A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s2.12

c4.s2.12

(viii) As against the dialectical and the synthetic methods, we have what we may call the monologic method, the method of soliloquy. The Upanishadic philosophers are generally very chary of imparting spiritual wisdom; but it so happens occasionally that when they have given the right answer to their questioners' problem, they overhit themselves in their exposition, and lose themselves in a soliloquy in the midst of many. Thus it was that Yājñavalkya at the Symposium, after he had answered the question propounded to him by Uddālaka, lost himself into a reverie, and began to think aloud on the universal immanence of God in the famous passage which has been known as the Antaryāmi-Brāhmaṇa. Thus was it also that Yājñavalkya poured himself out in his conversation with Janaka on the immutable nature of Ātman in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka IV. 3-4. Finally, even though Yama, in the Kaṭhopanishad, was unwilling to impart wisdom to Nachiketas on the third question which was asked him by Nachiketas, when once he began to speak, he spoke in a philosophical monologue which absolutely overhit the bounds of the original question. The truth is, that in the case of these Upanishadic philosophers, it does not generally rain; but when it does rain, it pours profusely.