The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c6.s6.t3: 3. Brahman as the Soul in deep Sleep

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c6.s6.t3

Language: English

3. Brahman as the Soul in deep Sleep

The passage which we considered Chap. XI, 1, d (above p. 158 ff.) follows in Chând. 8, 7--12, the teaching of Indra by Prajâpati (a mythological personification of the creative force, which here stands for Brahman) concerning the nature of the Self.

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“Prajâpati said: The Self, the sinless, free from old age, free from death, and free from sorrow, without hunger and without thirst, whose wishes are true, whose resolve is true, this Self is to be investigated, this you should seek to know. He wins all worlds and all wishes, who has found this Self and knows it!”—In order to gain knowledge of the Self, the gods send Indra, the Asuras (Demons), Virocana, to Prajâpati. —The three successive answers, which Prajâpati gives to the question, what the Self is, represent three stages of knowledge, in virtue of which the Self is seen either in the body, or in the individual soul, or in the highest soul. The first answer to the question: “What is the Self?” runs thus: “The Self in the body (literally, the person, *puruṣa*), as it is represented in the reflection in the eye, in water, in a mirror.”—Whoever, like Virocana and the Asuras, is satisfied with this view,

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will see in sensual enjoyment and in the care of the body the highest goal of being, and even after death will deck the corpse with all kinds of trumpery adornments (*bhikshâ*), with garments and decorations,—in order to gain by this means a life in the Beyond.⁸⁵—Virocana is satisfied with this answer. But Indra, knowing that, if the Self be the body, then the Self must be equally affected by the injury and destruction of the body, returns to Prajâpati, who gives him the second answer: "The Self is the soul as it enjoys itself in dream." But this answer is also unsatisfying. The dream-soul is, it is true, free from the injury of the body, yet it is as though it were slain or persecuted, and is therefore not free from suffering. With this doubt Indra returns a second time to Prajâpati and now receives the third explanation: "When one has fallen asleep, and entered altogether wholly and completely into rest, so that he beholds no dream image,—that is the Self, that is the immortal, the fearless, Brahman."—To the objection of Indra, that in this condition consciousness of one's self, and of other things also, ceases, so that it is, as it were, an entering into nothingness, Prajâpati finally answers: "Mortal, verily, O mighty one is this body, possessed of death; it is the dwelling-place of that immortal, bodiless Self. The embodied is possessed by desire and pain; for because he is embodied, no turning away from desire and pain is possible. But the bodiless are not moved by desire and pain.—Bodiless is the wind; the clouds, the lightning, the thunder are bodiless. Therefore as these rise out of the universe [in which they are bound, as the soul is, in the body], and enter into the highest light, and thereby stand forth in their own form, so also this perfect peace [that is, the soul in deep sleep] rises out of this body, and enters into the highest light, and thereby stands forth in its own form: that is the highest spirit, which wanders there, sporting and playing and delighting himself, whether with women or with chariots or “with friends [cf. above p. 161], and thinks no longer of this “servile body, to which the Prâna is yoked as a beast of “draught to the car.—When the eye is directed to the uni- “verse, this [the Prâna] is the spirit in the eye, the eye [it- “self] is [only] the means; and he who wishes to smell, is the “Âtman, the nose is only the means; and he who wishes to “speak, is the Âtman, the voice is only the means; and he “who wishes to hear, is the Âtman, the ear is only the means; “and he who wishes to understand, is the Âtman, the under- “standing is his godlike eye [embracing past and future]; with “this godlike eye, the understanding, he beholds those delights “and enjoys them. Those gods [who were taught like Indra] “in the world of Brahman worship him as the Self; therefore “possess they all worlds and all wishes. He gains all worlds “and all wishes, who has found this Self and knows it. Thus “spoke Prajâpati.”

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⁸⁵ He who holds the body to be the Self, cannot believe in any life after death. Probably the passage, as also what goes before (*Asurânâm hi eshâ upanishad*) is to be understood ironically.—Çankara's view, of which below, we cannot agree with.

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In contrast with our view of this passage, which would recognise in the three chief answers of Prajâpati (at least, as they are understood by the questioners) the expression of three philosophical standpoints, the materialistic, for which the Self is the body, the realistic, for which it is the individual soul, and the idealistic, denying all plurality, for which it is the highest soul,—in contrast to this, the only view as it appears to us, which fits the whole context, Çañkara adheres to the view that, already in the first answer, the beholding, individual self which dwells in the eye is to be understood (p. 261, 2), so that “the man (or spirit), who is seen in the eye,” becomes a man “who sees in the eye.” He expressly rejects the view, that the picture mirrored in the eye is meant, because otherwise Prajâpati would not have told the truth (p. 266, 13); but it is not necessary to assume with him, “that Prajâpati, if in “each answer we were to understand something different, would “be an imposter” (p. 268, 8); for the formula with which he each time introduces his explanation: “this will I further ex- “plain to thee,” suits well a view of the Self which grows deeper step by step.—In the third answer also, as Çañkara develops it, the individual soul is to be understood, yet as it passes over to another condition (p. 261, 5), namely, as, rising out of the body, it becomes the highest spirit (p. 262, 3), so its true nature is revealed (p. 262, 6), according to which it is not individual, but the highest Brahman itself (p. 263, 2). "This in fact is, according to passages of scripture like 'that 'thou art' (Chând. 6, 8, 7), the real nature (*pâramârthikam* *svarûpam*) of the individual soul, not the other, which is "formed through limitations (*upâdhi*). So long, therefore, as "one does not put aside the Ignorance which affirms plurality, "which is like taking the trunk of a tree for a man [p. 263, "5; the same image p. 44, 2. 86, 12. 448, 2: cf. Platon, Phileb., "p. 38 D], so long as one has not reached the highest, eternal "Self, appearing according to its own nature, by the know"ledge that 'I am Brahman' (Brih. 1, 4, 10), so long the in"dividual soul is individual. But if a man rises above the "aggregate of body, senses, Manas and Buddhi and has been "taught, by the scripture, that man is not an aggregate of "body, senses, Manas and Buddhi, not a wandering soul, but "on the contrary that of which it is said (Chând. 6, 8, 7), "'that is the real, that is the soul'—consisting of pure in"telligence, 'that thou art,' then he knows the highest eternal "Self which appears according to its own nature; as by this "means he raises himself above the illusion of this [reading "asmât] body etc., he goes to that very highest, eternal Self "which appears according to its own nature; for thus says "the scripture (Muṇḍ. 3, 2, 9): 'Verily, he who knows this "highest Brahman, himself becomes Brahman'" (p. 263, 4 to 264, 3). As such the soul stands forth "in its own form," as gold, when by corroding materials it is freed from the addition of other substances (p. 264, 5), or as the stars, when the day which overpowered them is gone, stand forth by night in their own form (p. 264, 8). However the eternal, spiritual light is never overpowered by anything; on the contrary, like space, it does not come in contact with the sensual world, and stands in contradiction to it (p. 264, 10). The individual soul, so long as it has not been raised above the body [which is what happens in deep sleep], is seeing, hearing, thinking, knowing. Were it so also, after being lifted above the body, then the contradiction [just stated] would not exist [p. 265, 3;

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I read *avirudhyeta*, optative with a *privativum*. Therefore the position of things is such that we must distinguish between the condition of the soul *before* its separation from the limitations, body, senses, Manas, Buddhi, sensibility to pain and object, and its condition *after* separation from them. Before the separation it is apparently affected by the Upâdhis, as the crystal is by the colour outside it; after the separation, it stands forth in its own nature, as the crystal, after the colour is put away (p. 265). Thus the embodiment or bodilessness of the soul only depends on whether one does or does not distinguish it from the Upâdhis (p. 266, 2), and the distinction of the individual and the highest soul rests only on false knowledge, not on an action of things, which is not possible, because the soul, like space, does not adhere to them (p. 266, 8). Only the knowledge of these, only the (individual) knowledge of differences (*viçeṣa-vijñānam*) is removed in deep sleep, not knowledge in its entirety (p. 267, 7); for the scripture says (Bṛih. 4, 3, 30): "For the knower there is no interruption of knowing."—Some try to evade this identification of the individual with the highest soul, against the context of the passage; but rather is it the case that after the removal of Ignorance, as the imagined serpent becomes a rope, so also the not truly real individual soul, which is stained by doing and suffering, love and hate and other imperfections, and is subject to much that is evil, is transferred through wisdom to the sinless essence of the highest God, opposed to all these imperfections (p. 268, 10).—Yet others, and some of our Vedântins among them, (realistically) take the individual nature of the soul to be absolutely real; against these the Çārīrakam (Bādarāyaṇa's Sūtras) is directed, in order to shew, that "the alone, supreme, eternal, highest God, whose being is knowledge, through the glamour (*māyā*) of Ignorance, like a magician, appears manifold, and that there is no other element of knowledge outside him" (p. 269, 1). Therefore it is true that God is different from the individual soul [so long as such a soul is spoken of], but the individual soul is not different from God [cf. p. 816, 7: the *prapañca* is brahman, but brahman is not the *prapañca*; and p. 1060, 2: the *saṃsārin* is īçvara, but īçvara is not the saṃsārin], except from the standpoint of Ignorance (p. 269, 10). In waking, the soul is the onlooker in the cage of the body and organs, in dream it lingers in the arteries and looks at the dream-pictures built up of the ideas of the waking state; in deep sleep it enters into the highest light, that is, into Brahman (p. 270, 7). For that Brahman is the highest light, follows from the context (p. 327, 8) and from the above mentioned incorporeality, which belongs to Brahman alone (p. 328, 3), as also from the words "that is the highest spirit" (p. 328, 4).

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4. Brahman as the Soul in the State of Liberation. Sūtras 1, 23, 42—43.

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The section Bṛh. 4, 3—4 (p. 705—919), whose main theme, according to Çaṅkara, is the above, unfolds a picture of the condition of the soul before and after death, which for richness and warmth, is unique in the literature of India, and perhaps in the literature of the world. We translate the passage with some abbreviations and omissions, which will justify themselves, remarking, however, that much, especially in the first part, remains problematic.

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(a) Introduction (4, 3, 1—9).

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To Janaka, king of the Videhas, comes Yājñavalkya, in order to discourse with him.⁸⁶ The king raises the question: "What serves the man [purusha] as light?"—The first answer runs thus: "The sun serves him as a light; for in the light of the sun he sits and moves about, carries on his work and returns home."—"But what serves him as light when the sun is set?"—"The moon."—"And when sun and moon are set?"—"Fire."—"And when sun and moon are set, and the fire has gone out?"—"Voice; therefore, when a man cannot distinguish his own hand, and a voice is raised [reading *uccarati*] somewhere, he goes towards it."—"But when sun and moon are set, and the fire is gone out, and the voice is dumb, what then serves the man as a light?"—"Then his own self (*âtman*) serves him as a light."—"What is, then, this Self?"—"It is that among the life-organs which consists of knowledge, as the spirit shining inwardly in the heart. This remaining the same, wanders through both worlds [this world in waking and in dream, the other in deep sleep and death]; it is as though he meditated, as though he wavering moved [in reality Brahman is without individual knowledge and motion]; for when he has become sleep (*svapno bhûtva*), then [in deep sleep] he transcends this world, the forms of death [all that is transitory, evil]. For, when this spirit is born, when he enters into the body, he is flooded with evil; but when he departs, when he dies, he leaves evil behind. Two conditions are there of this spirit: the present and that in the other world; a middle condition, as third, is that of sleep. While it lingers in this middle condition, it beholds both those conditions, the present [in dream] and that in the other world [in deep sleep]. And according as he has access to the condition in the other world, he proceeds and beholds both, evil [this world, in dream] and bliss [the other world, in deep sleep]."

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⁸⁶ Sam enena vadishya', iti; this is not "an ingenious conjecture" of Regnaud in "his excellent work on the Upanishads" (as may appear from Max Müller, Upanishads I, p. LXXIII ff.), but a variant, which Dvivedagaṅga had already mentioned in his commentary (p. 1141, 13, ed. Weber); Weber adopted it in his edition of the Çatapathabr. (14, 7, 1, 1), and again recalled the fact in his critique of Regnaud's work (Jenaer Literaturz. 1878, 9. Feb., No. 6), to which Regnaud also refers at the beginning of the Errata.—What Max Müller observes as against this reading, can be explained quite well in the opposite sense: precisely because Yājñavalkya intends to discourse with the king, the narrator finds it necessary to give a new motive for the fact that not he, but the king, speaks first. [For another view compare my Sixty Upanishads p. 463.]

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(b) Dreamsleep (4, 3, 9—14. 16—18).

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"But when he sinks to sleep, then he takes from this all-embracing world the wood (*mâtrâm*, materiem), fells it himself and himself builds it, in virtue of his own radiance, his own light;—when he so sleeps, then this spirit serves as its own light. There are no chariots, nor teams, nor roads there, but he forms for himself chariots, and teams, "and roads; there is neither bliss, joy, nor pleasure, but he "creates for himself bliss, joy, and pleasure; there are no "springs, and ponds, and rivers, and but he forms for himself "springs, and ponds, and rivers,—for he is the Creator. On "this subject are these verses:

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"Putting aside in sleep the bodily (çârîram)
"Sleepless the sleeping organs he beholds;
"Then borrowing their light goes back again
"The golden Spirit, only wandering bird.
"He leaves the Life to guard the lower nest
"And soars immortal from the nest himself,
"Immortal, moving wheresoe'er he wills,
"The golden Spirit, only wandering bird.
"In dream, the Spirit upward, downward moves,
"And, as a God, creates Him many forms,
"Now with fair women sporting joyously,
"And now beholding sights that make him fear.
"His playground canst thou see, but not himself,"—

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"therefore it is said: 'let him not be wakened suddenly,' for "hard is one to heal, back to whom the Spirit does not find "its way. Therefore it is said also: 'for him it [sleep] is " 'only a state of waking,' for what he sees in waking, the "same also he sees in sleep. Thus therefore this man serves "as a light to itself... Thereon, after he has enjoyed him"self and wandered forth in dream, and beheld good and evil, "he hastens back, according to his entrance, according to his "place, to the condition of waking; and by all that he beholds "in this he is not touched, for to this Spirit nothing adheres; "—and again, after he has taken delight and wandered forth "in the waking state, and after he has beheld good and evil, "he hastens back, according to his entrance, according to his "place, to the condition of dream. And like as a great fish "glides along both banks, on this side and on that, so glides "the Spirit along both conditions, that of dream and that of "waking [without being touched there]."

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"But like as in yon space a falcon or an eagle, after he "has hovered, wearily folds his pinions, and sinks to rest, thus "also hastens the Spirit to that condition in which, sunk to “sleep, he feels no more desire, nor beholds any more dreams. “That is his form of being, wherein he is raised above long- “ing, free from evil and from fear. For, like as one whom “a beloved woman embraces, has no consciousness of what is “without or what is within, so also the Spirit, embraced by “the Self of knowledge [the Brahman], has no consciousness “of what is without or what is within. That is his form of “being, wherein his longing is stilled, himself is his longing, “he is without longing, and freed from grief. Then the father “is not father, nor the mother, mother, nor the worlds, worlds, “nor the gods, gods, nor the Vedas, Vedas; then is the thief “no thief, the murderer no murderer, the Câṇḍâla no Câṇḍâla, “the Paulkasa no Paulkasa, the ascetic no ascetic, the penitent “no penitent; then he is unmoved by good, unmoved by evil, “then he has vanquished all the torments of the heart.”

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“If then he sees not, yet he is seeing though he does not “see; since, there is no interruption of seeing for the seeing “one, because he is imperishable; but there is then outside “him no second, no other different from him whom he could “see. So too if then he smells not, nor tastes, nor speaks, “nor hears, nor thinks, nor feels, nor knows, yet is he a “knower, even though he does not know; since, for the knower “there is no interruption of knowing, because he is imperish- “able; but there is then no second outside him, no other “different from him, whom he could understand. For only “where, as it were, another is, can one see, smell, taste, address, “hear, think of, feel and know another.”

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“He stands in the tumultuous ocean [cf. Çvet. 6, 15] as “beholder, alone and without a second, he whose world is the “Brahman. This is his highest goal, this is his highest joy, “this is his highest world, this is his highest bliss; through “a little part only of this bliss, other creatures have their “life.”

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“When among men one is fortunate and rich, king over “the others and loaded with all human enjoyments, that is “the highest joy for man. But a hundred of these human “joys are but one joy of the fathers, who have conquered “heaven, and a hundred joys of the fathers who have con- “quered heaven, are but one joy in the world of the Gandharvas, and a hundred joys in the world of the Gandharvas are but one joy of the Gods through works, who by their works have attained to godhead, and a hundred joys of the Gods through works are but one joy of the Gods by birth, and of one learned in the scripture and without falseness and free from desire; and a hundred joys of the Gods by birth are but one joy of Prajâpati’s world and of one learned in the scripture and without falseness and free from desire; and a hundred joys of Prajâpati’s world are but one joy of the Brahman-world, and of one learned in the scripture and without falseness and free from desire. And this is the highest joy, this is Brahman-world.”

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(d) Death (4, 3, 35–4, 4, 2).

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“As a cart, when it is heavily laden, creaks as it goes, so also this bodily Self, burdened by the Self of knowledge, goes croaking [rattling], when one is lying at death’s door. And when he falls into weakness, whether it be through old-age or sickness that he falls into weakness, then, as a mango-fruit, a fig, a berry, lets go its stalk, so the Spirit lets go the limbs and hastens backward, according to his entrance, according to his place, back into the Life . . . And like as to a king, when he will forth, the chiefs, and officers, and charioteers, and rulers of villages gather together, so also, at the time of his end, to the soul all life-organs come together, when one is lying at death’s door. When, therefore, the soul falls into swoon, and is as if it had lost all sense, even then these life-organs gather themselves together to the soul; and it takes up these force-elements into itself and withdraweth to the heart; but the Spirit, which dwells in the eye, returns outwards [to the sun, whence it descends, cf. above p. 66]; then recognises he no more forms. Because he has come to unity, therefore he sees not, thus it is said, because he has come to unity, therefore he smells not, tastes not, speaks not, hears not, thinks not, feels not, knows not. Then the point of the heart becomes luminous; from it, after it has become luminous, the Soul departs, whether it be “through the eye, or through the skull, or through any other “part of the body. As it departs, the Life also departs; as “the Life departs, all the life-organs depart with it. It is of “the nature of knowledge, and what is of the nature of know- “ledge, departs after it.”

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(e) The unliberated Soul after Death (4, 4, 2—6).

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“Then knowledge and works take it [the soul] by the hand “and their newly gained experience” [if we may read *apūrva-prajñā*].—

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“As a caterpillar, after it has reached the end of the leaf, “lays hold of another beginning and draws itself over to it, “so also the soul, after it has shaken off the body and let “Ignorance go, lays hold of another beginning, and draws “itself over to it.”

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“As a goldsmith takes the material of one piece of work, “and out of it hammers another, newer, more beautiful form,⁸⁷ “so this soul also, after it has shaken off the body and let “Ignorance go, shapes itself another, newer, more beautiful “form, whether of the Fathers or the Gandharvas or the “Gods or Prajāpati or the Brahman or other beings.”

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⁸⁷ Compare Pythagoras in Ovid, Met. XV, 169 seq.: Utque novis facilis signatur cera figuris, Nec manet ut fuerat, nec formas servat easdem, Sed tamen ipsa eadem est, animam sic semper eandem Esse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras.

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“Verily, this Self is the Brahman, consisting of Intelligence, “of Manas, of Life, of eye, of ear, consisting of earth, of “water, of wind, of ether, consisting of fire and not of fire, “of pleasure and not of pleasure, of anger and not of anger, “of righteousness and not of righteousness, consisting of all. “And according as anyone consists of this or of that, accord- “ing to his deeds and conduct, according to that is he born; “he who does good will be born as a good man, he who does “evil will be born as an evil man, holy he becomes through “holy work, evil through evil. For verily it is said: ‘Man is “altogether formed of desire (*kāma*); and according as his “desire is, so is his will (*kratu*), and according as his will ‘is, so performs he the work (karman), according as he performs the work, so it befalls him.’—Thereon is this verse:

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“That he pursues, and strives by deeds to reach,
“Toward which his character and longing is.—
“After he has received reward
“For all that he has here performed,
“He comes back from that other world
“Into this world of deeds below.”

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“Thus is it with him who desires (kāmayamāna).”

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(f) Liberation (4, 4, 6—23).

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“Now as to him who desires not (akāmayamāna)”: “He who is without desire, free from desire, whose desire is stilled, who is himself his desire, his vital spirits do not depart; but Brahman is he and into Brahman he resolves himself. On this is this verse:

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“When every passion utterly is gone,
“That lurks and nestles in the heart of man,
“Then finds this mortal immortality,
“Then has he reached the Brahman, the Supreme.”

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“As the slough of a snake lies dead and cast away on an ant-heap, so lies this body then; but the bodiless, the immortal, the Life is Brahman only, is light only.”—

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“On this are these verses:

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“A narrow path and old it is, which I have found and trod;
“The sage, released, upon his way to heaven taked this road.
“Whatever name you give to it, white, black, brown, red, or green,
“This is the only path for those who have the Brahman seen;
“On this he goes, who Brahman knows,
“And does the right, in form of light.

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“The man who lives in Ignorance moves on to blindest gloom;
“To blinder still goes he who would by works escape his doom.
“Yea joyless is this world for man and hidden in black night:
“And to it after death he goes who hath not learned the right.

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“But he whose mind the inner Self in Thought hath learned to grasp,
“Why should he longer seek to bear the body’s pain and woe?
“For when a man in spite of all the stains of mortal sin,
“The great awakening to the Self hath won, and learned to see,
“Him as creator of the worlds, almighty shalt thou know,
“His is the universe, because the universe is he.

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“And while we yet are here below, may we this knowledge gain,
“If not, illusion cleaves to us, brings ruin in its train.
“For they who have the knowledge are immortal though they die,
“But they who have not gained it must return to misery.

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“He who God’s very self in his own bosom sees—
“Lord of what was and is to come—no more he flees.

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“Him ’neath whose feet the mighty tide of days and years rolls past,
“In whom the fivefold host of things and space itself stands fast,
“Whom gods as light of lights adore, as immortality,
“The Brahman know I as my deathless Self, for I am he.

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“Breath of the breath and very mind of mind,
“Ear of the ear, and apple of the eye,
“Who knoweth him as this hath truly seen
“Old Brahman, who is from eternity.

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“Musing in spirit shall ye see:
“That here is no plurality,
“Their never ending death they weave,
“Who here a manifold perceive.

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“The Âtman is unchangeable, immense, a unity,
“High above space and stain of sin, unchanging, great is he.

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“Muse upon him if thou wouldst wisdom find,
“Use but few words.—They’re weariness of mind.”

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“Truly this great, unborn Self is that among the life-organs which consists of knowledge [as the spirit shining inwardly]! Here, inwardly in the heart is a space, therein he lies, the lord of the universe, the ruler of the universe, the prince of the universe; he grows not higher through good works, nor less through evil works; he is the lord of the universe, the ruler of beings, the guardian of beings; he is the bridge, which holds these worlds asunder, that they blend not [cf. above p. 162].”

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“Him the Brahmans seek to know through Vedic studies, through offerings, alms, penances, and fasts; who knows him, becomes a Muni. To him the pilgrims go in pilgrimage, when they long for home (loka).”

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“This knew those of old, when they longed not for descendants, and said: ‘Why should we wish indeed for descendants, “we whose self is this universe?’ And they ceased from the longing after children, from the longing after possessions, from the longing after the world and wandered forth as beggars. For longing for children is longing for possessions, and longing for possessions is longing for the world; for one like the other is merely longing.”

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“But He, the Âtman, is not thus nor thus. He is incomprehensible, for He is not comprehended, indestructible, for He is not destroyed, unaffected, for nothing affects Him; He is unfettered, He trembles not, He suffers no hurt.”

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“[He who knows thus,] is overcome by neither, whether he has therefore [because he was in the body] done evil or whether he has done good; but he overcomes both; he is not burned by what he has done or not done. This also says the verse:

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“This is the eternal majesty of Brahman’s friend,
“He doth not rise by works, nor yet doth he descend.
“Then follow after this; who after this hath toiled,
“Will by his evil deed no more be stained and soiled.”

c6.s6.t3.53

“Therefore he who knows thus, is calm, subdued, resigned, patient and collected; in his own Self only he beholds the Self, he beholds all as the Self: evil doth not overcome him, he overcomes all evil, evil doth not burn him, he burns all evil; free from evil, free from passion, and free from doubt, he becomes a Brâhmaṇa, whose world is the Brahman!”—

c6.s6.t3.54

“Thus spoke Yâjñavalkya. Then said the king: ‘O holy man, I give thee my people in servitude and myself also.’”

c6.s6.t3.55

It might be thought, Çankara remarks on this section, that in it the individual soul is treated of, because towards the beginning and towards the end (under a and f) “that among the life-organs which consists of knowledge” is spoken of (p. 330, 9); but we are rather to think of the highest soul all through, since in the passage concerning deep sleep and death it is distinguished from the individual soul, in the case of deep sleep, where it is said that the spirit is “embraced by the Self of knowledge” (p. 331, 2), in the moment of death, where a burdening of the bodily self, that is, the individual soul, by the Self of knowledge, is spoken of (p. 331, 7). For that which is "of the nature of knowledge" (*prajña*) is [in direct contrast with the terminology of the Vedântasâra, cf. note 82, p. 180] none other than the highest God, who is so called because he is eternally inseparable from omniscience (p. 331, 6). But with regard to the passage mentioned, at the beginning and the end, it is said there (under *a*): "it is as "though it meditated, it is as though it wavering moved," and (under *f*): "truly this great, unborn Self is that among the "life-organs which consists of knowledge," clearly proving that the individual soul is mentioned here solely in order to teach its identity with the highest soul (p. 332, 1—6). Also the conditions of waking and sleep are mentioned only in order to shew the soul's freedom from them; for it is said (under *b* and *c*), that the Spirit is not troubled by the images in waking and dreaming, and again, that it is not troubled by good and evil (p. 332, 12), as also the king repeatedly breaks out into the exclamation [omitted by us]: "say what "higher than this, makes for liberation" (p. 332, 11). Lastly, the passages (under *f*) "the Lord of the Universe" etc., and "he grows not higher through good works" etc., shew that we are to think, not of the individual, but of the highest soul (p. 333).

Cites (6)

Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Chāndogyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Muṇḍakopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Brahmasūtra — Bādarāyaṇa, Sanskrit
Śvetāśvataropaniṣad — Śvetāśvatara, Sanskrit
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit