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Adventures in Philosophy

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

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The Self

by Yajnavalkya

 

In sooth, a husband is dear, -- not because you love the husband; but, a husband is dear because you love the Self. In sooth, a wife is dear, -- not because you love the wife; but a wife is dear because you love the Self.... In sooth, the gods are dear, -- not because you love the gods; but gods are dear because you love the Self. In sooth, beings are dear, -- not because you love beings; but beings are dear because you love the Self. In sooth, the whole world is dear, -- not because you love the whole world; but the whole world is dear because you love the Self.

In very truth, it is the Self that should be seen, heard, thought and meditated.... Indeed, when the Self is seen, heard, thought and understood, everything is comprehended....

It is as when a drum is beaten: You cannot lay hold of the sound at large, but by laying hold of the drum or the beater of the drum, the sound is seized....

It is as with a lump of salt: Thrown into water, it dissolves [making] it impossible to retrieve it; but wherever you may dip, it is salty throughout. In the same manner it is, truly, with this great, infinite, boundless Being which consists of intelligence: Emerging from the elements, it becomes immersed in them again. After death there is no consciousness.... For, where there is, as it were, a duality, there you see one another, smell one another, hear one another, talk to one another, understand one another, recognize one another. But where everything has become one's self, -- how could you smell anything, see anything, hear anything, talk to anyone, think anything, discern anything? How could you discern that by which all is discerned? How could you discern the discerner?...

... It is your self which is in all things.... You could not see the Seer in seeing, you could not hear the hearer in hearing, you could not think the thinker in thinking, you could not discern the discerner in discerning. It is your self that is in everything. Anything else [means] woe....

... That which [though] dwelling in all being, beings do not know, whose body all beings are, governs all beings from within, -- that is your Self, the inner controller, the immortal one.... It is the seer that is not seen, the hearer that is not heard, the thinker that is not thought, the discerner that is not discerned. There is nothing apart from it that sees, nothing apart from it that hears, nothing apart from it that thinks, nothing apart from it that discerns. It is your Self, the inner controller, the immortal....

... That which is above the heavens, that which is below the earth, that which is between both heaven and earth, is what is called the past, present and future. It is woven, warp and woof, in space... That [which space is woven in] Brahmans call the Imperishable: It is not coarse, not fine, not short, not long, not glowing, not clinging, not shadowy, not dark; it is windless, etherless, unattached, tasteless, odorless, eyeless, earless, speechless, nonenergetic, breathless, mouthless, descentless, endless, without inside or outside; it does not consume anything, nor is it consumed by anything....

Verily,... he who does not know this Imperishable and [yet] sacrifices, worships and practices penance in this world for thousands of years on end, -- to him it is of limited [avail]. Indeed,;;; who departs from this world and does not know this Imperishable, he is to be pitied. But he...who departs from this world and knows that Imperishable, he is a Brahman.

... The Self is not this, it is not that. It is inconceivable, for it cannot be conceived. It is indestructible, for it cannot be destroyed. It is unattached, for it does not attach itself. It is unbound, It does not come to naught. It does not fail....

 

Excerpted from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.

At Amazon Books

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Yajnavalkya's Smriti: With the Commentary of Vijnanesvara, Called the Mitaksara & the Gloss of Balambhatta (Sacred Books of the Hindus Number 2)

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Classical Indian Philosophy

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Seven Systems of Indian Philosophy

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Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought



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