The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s5.28

v2.c39.s5.28

Even the more imposing conceptions of being and not-being prove to have little profundity. Being does not denote in the Brāhmaṇas the whole of existence as a unity, contrasted with the imperfect plurality of the individual; it is essentially the term to denote that whence the world emerged, and the Vedic thinker proceeds to ask whence it itself came, evolving the answers not-being or something beyond both being and not-being, identified in the usual light-hearted manner in one passage with mind.⁶ Not-being naturally as the foundation of all things is subject to similar identifications; it may be said to be the seers, or to practise austerities, or to desire to become being, mere verbal intricacies without trace of serious thought.⁷