A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s9.85

v1.c8.s9.85

It is noteworthy, however, that this passage, to which numerous parallels may be found in the Buddhist as well as in the later Sanskrit literature, belongs to one of the *latest* Upaniṣads. For the Maitrāyaṇa-Upaniṣad is, in language and style, nearer to the classical Sanskrit literature than to the Veda and is decidedly post-Buddhist.[^1) The old *Vedic* Upaniṣads contain but the germs of pessimism in the doctrine of the non-reality of the world. Only the Brahman is real, and this is the Ātman, the soul, "which passes beyond hunger and thirst, sorrow and delusion, old age and death." "That which is different from it is full of suffering."—ato'nyad ārtam.[^2) But "that which is different from it," does not exist at all in reality, and therefore also the suffering and misery of the world are not real. The knowing one, who has comprehended the doctrine of the Unity, knows no fear, no pain. "He who knows the joy of the Brahman, for him there is no fear." "Where is delusion, where sorrow, for him who knows the Unity?" Joy (ānanda) is a name of the Brahman. "Consisting of joy (ānandamaya) is the Ātman. And like a song of triumph of optimism sound the words of an Upaniṣad: Joy is the Brahman. For truly, out of joy arise all these beings, by joy they live after they have arisen, and when they pass away they are again absorbed into joy."[^\*3)