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That same is the Fire, that is the Sun, that the Wind, that the Moon; that same is the Bright, that Brahma, that the Waters, that the Creator. Thou art woman, Thou art man, Thou art boy and maiden; Thou art the old man tottering on the staff; Thou art born with face looking all ways. Thou art the black bird, the green with red eyes, the lightning-bearing [cloud], the seasons, the seas; Thou art that which is beginningless, Thou livest in universal presence, whence are born all beings... In vision of the Lord, the bounteous worshipful [p. 101] [paragraph continues] God, who stands sole warder over every womb, in whom this All falls together and dissolves asunder, man comes to this everlasting peace. May He who is the fount and origin of the gods, the lord of all, Rudra, the great sage, who beheld the Germ of Gold coming into being, unite us with blessed understanding... Where there is not darkness, nor day and night, nor being or not-being, but the Gracious One alone, that is the Unfading, that is the lovely [light] of Savita ; thence has streamed forth the ancient Intelligence. He may not be grasped above, nor athwart, nor in the midst. There is no likeness of Him whose name is Great Glory. His form is not to be beheld; none sees Him with the eye. Deathless they become who in heart and mind know Him as heart-dwelling. Footnotes ^98:1 S'vetas'vatara Upanishad, iii. 8--iv. 20. This work, one of the earliest metrical Upanishads, is marked by a singular combination of philosophical idealism with theistic feeling. In it Brahma appears as a living God, especially in his manifestation as S'iva, or Rudra, the spirit of cosmic destruction. Here accordingly we find the first expression of the doctrine of Divine Grace and of worship in love, which later became one of the chief features in Hindu religion, especially in the Vishnuite church. ^99:1 Compare Kath. Upan. vi. 1. The universe is compared to an as'vattha tree, the Ficus religiosa, of which the branches are the phenomenal world and the root Brahma. ^99:2 S'iva, a title of Rudra which has gradually ousted the, latter name. ^99:3 See extract vii., p. 68. ^99:4 Compare above, p. 61. ^99:5 Compare extract vii., above. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com XVI. THE ADVAITA-MAKARANDA OF LAKSHMiDHARA [*3] 1. Homage to Krishna of infinite bliss, the incarnate blessing of the world, who by the sunbeams [p. 102] of his glances evaporates the ocean of delusion! 2. Always I [*1] am, I give light; never am I unbeloved; thus I am proved to be Brahma, consisting in Being, Thought, and Bliss. 3. In me, the sky of Thought, arises the mirage of the universe [*2]; then how can I be aught but Brahma, knowing all, cause of all? 4. Destruction cannot come upon me from myself, because of my recognition; nor from anything else, for I have no parts; nor from the destruction of an [external] basis, for I have no such basis. [*3] 5. I, the ether of Thought, cannot be dried, burned, soaked, or cut even by real wind, fire, water, or weapons, much less by imaginary ones. [*4] 6. The universe, having no light of its own, [p. 103] could not possibly come to light but for the presence of light; I am the Light, and therefore am everywhere. [*1] 7. Without manifestation there can be no Being, without consciousness there can be no manifestation of the unconscious, and without transference there can be no union with consciousness. Thus I have none beside me. [*2] 8. I am not body, nor organ of sense, nor vital function, nor mind, nor intelligence; for they are embraced by the idea of "mine" and are a playground for the conception of "this." [*3] 9. I am the Witness, related to all things, most [p. 104] dear; I am never the Ego, for that is plunged in affections, limitations, and pains. [*1] 10. When the Ego is [dreamlessly] slumbering, sorrow, guilt, and activity do not appear; thus it is he who wanders, not I, who am the wanderer's witness. [*2] 11. The sleeper [*3] knows not his sleeping; in him who sleeps not there is no dreaming and no waking. I am the Witness of waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep, and thus am not under these conditions. 12. [Dreamless] sleep is a halting of [finite] understanding, dreaming and waking are the rise thereof; how can these three exist in me, who am the Witness of them and infinite of knowledge? [p. 105] 13. I am the one who knows the beings of sixfold change, [*1] and myself changeless; were it not so, I should be altogether incapable of observing their changes. 14. For a changing thing goes again and again through birth and dissolution in this and that form; how can it be an observer of these [changes]? 15. Nor can any one behold his own birth and destruction; for these are [respectively] the last and first moments of antecedent and subsequent non-being. [*2] 16. How can the not-Light touch the Self which is Light itself, and by whose light alone are caused the words, "I give not light"? [*3] 17. Nevertheless there is apparent in the sky [p. 106] of Thought a certain mist which subsists on the lack of reflection and ends with the rise of the sun of reflection. [*1] 18. In this long-drawn dream of which our world is made, and which arises from the great slumber of Self-ignorance, there appear Heaven, Salvation, and the other phantoms. [*2] 19. This distinction between unconscious and conscious being is imaginarily imposed on me, the conscious being, like the distinction between moving and motionless figures in a picture on a level wall. 20. Even my Witnesshood is unreal, is but a colouring reflected from the objects of thought; it merely suggests the billowless ocean of Thought. [*3] 21. I, the ocean of ambrosia, decay not because phantom bubbles arise; I, the mountain of crystal, am not flushed by the play of dream-fashioned evening clouds. [*4] [p. 107] 22. Being is my very essence, not a property, like ether's being; for as there is no Being save me, no class-concept [of Being] can be allowed. [*1] 23. Knowledge is my very essence, not a quality; if it were a quality, [Soul] would be if intelligible not-Self, and if unintelligible non-being. [*2] 24. Bliss am I, which is naught else [but me]; were it aught else, it would not be bliss; for if not subordinate to me, it would not be agreeable, and if subordinate, it could not be of itself agreeable. 25. No real thing forsooth can ever be of diverse essences; thus I am without inward distinction, void of the differences arising from the world. 26. By the words "That art thou" is indicated a Power of single essence, pure by the absence of the variety [consisting in] the transcendence [of [p. 108] the Supreme] and the distinction [of individual souls]. [*1] 27. I am the Power self-authoritative and absolute, in which are stilled the phantom figures of the world and separate souls, of disciples and masters. 28. May this "Nectar of Monism" of the poet Lakshmidhara, gathered from the autumnal lotuses of poesy, be drunk by the scholar-bees. Footnotes ^101:1 See above, section 4. ^101:2 The light of the sun; Rig-veda, III. lxii. 10 ^101:3 This is a somewhat modern poem, which is here added as it conveys with great clearness the leading psychological doctrines of the later Vedant. ^102:1 Throughout this little work the pronoun "I" is used to denote the individual soul as witness of the sense of personality, (aham-kara, egoity), and the other "determinations" of soul, while itself it consciously transcends them. The verse means that as the same predicates--existence, thought, and agreeableness--apply both to the soul and to Brahma, these two are identical. ^102:2 See above, section 16. ^102:3 The soul is eternal; for it cannot be destroyed from within, since it has self-recognition, i.e. continuous consciousness of self-identity; and it cannot be destroyed from without, for as it has no parts it cannot be dissolved into its parts; and as it is dependent upon nothing but itself it cannot suffer from the destruction of its basis. ^102:4 The physical elements, which seem real, are in truth imaginary. ^103:1 In the process of cognition, according to the Vedanta, there are two elements--viz. the object or matter of the cognition and the subject of it. The former, being wholly lifeless and inert, can only emerge into consciousness when the light of subject Thought falls upon it from without. The first word of this verse, abha-rupasya, is wrongly printed abharupasya and accordingly mistranslated in the "Pandit" of 1873, pp. 11, 130. ^103:2 No object exists unless it becomes cognised--i.e. it becomes the object of a subject conscious thereof. Thus conscious being enters into relation with unconscious being; and how is this possible? It can only be explained by assuming an adhyasa or "transference," an inveterate error of the individual consciousness making it identify itself with the phenomenal world, which is properly nothing more than an unreal emanation of the consciousness. Hence there exists in reality nothing but consciousness. See S'ankara on Brahma-sutra, i. 1. ^103:3 The sense-organs (indriya), vital functions (prana), sensorium (manas), and intelligence (dhi, i.e. buddhi), are only "determinants," upadhis, external to the soul; see p. 28 f. ^104:1 The "witness" is the consciousness impassively cognising the affections of the psychical upadhis, such as love or hate. It is "related to all things," for things exist only in so far as they are objects of thought (see v. 7). It is thus universal Being, Thought, and Bliss. On the error of confusing the absolute Self with the Ego, see p. 45. The Ego (aham-kara) is really the subject of dreaming and dreamless sleep and waking, not the transcendental Self, according to the later, Vedanta.