The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s2.t2: 2. Bâlâki's Attempts at Explanation

c9.s2.t2.1

According to a narrative preserved in a twofold recension, in Bṛih. 2. 1 and Kaush. 4, the learned, famous, and proud Brâhman Bâlâki Gârgya approached the king Ajâtas'atru with the offer:—"Allow me to explain to you the Brahman." He then endeavours twelve times in succession (in Kaush. sixteen times) to define the Brahman as the soul (*purusha*) in the sun, moon, lightning, ether, wind, fire, water, etc.; and in each case the king confutes his definition by pointing to the subordinate position which the corresponding purusha occupies in the whole of nature. The Brâhman is silenced, and the king proceeds to instruct him, using the illustration of a deep sleeper. That in which his vital breaths (*prâṇâḥ*) lie dormant, and from which they issue on his waking, and with them all worlds, gods, and living creatures, is the âtman. This is the Brahman that Gârgya undertook in vain to explain. The reader's expectation of a more precise account of the relation of Brahman to the purushas of Gârgya is not fulfilled in either recension. They both are satisfied to show how on waking the prâṇas (speech, eye, ear, manas) proceed from the âtman, and as being dependent on them all worlds, gods, and living creatures.