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The Upanishads, Part 1

By Max Müller

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VI, 2

SECOND KHANDA 1
1. 'In the beginning,' my dear, 'there was that only which is (τ? ?ν), one only, without a second. Others say, in the beginning there was that only which is not (τ? μ? ?ν), one only, without a second; and from that which is not, that which is was born.

2. 'But how could it be thus, my dear?' the father continued. 'How could that which is, be born of that which is not? No, my dear, only that which is, was in the beginning, one only, without a second.

3. 'It thought 2, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire 3.

'That fire 1 thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth water 2.

'And therefore whenever anybody anywhere is hot and perspires, water is produced on him from fire alone.

4. 'Water thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth earth 3 (food).

'Therefore whenever it rains anywhere, most food is then produced. From water alone is eatable food produced.

Footnotes
93:1 Cf. Taitt. Up. II, 6.

93:2 Literally, it saw. This verb is explained as showing that the Sat is conscious, not unconscious (bewusst, nicht unbewusst).

93:3 In other Upanishads the Sat produces first âkâsa, ether, then vâyu, air, and then only tegas, fire. Fire is a better rendering for tegas than light or heat. See Jacobi, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellschaft, XXIX, p. 242. The difficulties, however, of p. 94 accurately translating tegas are not removed by rendering if by fire, as may be seen immediately afterward in VI, 4, 1, where tegas is said to supply the red colour of agni, the burning fire, not the god of fire. See also VI, 8, 6. In later philosophical treatises the meaning of tegas is more carefully determined than in the Upanishads.

94:1 Really the Sat, in the form of fire. Fire is whatever burns, cooks, shines, and is red.

94:2 By water is meant all that is fluid, and bright in colour.

94:3 By anna, food, is here meant the earth, and all that is heavy, firm, dark in colour.