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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. chief; for no sooner does the idea come than the understanding becomes conscious of the many non-existent, and thus the multifarious not-Self is conceived in its womb, as an idea, or illusion, albeit only to be contradicted. The thought now becomes 'I am, not this,' which is equivalent to the Sanskrit 'aham etat na' (I this not). The idea has also been expressed by a single word, satya (truth), which is composed of three syllables, sa, ti and ya, sa implying the unperishing Self, ti, the perishing, and ya, the nexus or connection between the sa and the ti. The 'this' of 'I this not' refers to the totality of the illusory existences, that is, the entire universe of illusion.
This is the how of the one becoming or, to be more precise, appearing as many. This also explains the position of the illusion which, in the language of Bribad Aranyaka Upanishad (Chap. V. 5. 1.), is in the middle of Satya,' i.e., between the sa and the ya,-a layer of falsehood encompassed on either side by truth, in other words, the shadowy product of consciousness and thought-power.
If we can further assume an alternation of creation, or manifestation, and destruction, we shall find it easier to follow the working out of the idea. The moment Conscio usness awoke from the sleep of quiescence and the though t of Being arose in it, the balanced state of rhythm into which energy had subsided and merged, during the pralaya, broke out into vibrations, and life began to manifest itself all round. Simultaneously with the birth' of the living energy, came the thought of 'I' which can be understood only after a
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