The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s11.3

v2.c40.s11.3

In the Rigveda and in the Brāhmaṇas the ideal aimed at is length of days on earth and life in the world of heaven in companionship with the gods. In the Brāhmaṇas we find that the reward of community of being, companionship, and fellowship with the gods is promised to the performers of various rites, in the case of diverse gods, Agni most of all, but also Vāyu, Indra, Varuṇa, Āditya, Bṛhaspati, Prajāpati, and finally even with the impersonal Brahman.⁵ The gods are then reduced to the position of being no more than means by which entry to the Brahman can be obtained, and even Agni is placed in this position as well as Indra and Prajāpati. When the Brahman is also regarded as the Ātman, the end becomes unity with the Ātman, and this was the saving mode of emancipation, before transmigration was believed in. The knower of the wise long-emancipated youthful Ātman ceases to fear death;⁶ the finder of the Ātman ceases to be stained by action;⁷ knowledge leads to the place where desire is at rest, where no sacrificial gift reaches, nor the penance of the ignorant.¹ It is clear that what is contemplated is attaining by knowledge union with the Brahman, but the influence of the traditional view is seen in the fact that it is still regarded as the arrival at a world of heaven as if the Ātman were without the self.² The same conflict appears in the view that the Ātman is the infinitely great and the infinitely small, and that on the departure of the soul, it is to go to the Ātman, and enter in. In all these passages it is necessary to recognize that the knowledge of the Ātman leads only to unity with the Ātman after death, and that the unity is conceived on the old model of community with a deity.