The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s5.t3.6

c9.s5.t3.6

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;