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it is a useful ally for unravelling mythology and mystic records.
It will be interesting in this connection to look into the significance of a passage in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which has non-plussed many a scholar and theologian. It runs thus:
THE HOLY TRINITY.
"He was in the same state as husband (pati) and wife (patni) are when in mutual embrace. He divided this two-fold. Hence were husband and wife produced. Therefore was this only a half of himself, as a split pea is of the whole. He approached her. Hence men were born.
"She verily reflected: How can he approach me, whom he has produced from himself? Alas, I will conceal myself. Thus she became a cow, the other a bull. He approached her. Hence kine were born. The one became a mare, and the other a stallion, the one a female ass, the other a male ass. He approached her. Hence the onc-hoofed kind were born. The one became a female goat, the other a male goat, the one became an ewe, the other a ram. He approached her. Hence goats and sheep were born. In this manner he created every living pair whatsoever."-1st Chap., 4th Brahmana. In the above quotation, he refers to Prajapati (the Creator), and she to his companion Satarupa a hundred forms).
(of
Now, the best way to understand the purport of the passage is to make ourselves familiar with the significance of 'ideas' in the Platonic sense of the term. According to Schopenhauer, what Plato meant was :
"The things of this world which our senses perceive have no true being; they always become, they never are: they have only a relative being; they all exist merely in and through their relation to each other; their whole being may, therefore, quite as well be called a non-being. They are consequently not objects of a true knowledge, for such a knowledge can only be of what exists for itself, and always in the same way; they, on the contrary, are only the objects of an opinion based on sensation. So long as we are
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