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On the same plane stands the [=l]q[ra], where [=a]tm(-a), ego, Spirit, is the True, the Lord, and is in the sun. Opposed to each other here are 'darkness' and 'immortality,' as fruit, respectively, of ignorance and wisdom.
In the K[=a]ush(=i]taki Upanishad, taken with the meaning put into it by the commentators, the wise man goes to a very different sort of brahma-one where he is met by nymphs, and rejoices in a kind of heaven. This brahma is of two sorts, absolute and conditioned; but it is ultimately defined as 'breath.' Whenever it is convenient, 'breath' is regarded by the commentators as ego, 'spirit'; but one can scarcely escape the conviction that in many passages 'breath' was meant by the speaker to be taken at its face value. It is the vital power. With this vital power (breath or spirit) one in dreamless sleep unites. Indra has nothing higher to say than that he is breath (spirit), conscious and immortal. Eventually the soul after death comes to Indra, or gains the bright heaven. But here too the doctrine of the dying out of the gods is known (as in T[=a]tt. 3. 10. 4). Cosmogonically all here springs from water (1. 4, 6, 7; 2. 1, 12; 3. 1, 2; 4. 20).
Most striking are the contradictions in the Brihad (=A]ranyaka: "In the beginning there was only nothing; this (world) was covered with death, that is hunger;[21] he desired," etc. (1. 2. 1). "In the beginning there was only ego ([=a]tm[=a])."[=A]tm[=a] articulated "I am," and (finding himself lonely and unhappy) divided himself into male and female, [22] whence arose men, etc. (1.4.1). Again: "In the beginning there was only brahma, this (neuter) knew [Fa]tm[=a) ...brahma was the one and only ... it created" (1. 4. 10-11); followed immediately by "he created" (12). And after this, in 17, one is brought back to "in the beginning there was only [Fa]tm[=al, he desired 'let me have a wife."
In 2. 3. 1 ff. the explicitness of the differences in brahma makes the account of unusual value. It appears that there are two forms of brahma, one is mortal, with form; the other is immortal, without form. Whatever is other than air and the space between (heaven and earth) is mortal and with form. This is being, its essence is in the sun. On the other hand, the essence of the immortal is the person in the circle of the sun). In man's body
