Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c6.s3.23

c6.s3.23

This realization of truth is described as *Darśana* or ' perception ' of Truth. *Ātmā vā are drashṭavyaḥ* in the passage quoted above means that the Ātman or the Self must be " seen ". The theory is that seeing is believing, and so the reality of the diversity of the material objective world, in which we believe, because we *see* it, is to be pitted against the other reality of unity, which must be equally *seen*. The *Ātman* must be as much the subject of immediate perception as the material world of diversity. Then alone will the one result of immediate perception be wiped off and replaced by the other. At the Congress of Philosophers that met at the court of King Janaka of Videha (the world's first Philosophical Congress), the philosopher Ushasta put to Yājñavalkya the question : " when any one says that is an ox, that is a horse ', it is thereby pointed out. Point out to me the revealed, unveiled Brahma, the Ātman which dwells in everything. The Ātman which dwells in everything—What is that, O Yājñavalkya ? " (*Bṛi. Upa.*)