History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.286

v7.c95.286

The same story occurs in Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad²⁵⁵⁸ IV. 1-19 often in the same words. Bālāki offers 16 explanations about the objects of his meditation. The V. S. devotes three sūtras (I. 4. 16-18) to the passage in which Ajātaśatru stated 'He who is the maker of those persons (you mentioned), he of whom all this is the work, he alone is to be known'. There is in Bṛ. Up. II. 1 and Kauṣītaki Up. IV hardly anything about transmigration. Both passages simply affirm that from the Ātman all prāṇas, all worlds, all gods, all elements spring forth (Bṛ. II. 2 20). This is nothing more than what is stated in the leading text (Bṛ. Up. IV. 4. 7) of Yājñavalkya or in Chān. Up. VI. 1-16 in the oft-repeated words of Āruṇi to his son Śvetaketu (aitadātmyam idam sarvam...tattvamasi).