Upanishads :
the Truth of truth. The powers of life are truth and their
Truth is Atman, the Spirit. 2. i. i-2o
*
‘Maitreyi/ said one day Yajnavalkya to his wife, T am
going to leave this present life, and retire to a life of medita¬
tion. Let me settle my possessions upon you and Katya-
yani/
‘If all the earth filled with riches belonged to me, O my
Lord/ said Maitreyi, ‘should I thereby attain life eternal?*
‘Certainly not/ said Yajnavalkya, ‘your life would only
be as is the life of wealthy people. In wealth there is no hope
of life eternal/
Maitreyi said: ‘What should I then do with possessions
that cannot give me life eternal? Give me instead your
knowledge, o my Lord/
On hearing this Yajnavalkya exclaimed: ‘Dear you are
to me, beloved, and dear are the words you say. Come, sit
down and I will teach; but hear my words with deep atten¬
tion/
Then spoke Yajnavalkya:
‘In truth, it is not for the love of a husband that a husband
is dear; but for the love of the Soul in the husband that a
husband is dear.
It is not for the love of a wife that a wife is dear; but for
the love of the Soul in the wife that a wife is dear.
130
FROM THE BRIHAD-ARANYAKA UPANISHAD
It is not for the love of children that children are dear;
but for the love of the Soul in children that children are
dear.
It is not for the love of riches that riches are dear; but for
the love of the Soul in riches that riches are dear.
It is not for the love of religion that religion is dear; but
for the love of the Soul in religion that religion is dear.
It is not for the love of power that power is dear; but
for the love of the Soul in power that power is dear.
It is not for the love of the heavens that the heavens are
dear; but for the love of the Soul in the heavens that the
heavens are dear.
It is not for the love of the gods that the gods are dear;
but for the love of the Soul in the gods that the gods are
dear.
It is not for the love of creatures that creatures are dear;
but for the love of the Soul in creatures that creatures are
dear.
It is not for the love of the all that the all is dear; but for
the love of the Soul in the all that the all is dear.
It is the Soul, the Spirit, the Self, that must be seen and
be heard and have our thoughts and meditation, O Maitreyi.
When the Soul is seen and heard, is thought upon and is
known, then all that is becomes known.
Religion will abandon the man who thinks that religion
is apart from the Soul.
Power will abandon the man who thinks that power is
apart from the Soul.
The gods will abandon the man who thinks that the gods
are apart from the Soul.
Creatures will abandon the man who thinks that creatures
are apart from the Soul.
And all will abandon the man who thinks that the all is
apart from the Soul.
Because religion, power, heavens, beings, gods and all rest
on the Soul.
As when a drum is being beaten its sounds cannot be
THE UPANISHADS
holden, but by seizing the drum or the beater of the drum
the sounds are holden;
As when a conch is being blown its sounds cannot be
holden, but by seizing the conch or the blower of the conch
the sounds are holden;
As when a lute is being played its sounds cannot be
holden, but by seizing the lute or the player of the lute the
sounds are holden;
So it is with the Spirit, the Soul.
As when a lump of salt is thrown into water and therein
being dissolved it cannot be grasped again, but wherever
the water is taken it is found salt, in the same way, O
Maitreyi, the supreme Spirit is an ocean of pure conscious¬
ness boundless and infinite. Arising out of the elements, into
them it returns again: there is no consciousness after death/
Thus spoke Yajnavalkya.
Thereupon Maitreyi said: 'I am amazed, O my Lord, to
hear that after death there is no consciousness/
To this Yajnavalkya replied: T am not speaking words of
amazement; but sufficient for wisdom is what I say.
For where there seems to be a duality, there one sees an¬
other, one hears another, one feels another’s perfume, one
thinks of another, one knows another. But when all has
become Spirit, one’s own Self, how and whom could one see?
How and whom could one hear? How and of whom could
one feel the perfume? How and to whom could one speak?
How and whom could one know? How can one know him
who knows all? How can the Knower be known?’ 2. 4
THE SUPREME TEACHING
PROLOGUE
To Janaka king of Videha came once Yajnavalkya meaning
to keep in silence the supreme secret wisdom. But once,
when Janaka and Yajnavalkya had been holding a discussion
at the offering of the sacred fire, Yajnavalkya promised to
grant the king any wish and the king chose to ask questions
according to his desire. Therefore Janaka, king of Videha, be¬
gan and asked this question:
Yajnavalkya, what is the light of man?
The sun is his light, O king, he answered. It is by the
light of the sun that a man rests, goes forth, does his work,
and returns.
This is so in truth, Yajnavalkya. And when the sun is set,
what is then the light of man ?
The moon then becomes his light, he replied. It is by
the light of the moon that a man rests, goes forth, does his
work, and returns.
This is so in truth, Yajnavalkya. And when the sun and
the moon are set, what is then the light of man ?
Fire then becomes his light. It is by the light of fire that
a man rests, goes forth, does his work, and returns.
And when the sun and the moon are set, Yajnavalkya,
and the fire has sunk down, what is then the light of man ?
Voice then becomes his light; and by the voice as his
light he rests, goes forth, does his work and returns. There¬
fore in truth, O king, when a man cannot see even his own
hand, if he hears a voice after that he wends his way.
This is so in truth, Yajnavalkya. And when the sun is set,
Yajnavalkya, and the moon is also set, and the fire has
sunk down, and the voice is silent, what is then the light of
man?
133
THE UPANISHADS
The Soul then becomes his light; and by the light of the
Soul he rests, goes forth, does his work, and returns.
What is the Soul ? asked then the king of Videha.
WAKING AND DREAMING
Yajnavalkya spoke:
It is the consciousness of life. It is the light of the heart.
For ever remaining the same, the Spirit of man wanders in
the world of waking life and also in the world of dreams. He
seems to wander in thought. He seems to wander in joy.
But in the rest of deep sleep he goes beyond this world
and beyond its fleeting forms.
For in truth when the Spirit of man comes to life and
takes a body, then he is joined with mortal evils; but when
at death he goes beyond, then he leaves evil behind.
The Spirit of man has two dwellings: this world and the
world beyond. There is also a third dwelling-place: the land
of sleep and dreams. Resting in this borderland the Spirit of
man can behold his dwelling in this world and in the other
world afar, and wandering in this borderland he beholds
behind him the sorrows of this world and in front of him he
sees the joys of the beyond.
DREAMS
When the Spirit of man retires to rest, he takes with him
materials from this all-containing world, and he creates and
destroys in his own glory and radiance. Then the Spirit of
man shines in his own light.
In that land there are no chariots, no teams of horses, nor
roads; but he creates his own chariots, his teams of horses,
and roads. There are no joys in that region, and no pleasures
nor delights; but he creates his own joys, his own pleasures
and delights. In that land there are no lakes, no lotus-ponds,
nor streams; but he creates his own lakes, his lotus-ponds,
and streams. For the Spirit of man is Creator.
It was said in these verses:
Abandoning his body by the gate of dreams, the Spirit be-
134
THE SUPREME TEACHING
holds in awaking his senses sleeping. Then he takes his own light
and returns to his home, this Spirit of golden radiance, the
wandering swan everlasting.
Leaving his nest below in charge of the breath of life, the
immortal Spirit soars afar from his nest. He moves in all regions
wherever he loves, this Spirit of golden radiance, the wander¬
ing swan everlasting.
And in the region of dreams, wandering above and below,
the Spirit makes for himself innumerable subtle creations.
Sometimes he seems to rejoice in the love of fairy beauties,
sometimes he laughs or beholds awe-inspiring terrible visions.
People see his field of pleasure; but he can never be seen.
So they say that one should not wake up a person sud¬
denly, for hard to heal would he be if the Spirit did not
return. They say also that dreams are like the waking state,
for what is seen when awake is seen again in a dream. What
is true is that the Spirit shines in his own light.
‘I give you a thousand gifts/ said then the king of Videha,
‘but tell me of the higher wisdom that leads to liberation/
When the Spirit of man has had his joy in the land of
dreams, and in his wanderings there has beholden good and
evil, he then returns to this world of waking. But whatever
he has seen does not return with him, for the Spirit of man
is free.
And when he has had his joy in this world of waking and
in his wanderings here has beholden good and evil, he re¬
turns by the same path again to the land of dreams.
Even as a great fish swims along the two banks of a
river, first along the eastern bank and then the western bank,
in the same way the Spirit of man moves along beside his
two dwellings: this waking world and the land of sleep and
dreams.
DEEP SLEEP
Even as a falcon or an eagle, after soaring in the sky, folds
his wings for he is weary, and flies down to his nest, even so
the Spirit of man hastens to that place of rest where the
soul has no desires and the Spirit sees no dreams.
135
THE UPANISHADS
What was seen in a dream, all the fears of waking, such
as being slain or oppressed, pursued by an elephant or falling
into an abyss, is seen to be a delusion. But when like a king
or a god the Spirit feels ‘ I am all/ then he is in the highest
world. It is the world of the Spirit, where there are no de¬
sires, all evil has vanished, and there is no fear.
As a man in the arms of the woman beloved feels only
peace all around, even so the Soul in the embrace of Atman,
the Spirit of vision, feels only peace all around. All desires
are attained, since the Spirit that is all has been attained, no
desires are there, and there is no sorrow.
There a father is a father no more, nor is a mother there
a mother; the worlds are no longer worlds, nor the gods are
gods any longer. There the Vedas disappear; and a thief is
not a thief, nor is a slayer a slayer; the outcast is not an out¬
cast, nor the base-born a base-born; the pilgrim is not a
pilgrim and the hermit is not a hermit; because the Spirit of
man has crossed the lands of good and evil, and has passed
beyond the sorrows of the heart.
There the Spirit sees not, but though seeing not he sees.
How could the Spirit not see if he is the All ? But there is no
duality there, nothing apart for him to see.
There the Spirit feels no perfumes, yet feeling no per¬
fumes he feels them. How could the Spirit feel no perfumes
if he is the All ? But there is no duality there, no perfumes,
apart for him to feel.
There the Spirit tastes not, yet tasting not he tastes. How
could the Spirit not taste if he is the All? But there is no
duality there, nothing apart for him to taste.
There the Spirit speaks not, yet speaking not he speaks.
How could the Spirit not speak if he is the All ? But there is
no duality there, nothing apart for him to speak to.
There the Spirit hears not, yet hearing not he hears. How
could the Spirit not hear if he is the All? But there is no
duality there, nothing apart for him to hear.
There the Spirit thinks not, yet thinking not he thinks.
136
THE SUPREME TEACHING
How could the Spirit not think if he is the All ? But there is
no duality there, nothing apart for him to think.
There the Spirit touches not, yet touching not he touches.
How could the Spirit not touch if he is the All? But there
is no duality there, nothing apart for him to touch.
There the Spirit knows not, yet knowing not he knows.
How could the Spirit not know if he is the All ? But there is
no duality there, nothing apart for him to know.
For only where there seems to be a duality, there one
sees another, one feels another’s perfume, one tastes another,
one speaks to another, one listens to another, one touches
another and one knows another.
But in the ocean of Spirit the seer is alone beholding his
own immensity.
This is the world of Brahman, O king. This is the path
supreme. This is the supreme treasure. This is the world
supreme. This is the supreme joy. On a portion of that joy
all other beings live.
He who in this world attains success and wealth, who is
Lord of men and enjoys all human pleasures, has reached the
supreme human joy.
But a hundred times greater than the human joy is the
joy of those who have attained the heaven of the ancestors.
A hundred times greater than the joy of the heaven of the
ancestors is the joy of the heaven of the celestial beings.
A hundred times greater than the joy of the heaven of the
celestial beings is the joy of the gods who have attained
divinity through holy works.
A hundred times greater than the joy of the gods who
have attained divinity through holy works is the joy of the
gods who were bom divine, and of him who has sacred wis¬
dom, who is pure and free from desire.
A hundred times greater than the joy of the gods who
were bom divine is the joy of the world of the Lord of
Creation, and of him who has sacred wisdom, who is pure
and free from desire.
137
THE UPANISHADS
And a hundred times greater than the joy of the Lord of
Creation is the joy of the world of Brahman, and of him who
has sacred wisdom, who is pure and free from desire.
This is the joy supreme, this is the world of the Spirit, O
king.
*1 give you a thousand gifts/ said then the king of Videha:
‘but tell me of the higher wisdom that leads to liberation/
And Yajnavalkya was afraid and thought: Intelligent is
the king. He has cut me off from all retreat.
When the Spirit of man has had his joy in the land of
dreams, and in his wanderings there has beholden good and
evil, he returns once again to this the world of waking.
DEATH
Even as a heavy-laden cart moves on groaning, even
so the cart of the human body, wherein lives the Spirit,
moves on groaning when a man is giving up the breath of
life.
When the body falls into weakness on account of old age
or disease, even as a mango-fruit, or the fruit of the holy
fig-tree, is loosened from its stem, so the Spirit of man is
loosened from the human body and returns by the same way
to Life, wherefrom he came.
As when a king is coming, the nobles and officers, the
charioteers and heads of the village prepare for him food and
drink and royal lodgings, saying ‘The king is coming, the
king is approaching/ in the same way all the powers of life
wait for him who knows this and say: ‘The Spirit is com¬
ing, the Spirit is approaching/
And as when a king is going to depart, the nobles and
officers, the charioteers and the heads of the village assemble
around him, even so all the powers of life gather about the
soul when a man is giving up the breath of life.
When the human soul falls into weakness and into seem¬
ing unconsciousness all the powers of life assemble around.
The soul gathers these elements of life-fire and enters into
138
THE SUPREME TEACHING
the heart. And when the Spirit that lives in the eye has re¬
turned to his own source, then the soul knows no more
forms.
Then a person’s powers of life become one and people
say: ‘he sees no more.’ His powers of life become one and
people say: ‘he feels perfumes no more.’ His powers of
life become one and people say: ‘he tastes no more.’ His
powers of life become one and people say: ‘he speaks no
more.’ His powers of life become one and people say: ‘he
hears no more.’ His powers of life become one and people
say: ‘he thinks no more.’ His powers of life become one and
people say: ‘he touches no more.’ His powers of life become
one and people say: ‘he knows no more.’
Then at the point of the heart a light shines, and this light
illumines the soul on its way afar. When departing, by the
head, or by the eye or other parts of the body, life arises and
follows the soul, and the powers of life follow life. The
soul becomes conscious and enters into Consciousness. His
wisdom and works take him by the hand, and the knowledge
known of old.
Even as a caterpillar, when coming to the end of a blade
of grass, reaches out to another blade of grass and draws it¬
self over to it, in the same way the Soul, leaving the body
and unwisdom behind, reaches out to another body and
draws itself over to it.
And even as a worker in gold, taking an old ornament,
moulds it into a form newer and fairer, even so the Soul,
leaving the body and unwisdom behind, goes into a form
newer and fairer: a form like that of the ancestors in heaven,
or of the celestial beings, or of the gods of light, or of the
Lord of Creation, or of Brahma the Creator supreme, or a
form of other beings.
The Soul is Brahman, the Eternal.
It is made of consciousness and mind: it is made of life
and vision. It is made of the earth and the waters: it is made
of air and space. It is made of light and darkness: it is made
of desire and peace. It is made of anger and love: it is made
139
THE UPANISHADS
of virtue and vice. It is made of all that is near: it is made of
all that is afar. It is made of all.
KARMA
According as a man acts and walks in the path of life, so
he becomes. He that does good becomes good; he that does
evil becomes evil. By pure actions he becomes pure; by evil
actions he becomes evil.
And they say in truth that a man is made of desire. As his
desire is, so is his faith. As his faith is, so are his works. As
his works are, so he becomes. It was said in this verse:
A man comes with his actions to the end of his determination.
Reaching the end of the journey begun by his works on
earth, from that world a man returns to this world of human
action.
Thus far for the man who lives under desire.
LIBERATION
Now as to the man who is free from desire.
He who is free from desire, whose desire finds fulfilment,
since the Spirit is his desire, the powers of life leave him not
He becomes one with Brahman, the Spirit, and enters into
the Spirit. There is a verse that says:
When all desires that cling to the heart disappear, then a
mortal becomes immortal, and even in this life attains Libera¬
tion.
As the slough of a snake lies dead upon an ant-hill, even
so the mortal body; but the incorporeal immortal Spirit is
life and light and Eternity.
Concerning this are these verses:
I have found the small path known of old that stretches far
140
THE SUPREME TEACHING
away. By it the sages who know the Spirit arise to the regions
of heaven and thence beyond to liberation.
It is adorned with white and blue, yellow and green and red.
This is the path of the seers of Brahman, of those whose actions
are pure and who have inner fire and light.
Into deep darkness fall those who follow action. Into
deeper darkness fall those who follow knowledge.
There are worlds of no joy, regions of utter darkness. To
those worlds go after death those who in their unwisdom
have not wakened up to light.
When awake to the vision of the Atman, our own Self,
when a man in truth can say: T am He’, what desires could
lead him to grieve in fever for the body ?
He who in the mystery of life has found the Atman, the
Spirit, and has awakened to his light, to him as creator be¬
longs the world of the Spirit, for he is this world.
While we are here in this life we may reach the light of
wisdom; and if we reach it not, how deep is the darkness.
Those who see the light enter life eternal: those who live in
darkness enter into sorrow.
When a man sees the Atman, the Self in him, God him¬
self, the Lord of what was and of what shall be, he fears no
more.
Before whom the years roll and all the days of the years,
him the gods adore as the Light of all lights, as Life im¬
mortal ;
In whom the five hosts of beings rest and the vastness of
space, him I know as Atman immortal, him I know as eternal
Brahman.
Those who know him who is the eye of the eye, the ear
of the ear, the mind of the mind and the life of life, they
know Brahman from the beginning of time.
Even by the mind this truth must be seen: there are not
many but only One. Who sees variety and not the Unity
wanders on from death to death.
Behold then as One the infinite and eternal One who is
in radiance beyond space, the everlasting Soul never bom.
141
THE UPANISHADS
Knowing this, let the lover of Brahman follow wisdom.
Let him not ponder on many words, for many words are
weariness.
Yajnavalkya went on:
This is the great Atman, the Spirit never bom, the con¬
sciousness of life. He dwells in our own hearts as ruler of all,
master of all, lord of all. His greatness becomes not greater
by good actions nor less great by evil actions. He is the Lord
supreme, sovereign and protector of all beings, the bridge
that keeps the worlds apart that they fall not into con¬
fusion.
The lovers of Brahman seek him through the sacred
Vedas, through holy sacrifices, charity, penance and abstin¬
ence. He who knows him becomes a Muni, a sage. Pilgrims
follow their life of wandering in their longing for his king¬
dom.
Knowing this, the sages of old desired not offspring.
‘What shall we do with offspring/ said they, ‘we who
possess the Spirit, the whole world ? ’ Rising above the desire
of sons, wealth, and the world they followed the life of the
pilgrim. For the desire of sons and wealth is the desire of the
world. And this desire is vanity.
But the Spirit is not this, is not this. He is incomprehen¬
sible, for he cannot be comprehended. He is imperishable,
for he cannot pass away. He has no bonds of attachment, for
he is free; and free from all bonds he is beyond suffering and
fear.
A man who knows this is not moved by grief or exulta¬
tion on account of the evil or good he has done. He goes be¬
yond both. What is done or left undone grieves him not.
This was said in this sacred verse :
The everlasting greatness of the seer of Brahman is not
greater or less great by actions. Let man find the path of the
Spirit: who has found this path becomes free from the bonds
of evil.
Who knows this and has found peace, he is the lord
of himself, his is a calm endurance, and calm concentra-
142
THE SUPREME TEACHING
tion. In himself he sees the Spirit, and he sees the Spirit as
all.
He is not moved by evil: he removes evil. He is not burn¬
ed by sin: he burns all sin. And he goes beyond evil, beyond
passion, and beyond doubts, for he sees the Eternal.
This is the world of the Spirit, O king. Thus spoke
Yajnavalkya.
O Master. Yours is my kingdom and I am yours, said
then the king of Videha.
EPILOGUE
This is the great never-born Spirit of man, enjoyer of the
food of life, and giver of treasure. He finds this treasure who
knows this.
This is the great never-born Spirit of man, never old and
immortal. This is the Spirit of the universe, a refuge from
all fear. Brihad. Up. 4. 3-4
THE PENGUIN CLASSICS
The Most Recent Volumes
LIVY
The War with Hannibal. Betty Radice
BALZAC
Cousin Bette. M. A. Crawford
PLAUTUS
The Pot of Gold and Other Plays. E. F. Watling
TERENCE
The Brothers and Other Plays. Betty Radice
aristotle/horace/longinus
Classical Literary Criticism. T. S. Dorsch
POEMS OF THE LATE T’ANG
A. C. Graham
PLUTARCH
The Makers of Rome. Ian Scott-Kilvert
MAUPASSANT
A Woman’s Life. H. N. P. Sloman
THE UPANISHADS
Juan Mascard
PETRONIUS
The Satyricon. J. P. Sullivan
For a complete list of books available please write to Penguin Books
whose address can be found on the back of the title page
Classics
THE UPANISHADS
TRANSLATED AND SELECTED BY JUAN MASCARO
The Upanishads represent for the Hindu approxi¬
mately what the New Testament represents for the
Christian. The earliest of these spiritual treatises,
which vary greatly in length, were put down in
Sanskrit between 800 and 400 B.C.
This selection from twelve Upanishads, with its
illuminating introduction by Juan Mascaro, whose
translation of the Bhagavad Gita is already in the
Penguin Classics, reveals the paradoxical variety and
unity, the great questions and simple answers, the
spiritual wisdom and romantic imagination of these
‘Himalayas of the Soul’.
‘Your translation . . . has caught from those great
words the inner voice that goes beyond the
boundaries of words’ Rabindranath Tagore in a
letter to the translator
The cover shows an architectural detail ( Udayapur)
of the period between the ninth and thirteenth
centuries, in the Gwalior Archaeological Museum,
India (Snark International)
