The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s5.t2.23

c9.s5.t2.23

That the material substance of things also is derived solely from Brahman is taught in connection with the illustration of the spider in S'vet. 6. 10, where Brahman is described as the god "who spiderlike by threads which proceed from him as material (*pradhânam*) concealed his real nature.” The last words mean that Brahman, by not (in a theistic sense) bringing objects forth from himself, but (in a pantheistic sense) changing himself into the objects, “has concealed his real nature” (*svabhâvato . . . svam âvṛiṇot*). In this sense it is said as early as Ṛigveda X. 81. 1 that Vis’vakarman by his entrance into the lower world was “concealing his original state” (*prathamach’had*). Similarly Bṛih. 1. 4. 7 declares that the âtman has “entered” into this universe “up to the finger-tips, as a knife is hidden in its sheath, or the all-sustaining fire in the fire-preserving (wood). Therefore is he not seen; for he is divided; as breathing he is named breath, as speaking speech, as seeing eye,” etc. According to Bṛih. 1. 6. 3, the âtman is *amṛitam satyena c’hannam*, “the immortal, concealed by (empirical) reality”; and in Bṛih. 2. 4. 12 it is said:—“It is with him as with a lump of salt, which thrown into the water is lost in the water, so that it is not possible to take it out again; whence however we may always draw, it is salt throughout.” The same thought is developed, perhaps on the basis of this passage in the narrative of Chând. 6. 13. That objection was taken to such a method of representation is shown by the parallel passage Bṛih. 4. 5. 13, where the words quoted above from Bṛih. 2. 4. 12 are altered as follows:—“It is with him as with a lump of salt, which has no (distinguishable) inner or outer, but throughout consists entirely of taste,” etc. In a similar way efforts are made in other passages to show that Brahman by his transformation into the universe has forfeited nothing of the perfection of his own nature. As early as Ṛigveda X. 90. 3 it is said that all beings are only a fourth of the purusha, while the three other fourths remain immortal in heaven. The same teaching is found in Chând. 3. 12. 6, the verse from the Ṛigveda being repeated, and similarly in the concluding verse Maitr. 7. 11; while according to Bṛih. 5. 14, one foot of Brahman (under the figure of the Gâyatrî) consists of the three worlds, the second of the triple knowledge of the Veda, the third of the three vital breaths, while the fourth exalted above the dust of earth shines as the sun. Still more clearly is it taught already in S'atap. Br. 11. 2. 3 that Brahman, after having created the three worlds with that which lies above and beyond them, himself entered "into that half beyond." The infinite nature of Brahman is also taught in harmony with Atharvav. X. 8. 29 by the verse Bṛih. 5. 1 :—