Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s10.t6.35

v1.c7.s10.t6.35

The Upanishad thinkers believed that, the overwhelming multiplicity of “small selves” or worldly things notwithstanding, only Brahman, as the highest and infinite being, is real. Anyone who treats Brahman and Atman as two separate things, or only regards Atman as the fundamental essence of a person and fails to recognise the grand quality of Brahman, is bound to fall into an abyss of delusion and agony. As Verse 7 of the *Isha Upanishad* puts it, “He who has known that all beings have become one with his own self, and he who has seen the oneness of existence, what sorrow and what delusion can overwhelm him?”