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318
MAITRÂYANA-BRAHMANA-UPANISHAD.
'The sacrificer, the deity that enjoys the sacrifice, the oblation, the hymn, the sacrifice, Vishnu, Pragâpati, all this is the Lord, the witness, that shines in yonder orb.'
17. In the beginning Brahman was all this'. He was one, and infinite; infinite in the East, infinite in the South, infinite in the West, infinite in the North, above and below and everywhere infinite. East and the other regions do not exist for him, nor across, nor below, nor above. The Highest Self is not to be fixed, he is unlimited, unborn, not to be reasoned about, not to be conceived. He is like the ether (everywhere), and at the destruction of the universe, he alone is awake. Thus from that ether he wakes all this world, which consists of thought only, and by him alone is all this meditated on, and in him it is dissolved. His is that luminous form which shines in the sun, and the manifold light in the smokeless fire, and the heat which in the stomach digests the food. Thus it is said:
'He who is in the fire, and he who is in the heart, and he who is in the sun, they are one and the same.'
He who knows this becomes one with the one.
18. This is the rule for achieving it (viz. concentration of the mind on the object of meditation): restraint of the breath, restraint of the senses, meditation, fixed attention, investigation, absorption, these are called the sixfold Yoga 2. When beholding by
1 Brahman used as neuter, but immediately followed by eko 'nantah, &c.
2 After having explained the form of what is to be meditated on and the mode of meditation, the Upanishad now teaches the Yoga which serves to keep our thoughts in subjection, and to fix our thoughts on the object of meditation. See Yoga-Sutras II, 29.
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