The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s2.t3.8

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 :—