The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s2.81

v2.c40.s2.81

No serious advance in logic is made over the Brāhmaṇas, though faint traces of induction by simple enumeration may be traced.⁷ On the other hand, there is a certain gain in literary form; the description of the unity of the universe produces passages of much higher feeling than was possible when dealing with the sacrifice,⁸ and distinct power is shown in the invention of such designations of the Ātman as 'Not so, not so,' which excludes all particularization, while the phrase 'That thou art' not unworthily sums up the mystery of the identity of the self and the universe. In other cases we have empty mysticism as in the unintelligible *jalān*⁹ or *tadvanam*¹⁰ as expressions of the absolute. One distinctive feature of value is the use of similes, often of complexity and interest; they are treated as conclusive arguments, though often only fanciful analogies, and though as always, if these are pressed, they tend to confuse the precise meaning of the text, and have afforded cause for doubt both to ancient and to modern interpreters.¹¹ Riddles, inherited from the sacrificial tradition, are curiously rare, though not unknown, and in the earlier Upaniṣads the employment of verse is restricted, though it occurs here and there in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya. Interesting as presaging the manner of the Pāli texts is the constant repetition of the same idea in slightly different forms; thus whatever is said of one sense is normally repeated verbatim, with only the essential changes, for another; the generic terms which would have spared the tedium have not yet been invented or even felt to be necessary and appropriate.¹