The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s2.t4.2

c12.s2.t4.2

In these three propositions is contained the metaphysical truth of the teaching of the Upanishads. Its further development consists in bringing down, though illegitimately, this metaphysical truth into the sphere where knowledge is possible (just as among the Greeks and in later philosophy), and clothing it in empirical form. (1) The âtman becomes an object of knowledge, which in truth it is not. (2) The reality of the universe is maintained, and the consequent contradiction is adjusted by the oft-repeated assertion that the universe is identical with the âtman. (3) Emancipation appears finally and wrongly in the phenomenal form of causality as a becoming something which previously had no existence, and in the phenomenal forms of time and space as the removal of a temporal and spiritual separation from the âtman, which never really existed and therefore does not need to be removed.