Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 237

breath and ether are the immortal, the essence of which is the person in the eye. There is a visible and invisible brahma (I=a]tm[=a]); the real brahma is incomprehensible and is described only by negations (3. 4. 1; 9. 26). The highest is the Imperishable (neuter), but this sees, hears, and knows. It is in this that ether (as above) is woven (3. 8. 11). After death the wise man goes to the world of the gods (1.5. 16); he becomes the [=a]tm[=a] of all beings, just like that deity (1. 5. 20); he becomes identical ("how can one know the knower?' vijñf=astar) in 2. 4. 12-13; and according to 3. 2. 13, the doctrine of sams[=alra is extolled ("they talked of karma, extolled karmasecretly"), as something too secret to be divulged easily, even to priests.
That different views are recognized is evident from Taitt. 2. 6: "If one knows brahma as asat he becomes only asat (non-existence); if he knows that 'brahma is' (i.e., a sad brahma), people know him as thence existing." Personal (=altm[=a) is here insisted on ("He wished 'may I be many"); and from [ra]tm[=a], the conscious brahma, in highest heaven, came the ether (2. 1, 6). Yet, immediately afterwards: "In the beginning was the non-existent; thence arose the existent; and That made for himself an ego (spirit, conscious life, [=a]tm[=a); tad (=astm[=a]nain svayam akuruta, 2. 7). In man brahma is the sun-brahma. Here too one finds the brahma[n.]a[h.) parimaras (3. 10.4 = K[ra]ush(=i]t. 2. 12,d[ra]iva), or extinction of gods in brahma. But what that brahmais, except that it is bliss, and that man after death reaches the bliss-making [Fa]tm[=a],' it is impossible to say (3. 6; 2. 8). Especially as the departed soul 'eats and sits down singing' in heaven (3. 10.5).
The greatest discrepancies in eschatology occur perhaps in the [=Ajitareya (=A]ranyaka. After death one either "gets brahma" (i. 3. 1. 2), "comes near to the immortal spirit" (1.3. 8. 14), or goes to the "heavenly world." Knowledge here expressly conditions the hereafter; so much so that it is represented not (as above) that fools go to heaven and return, but that all, save the very highest, are to recognize a personal creator (Praj[=a]pati) in breath (=ego=brahma), and then they will "go to the heavenly world" (2. 3. 8. 5), "become the sun" (2. 1. 8. 14), or "go to gods" (2. 2. 4.6). Moreover after the highest wisdom has been revealed, and the second class of men has been