The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s6.4

v2.c40.s6.4

The pantheistic view is undoubtedly present in the many passages in which the development of the world from the absolute is expressed in metaphors: thus in the metaphor of the spider from which the thread proceeds, or the fire whence come forth the sparks.² Often too the Ātman is declared to pervade the whole of the universe, it is likened to the lump of salt which in water disappears, indeed, but leaves all pervaded by it,³ a view which must be older than the more refined conception, which, as we have seen, is applied to the Ātman when the object of comparison is a lump of salt, which has no inner or outer aspect, but is but one in itself. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad⁴ compares the self to the light which penetrates everywhere, and adapts itself to every form. This view is found also in another form, in the laying down of the view of the self as the inward controller, as the greatest of powers, in which the heaven and the earth alike are contained. This view sets the self over against the world, and in doing so it adopts the old view that the seat of the self is the heart,¹ in which accordingly the lord of the universe resides, infinitely small, yet greater than the earth, the atmosphere, and the heaven. He is the protector of the universe, the guardian of mankind, the bond which holds the worlds together and prevents them coming into conflict. It is in this connexion that the terms ² *tat tvam asi*, ‘that thou art’, and *etad vai tat*,³ ‘that is this’, must be understood: they assert the essential identity of the self and the universe, but they do not necessarily or originally depend on the adoption of the view of Yājñavalkya, though they may later be regarded as a natural adaptation of it to meet the question of the relation of the universe and the final reality.