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OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
that the knower of Brahman stands higher than the worshippers of Brahman, considers this union with Brahman, obtained by worshipping it, only as a step leading to the highest perfection which the souls united with Brahman obtain only after receiving in it perfect knowledge.
(3) For those who have neither worshipped Brahman nor performed good works the "third place" is destined leading to a new life as lower animals — worms, insects, snakes etc., after a previous punishment in the different hells. This punishment in hell, which is a later addition, is not found in the Upanishads and appears first in the system of the Vedânta.
Liberation by knowledge
20. Transmigration is believed to be just as real as the empirical world. But from a higher point of view empirical reality together with creation and transmigration is only a great illusion; for in truth there is no manifold, no world, but only one being — the Brahman, the âtman. The attainment of this knowledge is the highest aim of man and in its possession consists the final liberation. The knowledge is not the means of liberation, it is liberation itself. He who has attained the conviction "I am Brahman" has reached with it the knowledge that he in himself is the totality of all that is, and consequently he will not fear anything because there is nothing beyond him; he will not injure anybody, for nobody 'injures himself by himself". There are, properly speaking, no means of
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