A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c5.s2.4

c5.s2.4

It is interesting to note that in this explanation of the creation of various categories of existence, the function always follows the structure in the microcosm of the intermediary Person, but always precedes it in the macrocosm of the Universe. Thus the organs of sense, such as the mouth, the nostrils, the eye and the ear were created in the Person before their functions namely, speech, breath, sight, and hearing, which having been created were the cause of the creation of objective existences such as fire, air, the sun and the quarters in the macrocosm of the Universe. The Ātman thereupon attacked the Person with Hunger and Thirst, which, in the Aitareyan cosmogony, reminds us of Love and Hate in Empedoklean cosmology. Hunger and Thirst said to the Ātman, find us places in this creation. The Ātman replied to them that he would find them places in the deities themselves, and thus he made them co-partners with them. It is for this reason that whenever any offerings are made to a deity, Hunger and Thirst are always allotted a share in those offerings. After the creation in this fashion of the Worlds, the Cosmic Person, the World-governors, and Hunger and Thirst, the Ātman next proceeded to create Matter as food for them all, ......which being created, the Ātman finally proceeded to create the Soul in the human body. ‘How shall this body live without me ?', he thought to himself, ' but how may I enter this ?' Having thus bethought himself, he rent open the place where the hair are made to part, and entered by that door. This is called the " door of division ". This also is the " place of rejoicing ". It is at that place that women part their hair. It is at that place that on the skulls of children we see a hole. It is on that spot that when a Saṃnyāsin dies, a cocoanut is broken with the purpose of releasing his pent-up Soul. To come to our argument, when the Ātman entered the body by the door of division, and was so born as the individual Soul, he began to be subject, so the Aitareyopanishad tells us, to the three states of consciousness, namely, the waking, the dreaming and the deep-sleep state of consciousness. After having been born, the individual Soul began to look about himself at all things to see whether they proclaimed a *ἕτερος*, but to his great astonishment only saw the supreme Brahman spread everywhere. It is for the reason that the individual Soul saw (drā) the Brahman (Idam) spread everywhere that he is called Idandra, which by contraction has become Indra, a mysterious name given to the Godhead by the mystery-loving gods (S. 17). We thus see how the individual Soul was the last object to be created by the Ātman and how ultimately there is a metaphysical identity between the individual Soul and the supreme Soul.