Brahma Knowledge: Part II. Some Texts of the Vendanta: XIV: The False and the True

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XIV. The False and the True 2

"The Self, free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, hungerless, thirstless, real of desire, real of purpose, this should men inquire after, yea, should seek to know. All worlds he wins and all desires who traces out and understands the Self," said Prajā-pati.

Both the gods and the demons marked this. "Come," said they, "let us seek out this Self by seeking out which one wins all worlds and all desires." So Indra of the gods and Virochana of the demons set out on a travel, and without being in compact they both came with faggots

in their hands 1 to Prajā-pati, and stayed as Brahman-students for two-and-thirty years.

Then said Prajā-pati to them, "What would ye, that ye have stayed?"

And they said, "The Self, free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, hungerless, thirstless, real of desire, real of purpose, this should men inquire after, yea, should seek to know. All worlds he wins and all desires who traces out and understands this Self. This they report to be thy saying, sir; in desire thereof have we stayed."

Then Prajā-pati said to them, "The Being 2 who is seen in the eye is the Self"—thus he spake—"this is the deathless, the fearless; this is Brahma."

"Then who is he, sir, that is discerned in water and in a mirror?"

"It is he that is discerned in all these beings."

"Look upon yourselves in a basin of water," said he, "and tell me what of yourselves you do not perceive."

They looked in a basin of water; and Prajā-pati said to them, "What see you?"

"We see in this image the whole of our selves, sir," said they, "even to our hair and nails."

Then Prajā-pati said to them, "Put on goodly

ornament and fine clothing, attire yourselves, and look in the basin of water."

They put on goodly ornament and fine clothing, attired themselves, and looked in the basin of water. Prajā-pati said to them, "What see you?"

They said, "Even as we stand here wearing goodly ornament and fine clothing, and attired, sir, so are we there wearing goodly ornament and fine clothing, and attired, sir."

"This is the Self," said he, "this is the deathless, the fearless; this is Brahma."

The twain travelled away content of heart. Gazing after them, Prajā-pati said: "They are travelling away, yet have they not found and traced out the Self. They who shall follow this doctrine, be they the gods or the demons, shall be brought low."

Now Virochana came content of heart to the demons, and declared to them this doctrine: "The Self 1 should be gladdened here, the Self should be tended; he that gladdens the Self here and tends the Self gains both this world and that beyond." Therefore it is that here even now men say of one who is not bountiful nor believing nor given to sacrifice, "Fie, a demon!" For this is the doctrine of the demons; and when one has died men furnish his body with food and clothing

and ornament, imagining that therewith they will win the world beyond.

But Indra, ere he reached the gods, foresaw this peril: "Even as this [Self] 1 wears goodly ornament when this body wears goodly ornament, is finely clothed when it is finely clothed, and is attired when it is attired, so likewise this [Self] becomes blind when this [body] is blind, lame when it is lame, maimed when it is maimed; yea, it perishes with the perishing of this body. I see no pleasure herein."

He came back, faggots in hand. Prajā-pati said to him, "Maghavā, as thou didst depart content of heart with Virochana, what wouldst thou, that thou hast come back?"

And he said: "Even as this [Self], sir, wears goodly ornament when this body wears goodly ornament, is finely clothed when it is finely clothed, and is attired when it is attired, so likewise this [Self] becomes blind when this [body] is blind, lame when it is lame, maimed when it is maimed; yea, it perishes with the perishing of this body. I see no pleasure herein."

"Thus indeed it is, Maghavā," said he; "but I will teach thee yet more of it. Stay another two-and-thirty years."

He stayed another two-and-thirty years. Then he said to him: "He who wanders about rejoicing

in dreams, 1 is the Self"—thus he spake "this is the deathless, the fearless; this is Brahma."

He departed content of heart. But ere he reached the gods, he foresaw this peril: "This [Self] indeed becomes not blind though the body be blind, nor lame though it be lame, nor is it defiled by the defilement thereof; it is not stricken by the smiting thereof, nor is it lamed with the lameness thereof; but nevertheless it is as if it were stricken, as if it were hustled, as if it were feeling unpleasantness, as if it were weeping. I see no pleasure herein."

He came back, faggots in hand. Prajā-pati said to him, "Maghavā, as thou didst depart content of heart, what wouldst thou, that thou hast come back?"

And he said: "This [Self] indeed becomes not blind though the body be blind, nor lame though it be lame, nor is it defiled by the defilement thereof; it is not stricken by the smiting thereof, nor is it lamed with the lameness thereof; but nevertheless it is as if it were stricken, as if it were hustled, as if it were feeling unpleasantness, as if it were weeping. I see no pleasure herein."

"Thus indeed it is, Maghavā," said he; "but I will teach thee yet more of it. Stay another two-and-thirty years."

He stayed another two-and-thirty years. Then he said to him: "When one sleeps utterly and in perfect peace so that he beholds no dream, 1 this is the Self"—thus he spake—"this is the deathless, the fearless; this is Brahma."

He departed content of heart. But before he reached the gods, he foresaw this peril: "Truly one thus 2 knows no longer himself as "I am," nor these creatures. He has sunk into destruction. I see no pleasure herein."

He came back, faggots in hand. Prajā-pati said to him, "Maghavā, as thou didst depart content of heart, what wouldst thou, that thou hast come back?"

And he said: "Truly, sir, one thus knows no longer himself as "I am," nor these creatures. He has sunk into destruction. I see no pleasure herein."

"Thus indeed it is, Maghavā," said he; "but I will teach thee yet more of it; it is nowhere but in this. Stay another five years."

He stayed another five years. These amount to one hundred and one years; so men say, "Verily Maghavā stayed for one hundred and

one years as Brahman-student with Prajā-pati." Then he said to him: "Verily, Maghavā, this body is mortal, held in the grasp of Death; but it is the seat of this deathless, bodiless self. 1 The Embodied is held in the grasp of joy and sorrow; for what is embodied cannot be quit of joy and sorrow. But joy and sorrow touch not what is unembodied. Unembodied is the wind; unembodied are the cloud, the lightning, the thunder. As these, rising up from yonder ether, pass into the Supreme Light and issue forth each in its own semblance, so likewise this perfect Peace, rising up from this body, passes into the Supreme Light and issues forth in its own semblance. This is the Highest Spirit…Now when the eye is fixed upon the ether,

that is the spirit in the eye [which sees]; the eye is but a means to see. When one thinks that he will smell a thing, it is the Self; the nostril is but a means to smell. When one thinks that he will utter a word, it is the Self; speech is but a means to utterance. When one thinks that he will hear a thing, it is the Self; the ear is but a means to hearing. When one thinks that he will think of a thing, it is the Self; the mind is his divine eye; with this divine eye he sees these desires and rejoices therein…All worlds he wins and all desires who traces out and understands the Self." Thus spake Prajā-pati.

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Footnotes

91:1 This verse is Ṛig-veda, i. 189, I.

91:2 Chhāndogya Upanishad, VIII. vii.-xii.

92:1 See above, p. 85.

92:2 Purusha; cf. extract i., p. 56. This answer of Prajā-pati conveys the materialistic view of the Self, viz. as the visible material body, Elsewhere Purusha regularly denotes the soul.

93:1 The physical self, i.e. the conception of the material body.

94:1 The physical self, i.e. the conception of the material body.

95:1 The individual soul or Self, which in dreams is free from the physical afflictions of empiric existence, but nevertheless is still tormented by the mental concepts of these. This standpoint is that of realism.

96:1 The standpoint of pure transcendental idealism.

96:2 In dreamless sleep.

97:1 Prajā-pati, in answer to Indra's criticism of his last definition of the Self, explains that the utter unconsciousness of dreamless sleep is not a state of non-being, but a state of transcendental Being-Consciousness. Finite consciousness is active in embodied existence, which is attended by sensations of pleasure and pain. But the finite consciousness of embodied being is but an illusive phase of the infinite consciousness of unembodied existence, which is represented by the state of dreamless sleep. The great forces of cosmic nature are in essence incorporeal; when confined within the category of space or ether they produce in the macrocosm the phenomena of a finite universe; but essentially they transcend space, being the infinite powers of Absolute Being. Similarly in the microcosm the physical functions which cause the conceptions of individual existence as subject of empiric thought are really phases of the Absolute Consciousness, the objectless Subject, essentially transcending individual existence.