The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s1.7

c9.s1.7

The above passage from Bṛih. 2. 4. 10 further enumerates a series of works the meaning of which is sometimes doubtful, but which have probably been in part incorporated in the Brâhmaṇas, in part mark the beginnings of the later epic. It is, however, especially noticeable that the "mystical doctrines" (*upaniṣadaḥ*) appear only in the eighth place after *itihāsaḥ*, *purāṇam*, and *vidyā*, and are therefore under no circumstances reckoned to belong to the Veda. They had not yet become Vedânta. If therefore, finally, the later teachers of the Vedânta found on this passage their dogma that the entire Veda is breathed forth from Brahman and is therefore infallible, their conclusion would carry with it the infallibility also of the other works enumerated, and is certainly incorrect. For the passage originally asserts only that, like all other natural phenomena, the products of the mind also throughout the universe are derived from Brahman.¹ Precisely the same series of literary works, though with a few additions, is enumerated again by Yājñavalkhya in Bṛih. 4. 1. 2, is explained as "speech" (*vāc*), and is found to be inadequate to convey a knowledge of Brahman. At the close of this discussion therefore, Janaka, although he has "equipped his soul with that mystical doctrine," has "studied the Vedas and listened to the mystical doctrine,"² yet is unable to give any account of the fate of the soul after death. From this it is clear that what was then understood by *upaniṣad* did not of necessity include an exposition of the highest questions; exactly, indeed, as in Chând. 8. 8. 5 the erroneous teaching that the essential being of man consists in the body is characterised as *asurāṇām upaniṣad*.