Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.1

8.1.1

atha yad idam asmin brahmapure daharaṃ puṇḍarīkaṃ veśma daharo 'sminn antarākāsaḥ \
tasmin yad antas tad anveṣṭavyaṃ tad vāva vijijñāsitavyam iti \\801.1\

1. Om! [The teacher should say:] 'Now, what is here in this city of Brahma, is an abode, a small lotus-flower. Within that is a small space. What is within that, should be searched out; that, assuredly, is what one should desire to understand.'

8.1.2

taṃ ced brūyur yad idam asmin brahmapure daharaṃ puṇḍarīkaṃ veśma daharo asminn antarākāśaḥ kiṃ tad atra vidyate yad anveṣṭavyaṃ yad vāva vijijñāsitavyam iti \
sa brūyāt \\801.2\

2. If they [i.e. the pupils] should say to him: 'This abode,

the small lotus-flower that is here in this city of Brahma, and the small space within that—what is there there which should be searched out, which assuredly one should desire to understand?’ he should say: ‘As far, verily, as this world-space (_ayam ākāśa_) extends, so far extends the space within the heart. Within it, indeed, are contained both heaven and earth, both fire and wind, both sun and moon, lightning and the stars, both what one possesses here and what one does not possess; everything here is contained within it.’

8.1.3

yāvān vā ayam ākāśas tāvān eṣo 'ntarhṛdaya ākāśaḥ \
ubhe asmin dyāvāpṛthivī antar eva samāhite \
ubhāv agniś ca vāyuś ca sūryācandramasāv ubhau vidyun nakṣatrāṇi \
yac cāsyehāsti yac ca nāsti sarvaṃ tad asmin samāhitam iti \\801.3\

8.1.4

taṃ ced brūyur asmiṃś cedaṃ brahmapure sarvaṃ samāhitaṃ sarvāṇi ca bhūtāni sarve ca kāmā yad enaj jarā vāpnoti pradhvaṃsate vā kiṃ tato 'tiśiṣyata iti \\801.4\

4. If they should say to him: ‘If within this city of Brahma is contained everything here, all beings as well as all desires, when old age overtakes it or it perishes, what is left over therefrom?’ he should say: ‘That does not grow old with one’s old age; it is not slain with one’s murder. That is the real city of Brahma. In it desires are contained. That is the Soul (Ātman), free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, hungerless, thirstless, whose desire is the Real, whose conception is the Real.

8.1.5

sa brūyāt \
nāsya jarayaitaj jīryati na vadhenāsya hanyate \
etat satyaṃ brahmapuram asmin kāmāḥ samāhitāḥ \
eṣa ātmāpahatapāpmā vijaro vimṛtyur viśoko vijighatso 'pipāsaḥ satyakāmaḥ satyasaṃkalpaḥ \
yathā hy eveha prajā anvāviśanti yathānuśāsanam \
yaṃ yam antam abhikāmā bhavanti yaṃ janapadaṃ yaṃ kṣetrabhāgaṃ taṃ tam evopajīvanti \\801.5\

For, just as here on earth human beings follow along in subjection to command; of whatever object they are desirous, whether a realm or a part of a field, upon that they live dependent—

8.1.6

tad yatheha karmajito lokaḥ kṣīyata evam evāmutra puṇyajito lokaḥ kṣīyate \
tad ya ihātmānam ananuvidya vrajanty etāṃś ca satyān kāmāṃs teṣāṃ sarveṣu lokeṣv akāmacāro bhavati \
atha ya ihātmānam anivudya vrajanty etaṃś ca satyān kāmāṃs teṣāṃ sarveṣu lokeṣu kāmacāro bhavati \\801.6\

6. As here on earth the world which is won by work (_karma-jita loka_) becomes destroyed, even so there the world which is won by merit (_puṇya-jita loka_) becomes destroyed.

Those who go hence without here having found the Soul (Ātman) and those real desires (_satya kāma_)—for them in all the worlds there is no freedom. But those who go hence having found here the Soul and those real desires—for them in all worlds there is freedom.