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PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS
21
Greece, and culminating in the assertion that the âtman is the only reality and that nothing exists beyond it. The whole doctrine may be summed up in three statements:
1. The only reality is the atman;
2. The âtman is the subject of knowledge in us; 3. The âtman itself is unknowable.
:
1. All things in heaven and earth, gods, men, and other
beings exist only in so far as they form a part of our âtman. the âtman must be seen, heard, known; he who sees, hears, and knows the atman, knows in it all that exists; as the sounds of a musical instrument cannot be grasped, but he who grasps the instrument, grasps also the sounds, so he who knows the âtman knows in it all that exists; that man is lost and abandoned by gods and men, who believes in the existence of gods and men beyond the âtman.
2. This âtman is neither more nor less than the seer
of seeing, the hearer of hearing, the knower of knowing, in a word the subject of knowledge in us, for this only is our real Self, which can never by any means be taken away from us.
3. The âtman, as the subject of knowledge in us, is
and remains unknowable in itself. "Thou canst not see the seer of seeing, thou canst not hear the hearer of hearing, thou canst not know the knower
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