Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s2.t3: 3. The Knowledge of the Âtman is Emancipation

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s2.t3

Language
English

3. The Knowledge of the Âtman is Emancipation

c12.s2.t3.1

Emancipation is not to be regarded as a becoming something which previously had no existence. In the first place, because in the sphere of metaphysical phenomena to which emancipation belongs there is in general no becoming but only a being (as all metaphysical thinkers, not only in India but in the West also, from Parmenides and Plato down to Kant and Schopenhauer, have recognised). The law of causation rules without exception everything that is finite, but nothing that lies outside and beyond, or like emancipation leads beyond. But for a further reason also emancipation cannot be a coming into being of that which did not previously exist, since it could not then be *summum bonum*. For everything that comes to be is transient; that which from nothingness became something may also return back from being something into its nothingness. What the wave threw up it may sweep away again ; τὸ μηδὲν εἰς οὐδὲν ῥέπει.

c12.s2.t3.2

If deliverance had a beginning,
Then it could not but have an end,

c12.s2.t3.3

as Gauḍapâda rightly says,¹ nor could it be *summum bonum*, or *id quo majus cogitari nequit*, for we might always think of as a higher good an emancipation which had not come into being, and therefore was not exposed to the danger of vanishing away.

c12.s2.t3.4

¹ Kârikâ 4. 30.

c12.s2.t3.5

Emancipation therefore (which we must not judge by our one-sided Western ideas which have been shaped from historical and therefore narrow conditions) is not properly a new beginning, a *καινὴ κτίσις*, but only the perception of that which has existed from eternity, but has hitherto been concealed from us :—

c12.s2.t3.6

All souls are originally
Free from darkness and without stain,
“Already awakened and delivered before the world was,
They rise up,” saith the Master.²

c12.s2.t3.7

² Gauḍap. 4. 98.

c12.s2.t3.8

We are all emancipated already (how could we otherwise become so !), “but just as he who does not know the place of a hidden treasure fails to find it, though he passes over it constantly, so all these creatures fail to find the world of Brahman, though they daily (in deep sleep) enter into it ; for by unreality are they turned aside.³ This unreality is removed by the knowledge “I am Brahman,” am in truth not an individual, but the âtman, the sum and substance of all reality, the first principle which creates, upholds and preserves all worlds. “And therefore to-day also he who knows this ‘I am Brahman’ becomes this universe ; and even the gods have no power to prevent his so becoming; for he is its soul (*âtman*).”⁴ This thought is briefly and strikingly expressed in Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 9 :—" In truth, he who knows that supreme âtman, he becomes Brahman," or more correctly "he is already Brahman" (*sa yo ha vai tat paramam brahma veda brahma eva bhavati*). For deliverance is not effected by the knowledge of the âtman, but it consists in this knowledge; it is not a consequence of the knowledge of the âtman, but this knowledge is itself already deliverance in all its fulness. He who knows himself as the âtman, the first principle of things, he is by that very knowledge free from all desires (*akâmayamâna*), for he knows everything in himself, and there is nothing outside of himself for him to continue to desire :—*âptakâmasya kâ spṛihâ*? "what can he desire who has everything?"¹ And further, he who knows himself as the âtman "is not inflamed by what he has done and left undone," whether it be good or evil,² his works consume away like the reed-stalk in the fire,³ and future works do not cling to him, as water does not remain on the leaf of the lotus flower.⁴ His individuality, the basis of all works, he has seen to be an illusion, in that he has gained possession of the knowledge of the âtman, and therein of emancipation :—

c12.s2.t3.9

³ Chând. 8. 3. 2.

c12.s2.t3.10

⁴ Bṛih. 1. 4. 10.

c12.s2.t3.11

¹ Gauḍap. 1. 9.

c12.s2.t3.12

² Bṛih. 4. 4. 22, Chând. 8. 4. 1, 8. 13, Muṇḍ. 3. 1. 3, Taitt. 2. 9, Kaush. 1. 4, 3. 1, Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 9, Maitr. 2. 7, 6. 34, etc.

c12.s2.t3.13

³ Chând. 5. 24. 3; cp. Bṛih. 5. 14. 8.

c12.s2.t3.14

⁴ Chând. 4. 14. 3.

c12.s2.t3.15

He who beholds that Loftiest and Deepest,
For him the fetters of the heart break asunder,
For him all doubts are solved,
And his works become nothingness.⁵

c12.s2.t3.16

⁵ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 8.

c12.s2.t3.17

The Knowledge of the Âtman does not effect emancipation, it is emancipation.—If we seek for the origin of this thought that runs through the whole of the Upanishad literature, we are referred back to the discourses of Yâjñavalkhya that are presented in Bṛih. 3 and 4.¹

c12.s2.t3.18

¹ It is from the circle of his thought that the words of Bṛih. 1. 4. 10 also, already quoted above p. 345, are derived; cp. Bṛih. 1. 4. 3.

c12.s2.t3.19

We begin with Bṛih. 4. 2. Yâjñavalkhya addresses King Janaka, whom we are to consider as occupying the foremost position among the sages of his time (somewhat as Nârada in Chând. 7. 1):—"Since then you are now rich in attendants and goods, hast studied the Veda and hast listened to the mystical doctrine (art adhîtaveda and ukta-upanishatka), tell me, whither will you go when once you depart hence?" "I do not know, reverend sir, whither I shall go" (he does not know, in spite of devayâna and devaloka, of which assuredly mention was made in his Vedas and Upanishads; the king seems no longer to place absolute confidence in their revelations). Yâjñavalkhya rejoins:—"Then will I declare to you whither you will go." "Declare it, reverend sir." What are we to expect to hear? Something at any rate which could not be more forcibly indicated than by this introduction as absolutely new at that period.

c12.s2.t3.20

To begin with, Yâjñavalkhya describes the individual âtman, how it dwells in the heart, Indra and Virâj like as it were its feelers reach to the two eyes, and together with them are nourished by the blood-clots of the heart. Suddenly while he is speaking in so gross and materialistic a fashion of the individual âtman, a mist as it were is removed from our eyes:—"The anterior (eastern) regions of the heavens are his anterior organs, the right-hand (southern) regions of the heavens are his right-hand organs," etc., "all the regions of the heavens are all his organs. He however, the âtman, is not so, not so. He is inapprehensible, for he is not apprehended, indestructible, for he is not destroyed, unattachable, for nothing attaches itself to him; he is not fettered, he stirs not, he suffers no harm. O Janaka, you have attained peace. Thus Yâjñavalkhya spake.”

c12.s2.t3.21

The last expression leaves no doubt on the point that herein the intention is to impart the highest instruction, in which we are to seek for the answer to the initial question, “Whither will you go when once you depart hence?” And the answer asserts that the soul after death goes nowhere where it has not been from the very beginning, nor does it become other than that which it has always been, the one eternal omnipresent âtman.

c12.s2.t3.22

The doubts which in view of the abrupt form of the paragraph might be felt as to the correctness of this interpretation, are completely removed by the unmistakable teaching which Yâjñavalkhya imparts to Janaka in Bṛih. 4. 3–4. After that return to a new existence upon earth has been taught here as the fate of the kâmayamâna, “consumed by desire” (one who therefore does not yet know himself as the âtman), there follow words than which deeper, truer, more noble were never uttered by human lips:—

c12.s2.t3.23

“Now concerning the man free from desire (akâmayamâna). He who without desire, free from desire, desire being laid to rest, is himself his own desire, his vital spirits do not withdraw, but he is Brahman, and ascends to Brahman. On this subject is the following verse:—

c12.s2.t3.24

When every passion vanishes
That finds a home in the human heart,
Then he who is mortal becomes immortal,
Here already he has attained to Brahman.

c12.s2.t3.25

As the skin of a snake lies cast off and dead upon an antheap, so this body then lies. But the bodiless, the immortal, the life is pure Brahman, is pure light.”[¹]

c12.s2.t3.26

¹ Bṛih. 4. 4. 6–7.

c12.s2.t3.27

We propose in the first place to use these passages to throw light upon certain other expressions of Yâjñavalkhya which in themselves are obscure.

c12.s2.t3.28

“‘Yâjñavalkhya,’ thus he spake, ‘when a man dies, do the vital spirits wander forth from him or not?’ ‘By no means,’ said Yâjñavalkhya, ‘but they remain gathered together at the very same place; his body swells up, becomes inflated, and he lies there dead and inflated.’” ¹ In this passage, as has been already remarked,² no restriction to those who are already emancipated is implied, since inflation by the expanding gases may be observed in every body without distinction. Yet we are compelled, as seems to have been done already by the Mâdhyandinas, to interpret the words only of the emancipated, if we would not set ourselves in irreconcilable contradiction with the words of Yâjñavalkhya elsewhere:—“When the life departs, all the vital organs depart with it.” ³

c12.s2.t3.29

¹ Bṛih. 3. 2. 11.

c12.s2.t3.30

² See Deussen, Upan., p. 431.

c12.s2.t3.31

³ Bṛih. 4. 4. 2.

c12.s2.t3.32

Still more obscure is the following:—“‘Yâjñavalkhya,’ thus he spake, ‘when a man dies, what is it that then does not leave him?’ ‘The name,’ he answered, ‘for the name is infinite, infinite are the vis’ve devâh, and he gains with it the infinite world.’” ⁴ Here we are compelled to understand by the name the infinite “objective world,” as has been already shown.⁵ As long as this continues to subsist, the knowing subject also that sustains it preserves its existence.

c12.s2.t3.33

⁴ Bṛih. 3. 2. 12.

c12.s2.t3.34

⁵ Deussen, Upan., p. 431.

c12.s2.t3.35

It is in harmony with this explanation that Yâjñavalkhya asserts in Bṛih. 2. 4. 12,⁶ in answer to Maitreyî:—“After death there is no consciousness”; and explains this by saying that the imperishable indestructible âtman (avinâs’in, anuc’chittidharman⁷) has after death no further consciousness of objects, because as knowing subject he has everything in himself, nothing outside of himself, consequently "has no longer any contact with matter" (*mâtrâ-asamsargas tu asya bhavati*).¹

c12.s2.t3.36

⁶ = 4. 5. 13.

c12.s2.t3.37

⁷ 4. 5. 14.

c12.s2.t3.38

¹ 5. 4. 14 Mâdhy.; cp. Deussen, *Upan.*, p. 485 rem.

c12.s2.t3.39

The mystical declaration also of Bṛih. 3. 2. 10 concerning the water (of knowledge), which is able to quench the fire of death, is thus satisfactorily explained.

c12.s2.t3.40

Yâjñavalkhya has therefore entirely anticipated Schopenhauer's definition of immortality as an "indestructibility without continued existence."² Just as for the wise there is no longer any reality in the universe or in transmigration, so immortality also as prolonged existence after death is a part of the great illusion, the hollowness of which he has proved.

c12.s2.t3.41

² *Elements of Metaphysics*, § 249.

c12.s2.t3.42

From the numerous passages in the later Upanishads, which in a similar way to the speeches of Yâjñavalkhya hitherto discussed celebrate the knowledge of the âtman as emancipation, a few may here be set down.

c12.s2.t3.43

"Yet he who has in thought conceived himself as the Self,
How can he still wish to bind himself to the ills of the body?
Him who in the profound defilement of the body
Has awakened to a knowledge of the Self,
Him know as almighty, as the worlds' creator!
The universe is his, for he himself is the universe.

c12.s2.t3.44

The man who has beheld God
As his own self face to face;
The Lord of that which was and is to be,
He feels no fear nor hides himself in dread.

c12.s2.t3.45

At whose feet rolling on by days and years time advances, Whom the gods adore as light of lights, as immortality, On whom depends the fivefold host of living beings, together with space, Him know I as my soul, immortal the immortal.³

c12.s2.t3.46

³ Bṛih. 4. 4. 12–13, 15–17.

c12.s2.t3.47

The seer sees not death,
Nor sickness nor fatigue;
The All alone the Seer sees,
The All he everywhere pervades.⁴

c12.s2.t3.48

⁴ Chând. 7. 26. 2.

c12.s2.t3.49

He before whom words recoil And thought, failing to find him, Who knows this bliss of Brahman, He no longer fears aught.¹

c12.s2.t3.50

¹ Taitt. 2. 9.

c12.s2.t3.51

Only he who knows it not knows it, He who knows it knows it not. Unknown by the wise, Known by the ignorant.

c12.s2.t3.52

In whom it wakes to life, He knows it and finds immortality; Because he is it, manhood is his, Because he knows it, immortality.²

c12.s2.t3.53

² Kena 11–12.

c12.s2.t3.54

The one Lord and inner self of all living beings, He his one form expands in many ways. He who, the wise, sees himself dwelling in himself He alone, and no other, is eternally blessed.

c12.s2.t3.55

Not by speech, not by thought, Not by sight do we apprehend him; “He is!” By this word is he apprehended, And not in any other way.

c12.s2.t3.56

“He is!” thus may he be apprehended, So far as he is the reality of both; “He is!” who has thus apprehended him, To him his essential nature becomes manifest.

c12.s2.t3.57

When all the suffering vanishes, Which finds a home in the human heart, Then he who is mortal becomes immortal, Here already he attains to Brahman.

c12.s2.t3.58

When all fetters burst asunder That are woven around the human heart, Then he who is mortal becomes immortal, Thus far the doctrine extends.³

c12.s2.t3.59

³ Kâṭh. 5. 12, 6. 12–15.

c12.s2.t3.60

Yet he who here recognises again All living beings in himself, And himself in everything that lives, He no longer is vexed by any.

c12.s2.t3.61

Here where the knowing self
Becomes all living beings :—
How could error be, how pain,
For him who thus beholds the unity ?¹

c12.s2.t3.62

¹ Îsâ 6-7. ² S'vet. 4. 18. ³ Maitr. 6. 34. ⁴ Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 2, 2. 2. 8, 3. 2. 8. ⁵ Mâṇḍûkya-Kârikâ 1. 16.

c12.s2.t3.63

The darkness vanishes, there is no longer day nor night ;
Neither being nor not-being,—blessed alone is he ;
He is the syllable Om, Savitar's beloved light,
From him knowledge flowed forth in the beginning.²

c12.s2.t3.64

He who, his spirit purified by contemplation,
Plunges into the âtman,—what measureless blessedness he feels !
That for the expression of which words are of no avail
Must be experienced within in the inmost heart.³

c12.s2.t3.65

He who still craves for his desires and clings to them,
Will through his desires be born here and there ;
He whose desires are laid to rest, whose self is prepared,
From him all desires vanish here below.

c12.s2.t3.66

He who beholds that Loftiest and Deepest,
For him the fetters of the heart break asunder,
For him all doubts are solved,
And his works become nothingness.

c12.s2.t3.67

Like streams flow and disappear in the ocean,
Abandoning name and form,
So the wise, freed from name and form,
Enter into that supreme divine spirit.⁴

c12.s2.t3.68

In the world's false show that has known no beginning,
The soul slumbers ; when it awakes,
Then there wakes in it the Eternal,
Beyond time and sleep and dreams.⁵

c12.s2.t3.69

(The emancipated soul speaks):—

c12.s2.t3.70

That which as enjoyment, enjoyment's object,
And enjoyer knows the three states,
Distinct therefrom, O spectator,
Pure spirit I am ever blessed.

c12.s2.t3.71

In me the universe had its origin,
In me alone does the All subsist,
In me it vanishes, this Brahman,
The timeless, it is I myself.

c12.s2.t3.72

The smallest of the small I am, and none the less am I great, I am the motley rich universe, I am the Ancient, the spirit, the lord, Altogether of gold I am, the blessed Manifestation.

c12.s2.t3.73

Without hands or feet am I, yet infinitely powerful, I see without eyes, hear without ears; I am the wise, and beside me None other is wise in endless years.

c12.s2.t3.74

In all the Vedas I am to be known, I am the fulfiller of the Vedas, learned in the Vedas, Free from good and evil, imperishable, Unbegotten am I, without body or sensation; For me there is neither earth nor water, Nor fire, nor yet wind or ether.¹

c12.s2.t3.75

¹ Kaivalya 18–23. ² Bṛih. 3. 5. ³ Bṛih. 4. 4. 22.

c12.s2.t3.76

On the basis of this and other passages we propose finally to attempt here to give a brief characterisation of those who have gained release.

c12.s2.t3.77

The knowledge of the âtman does not effect emancipation, but it is emancipation; for he who possesses it has found the existence of the universe as well as his own bodily and individual existence to be an illusion (*mâyâ*). Everything else follows from this.

c12.s2.t3.78

(1) The wise man is *akâmayamâna*. Every wish, craving, desire, all hope and fear have for him been destroyed; for all this presupposes an object to which it is related. Such an object however no longer exists for the wise man. “In truth, after that they have become conscious of this soul, Brâhmans abstain from desire for children and possessions and the world, and wander about as beggars. For desire for children is desire for possessions, and desire for possessions is desire for the world; for all together are vain desire.”² “This the men of old time knew, when they ceased to long for descendants and said, ‘What need have we of descendants, we whose soul this universe is.’”³ Gauḍapâda sums this up briefly and strikingly in the words:¹—“What can he desire who has all?” The wise man therefore no longer experiences fear. “He who knows this bliss of Brahman is not afraid either now or at any time”;² he is no longer vexed by anything”;³ “for wherefore should he fear? since fear assuredly is of a second.”⁴

c12.s2.t3.79

¹ Kârikâ 1. 9. ² Taitt. 2. 4. ³ Kâṭh. 4. 5, 12. ⁴ Bṛih. 1. 4. 2. ⁵ Chând. 7. 1. 3. ⁶ Chând. 8. 12. 1. ⁷ Chând. 8. 4. 2. ⁸ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 8. ⁹ cp. the passages quoted above, p. 345 f. ¹⁰ Chând. 4. 14. 3.

c12.s2.t3.80

(2) The knowledge of the âtman transcends individuality, and therefore the possibility of pain. “He who knows the âtman overcomes sorrow.”⁵ “He who is in the body is possessed by desire and pain, for because he is in the body no safeguard is possible against desire and pain. He however who is free from the body is not affected by desire and pain.”⁶ “He therefore who has crossed this bridge is like a blind man who gains his sight, like a wounded man who is healed, like a sick man who becomes whole.”⁷

c12.s2.t3.81

(3) “And his works become nothingness.”⁸ All works, the good as well as the evil, become of no effect for him who has attained knowledge, as is often affirmed.⁹ For the individuality which gave rise to them is for the wise only a part of that great universal illusion which he has succeeded in penetrating.

c12.s2.t3.82

(4) For the same reason future works no longer cling to him, as the water does not cling to the leaf of the lotus flower.¹⁰ For him to do evil is entirely excluded by his freedom from all desire. “Therefore he who knows this is tranquil, subdued, resigned, patient and self-controlled. He sees the Self only in himself, he regards everything as the Self. Evil does not overcome him, he overcomes all evil . . . free from evil, free from suffering, and free from doubt, he becomes a Brâhman, he whose universe Brahman is.”¹ “Whereby does this Brâhman live? By living as chance may determine.”² His future condition, as far as the bodily state is concerned, which he has cast off like the skin of a snake, is entirely without importance:—

c12.s2.t3.83

¹ Bṛih. 4. 4. 23.

c12.s2.t3.84

² Bṛih. 3. 5.

c12.s2.t3.85

No matter whether a man wish for himself
A hundred years, pursuing his work;
Remain then, as thus thou art, not otherwise,
The stain of work clings not to thee.³

c12.s2.t3.86

³ Îsâ. 2.

c12.s2.t3.87

(5) “He who has reached this state in truth feels no doubt”;⁴ “for him all doubts are solved”;⁵ “free from doubt he becomes a Brâhman.”⁶ Because the knowledge of the âtman does not depend on reflection (*tarka*),⁷ but on immediate intuition (*anubhava*), therefore he can no longer be shaken by any doubt. The illusion, when once it has been penetrated, can no longer delude. The question of the possibility of a relapse is not and cannot be raised.

c12.s2.t3.88

⁴ Chând. 3. 14. 4.

c12.s2.t3.89

⁵ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 6.

c12.s2.t3.90

⁶ Bṛih. 4. 4. 23.

c12.s2.t3.91

⁷ Kâṭh. 2. 9.

Cites (12)