The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s7.t1.4

v2.c40.s7.t1.4

A further passage which has been adduced in this connexion is the declaration of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad¹ regarding the modifications of the three fundamental constituents of being, fire, water, food; just as all that is made of clay, copper, or iron, is only a modification, a verbal expression (*vācārambhaṇa*), a mere name, the reality being clay, copper, or iron, so all things can be reduced to the three primary forms of reality. Further, all reality, it is clearly indicated, is reducible to reality only, all things being mere modifications, &c. In Deussen’s view² we have here the first open assertion of the unreality of the universe, a doctrine which shortly afterwards was to be realized by Parmenides in the famous declaration: