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The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s5.t3: 3. Brahman as the Psychical Principle

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s5.t3

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3. Brahman as the Psychical Principle

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Brahman is the âtman. The first principle of all things is not, as might be imagined, in part only, but undivided, completely and as a whole present in that which I with true insight find within me as my own self, my ego, my soul. Of the value of this thought which governs all the speculations of the Upanishads we have formed an estimate in the Introduction.¹ Here we propose to select from the large number of passages which give expression to it only so many as are necessary in order to show that this thought also, precisely as that of Brahman as first principle of the universe, is in its original purpose idealistic, that is, denies the multiplicity of the universe around us; but that it receives a gradually increasing realistic colouring in proportion as we endeavour to conceive it under the forms of our knowledge, adapted as these are to realism.

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¹ *Sup.* p. 39 f.

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Yâjñavalkhya begins his instruction of Maitreyî in Bṛih. 2. 4 with the words:—“In truth, not for the husband’s sake is the husband dear, but for the sake of the self (the soul, *âtman*) is the husband dear.” Similarly all the objects of the world,—wife, sons and possessions, the estate of a Brâhman or a warrior, worlds, gods, living beings and the entire universe are dear to us not in themselves or for their own sake, but only for the sake of our own self. How this is to be understood is shown by the conclusion which immediately follows, and which is inferred from it:—“The self, in truth, should be seen, heard, comprehended and reflected on, O Maitreyî; in truth, he who has seen, heard, comprehended and known the self, by him this entire universe is known.” This implies that all reality is and remains limited to our own self, and that we know love and possess all things in the universe only so far as they subsist in our consciousness, as they are grasped and entertained by our knowing self; there is no universe outside of the *âtman*, our self, our soul. This is the standpoint of complete idealism, which denies the reality of the manifold universe, as it is further expounded by passages like Bṛih. 2. 1. 16 and 20, where it is taught that all worlds, gods and living creatures spring from the spirit consisting of knowledge (*vijñânamaya purusha*) like sparks from the fire; or, as in Bṛih. 3. 4 and 3. 5, where inquiry is made for the “ Brahman that is within all as soul,” and the answer is given :—“ It is thy soul, that is within all,” which as the knowing subject remains unknowable¹ and with the consciousness of which the whole universe, all children, possessions and wisdom vanish into the nothingness which they really are.² In the latter passage an inclination is already revealed towards the realism which is natural to us all, inasmuch as the existence of the external world is not denied; the objects are there, but as far as their essential nature is concerned they are nothing but the âtman alone. Similarly in the important and well-known passage Chând. 6. 8–16, where a series of mysterious phenomena and relations of nature and life are traced back to their unknowable original source, and of this it is then said in a nine-times repreated refrain :— “ What that subtle being (that unknowable, aṇiman) is, of which this whole universe is composed, that is the real, that is the soul, that art thou, O S’vetaketu!”

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¹ Bṛih. 3. 4.

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² Bṛih. 3. 5.

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This doctrine of the sole reality of the âtman, the soul in us, is in opposition to our innate and invincible conviction of the reality of the external world that surrounds us, and this opposition is intentionally brought into relief in a large number of passages, which with great boldness of metaphysical insight identify the soul in us as the inconceivably small with nature without us as the inconceivably great. “ He is all-effecting, all-wishing, all-smelling, all-tasting, embracing all, silent, untroubled;—this is my soul in my heart, smaller than a grain of rice or barley, or a mustard seed, than a grain or the kernel of a grain of millet; this is my soul in my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere, greater than the heaven, greater than these worlds.”³ “ In truth, great as is this world-space, so great is this space within the heart; in it are contained both the heaven and the earth;

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³ Chând. 3. 14. 2.

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both fire and wind, both sun and moon, both lightning and stars, and whatever is possessed or not possessed in this life, all that is therein contained.”[¹] “Now however the light which shines there beyond the heaven behind all things, behind each, in the highest worlds, the highest of all, that is assuredly this light which is here within in men.”[²] The soul, as these passages teach, embraces the universe; it is moreover as it were all-pervading, the *antaryâmin*, the “inner guide” in everything:—“He who dwelling in the earth is distinct from the earth, whom the earth knows not, whose body the earth is, who rules the earth from within, he is thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal.”[³] This speculation is then further extended to several cosmical and psychical relations, and it is said in conclusion:—“He sees but is not seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not comprehended, knows but is not known. There is no seer beside him, no hearer beside him, no comprehender beside him, no knower beside him. He is thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal. All that is distinct from him is liable to suffering.” According to this, the *antaryâmin*, *i.e.* the power that dwells and rules in everything, is in its essence consciousness; for, as is stated in Ait. 3. 3, all gods, all substances and all organic beings, “all this is guided by consciousness, based upon consciousness; by consciousness the universe is guided, consciousness is its foundation, consciousness is Brahman.”

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¹ Chând. 8. 1. 3.

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² Chând. 3 13. 7.

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³ Bṛih. 3. 7. 3.

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Although according to this and many other passages the first principle of the universe dwells within us as consciousness or the knowing subject, yet its seat is not in the head but in the heart. “In truth, this great unborn self is that among the vital organs which consists of knowledge (*vijñânamaya*). Here within the heart is a cavity, therein he resides who is the lord of the universe, the governor of the universe, the chief of the universe; he is not exalted by good works, he is not degraded by evil works; he is the lord of the universe, he is the governor of living beings, he is the protector of living beings; he is the bridge which holds asunder these worlds, and prevents them from clashing together.”¹ Kaush. 3. 8 may perhaps be derived from this passage:—“He is the protector of the universe, he is the governor of the universe, he is the lord of the worlds; and this is my soul, that ought men to know.” Similarly numerous passages in the later Upanishads celebrate Brahman as “implanted in the cavity of the heart.”² The identity of the âtman in us with the âtman of the universe is expressed by the *tat tvam asi* of Chând. 6. 8–16, and also by the *etad vai tad*, “in truth this is that,” of Bṛih. 5. 4, which is probably an imitation of the other. The same formula is found twelve times in Kâṭh. 4. 3–6. 1 in a prose passage appended to the verses. The highest bliss, according to Kâṭh. 5. 14, consists in the consciousness of this thought. We quote in this connection only Kâṭh. 4. 12–13:—

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¹ Bṛih. 4. 4. 22; an indirect reference to Bṛih. 3. 8. 9.

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² *nihito guhâyâm*, first in Taitt. 2. 1; then Kâṭh. 1. 14, 2. 20, 3. 1, 4. 6–7; Muṇḍ. 2. 1. 10, 3. 1. 7, etc.

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An inch in height, here in the body
The purusha dwells,
Lord of the past and the future;
He who knows him frets no more,—
In truth, this is that.

Like flame without smoke, an inch in height
The purusha is in size,
Lord of the past and the future;
It is he to-day and also to-morrow,—
In truth, this is that.

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As here the purusha is compared to a smokeless flame, so in imitation of this passage, in S’vet. 6. 19, it is likened to a fire whose fuel is consumed;¹ while in S'vet. 5. 9 the contrast between the âtman within us and the âtman in the universe is pushed to an extreme :—²

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¹ Similarly Maitr. 6. 34, Brahmavidyâ 9, Nṛisiṃhott. 2.

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² Surpassed however in Dhyânab. 6.

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Split a hundred times the tip of a hair,
And take a hundredth part thereof;
That I judge to be the size of the soul,
Yet it goes to immortality.

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The description of the âtman as a smokeless flame in the heart has been developed in the Yoga Upanishads into the picture of the tongue of flame in the heart, the earliest occurrence of which is perhaps Mahân. 11. 6–12.³

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³ cp. Brahmavidyâ 10, Yogas'ikhâ 6, Yogatattva 9–11, Maitr. 6. 30.

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We saw above how the doctrine of Brahman as the cosmical principle was represented in accommodation to the empirical mode of thought as a creation of the universe in time by Brahman as its first cause. The same spirit of accommodation lies at the basis of the form assumed by the doctrine of Brahman as the psychical principle, viz., that Brahman after having created the universe enters into it as the individual soul. "This universe was at that time not unfolded; but it unfolded itself in name and form. . . . into it that (âtman) entered up to the finger-tips. . . . this therefore which here (within us) is the âtman is the trace (to be pursued) of the universe; for in it the entire universe is known," etc.⁴ The last words prove that the entrance of the soul, as described, into the universe which it has created is merely a metaphor designed to render intelligible the assumed identity of the soul with the first principle of the universe. It then however more and more stiffens into an actual realism, as the following passages show. "Into citadels he entered as a bird, into citadels as a citizen."⁵ "So into these three divinities (the three elements) that divinity entered with this living self, and separated out from one another names and forms.”¹ “After he had practised self-mortification he created this entire universe, whatever exists; after he had created it, he entered into it.”² The same conception, even more realistically depicted, is found as early as Ait. 1. 11, 12:—“And he considered,—In what way shall I enter into it? . . . so he split the crown of the head, and entered through this gate.” The later the realism is, the more pronounced it becomes. Maitr. 2. 6 may serve as an example: Prajâpati created numerous creatures, “these he saw standing unconscious and lifeless like a stone, motionless like the trunk of a tree; therefore he had no joy; and he resolved,—I will enter into them, in order to awaken consciousness within them; accordingly he made himself a wind, and determined to enter into them,” etc.

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⁴ Brih. 1. 4. 7.

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⁵ Brih. 2. 5. 18.

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¹ Chând. 6. 3. 3

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² Taitt. 2. 6.

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We see therefore the original idealism by reason of a progressive accommodation to the demands of our intellectual capacity harden into a realism, which in no respects falls behind the Semitic.³

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³ Gen. 27.

Cites (16)