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DECEMBER, 1928)
KATHAKA UPANTSAD
229
“He who is without understanding, thoughtless, always impure, he does not arrive at that place, he comes into the circle of metem psychosis. (7)
“But he who possesses understanding, full of thoughts, ever pure, he arrives at that place from whence he is not born again. (8)
“That man whose charioteer is understanding and whose rein is mind, he arrives at the goal of the road—that is Vişņu's highest abode 139 (9)
"Higher than the senses are the objects, higher than the objects is mind; higher than mind is intellect, but higher than intellect is the great Åtman. (10)
"Higher than the great one is the unmanifested, higher than the unmanifested is the Spirit140 ; there is nothing whatsoever beyond that Spirit, he is the goal, he is the highest resort. (11)
"This Atman, hidden in all living beings, does not show himself. But he is seen by subtle thinkers by means of the most pointed, subtle intellect. (12)
“The wise man should restrain voice and mind, he should restrain it within that Self which is knowledge; that again within the great Self 141; and that he should restrain within the peaceful Self. (13)
“Stand ye up! Awake ye248! Having obtained boong143 give ye attention! The razor's edge is whetted, difficult to traverse144 ; this the seers call the dangerous part of the way. (14) 146
“Having meditated upon the soundless, touchless, formless, unalterable, the eternally146 tasteless and scentless, the one without beginning or end, the one higher than the great, the real one, he is liberated from the jaws of Death.147 (15)
["The wise man who recites and listens to this ancient Naciketa-episode proclaimed by Death enjoys bliss in the Brahman-world. (16)
"When one recites in an assembly of Brahmans this highest secret or (recites it) with devotion at a sacrifice to the ancestors it makes him fit for eternal life." (17)] 118
(To be continued.)
139 Virton paramam padam is the heaven of light on the top of the universe where is the well of ampla (of. R.V. I, 154, 5; Viston pada paramé madhva útsal) and the abode of the blessed. That is, according to a later idee, the Brahmaloka (as in our text; cf. 2, 17; brahmaloke mahiyate) and the abode of the muktas with the Jains.
140 Purusa (=Brahman). 141 Probably Böhtlingk in right in considering niyaochet to be an interpolation.
142 The correct form, according to Bohtlingk, would be jdyrta (found in one MS.); but how it could be four-syllabic baffles me. Read perhaps : utriphata [ca] jdarta.
143 Samkara : tardn praktştácárydn, which is certainly wrong.
144 The razor's edge (krurasya dhard) is an old symbol fetched from the Indo-Iranian ideas of the way into the other world. It is peculiarly clear in Zoroastrian eschatology, but traces of it are found also in India.
146 This verse seems entirely out of connection with its surroundings. 146 Thus, correctly, Whitney, differing from the other translators. 147 CF. 1, Il supra (motyumukhdt pramuktam).
148 These two verees, forming a Sravanaphala in the epic style, are apparently a late addition. They do not in the slightest degree prove that the original Upanipad was at an end hero.
