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The Upanishads, Part II

By Max Müller

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Brihadâranyaka Upanishad II,1

SECOND ADHYÂYA 1.
FIRST BRÂHMANA 2.
1. There 3 was formerly the proud Gârgya Bâlâki 4, a man of great reading. He said to Agâtasatru of Kâsi, 'Shall I tell you Brahman?' Agâtasatru said: 'We give a thousand (cows) for that speech (of yours), for verily all people run away, saying, Ganaka (the king of Mithilâ) is our father (patron) 5.'

2. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the sun 6, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as the supreme, the head of all beings, the king. Whoso adores him thus, becomes Supreme, the head of all beings, a king.'

3. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the moon (and in the mind), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as the great, clad in white raiment, as Soma, the king.' Whoso adores him thus, Soma is poured out and poured forth for him day by day, and his food does not fail 1.

4. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the lightning (and in the heart), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as the luminous.' Whoso adores him thus, becomes luminous, and his offspring becomes luminous.

5. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the ether (and in the ether of the heart), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him as what is full, and quiescent.' Whoso adores him thus, becomes filled with offspring and cattle, and his offspring does not cease from this world.

6. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the wind (and in the breath), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him as Indra Vaikuntha, as the unconquerable army (of the Maruts).' Whoso adores him thus, becomes victorious, unconquerable, conquering his enemies.

7. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the fire (and in the heart), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him as powerful.' Whoso adores him thus, becomes powerful, and his offspring becomes powerful.

8. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the water (in seed, and in the heart), that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him as likeness.' Whoso adores him thus, to him comes what is likely (or proper), not what is improper; what is born from him, is like unto him 1.

9. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the mirror, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as the brilliant.' Whoso adores him thus, he becomes brilliant, his offspring becomes brilliant, and with whomsoever he comes together, he outshines them.

10. Gârgya said: 'The sound that follows a man while he moves, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as life.' Whoso adores him thus, he reaches his full age in this world, breath does not leave him before the time.

11. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in space, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as the second who never leaves us.'

Whoso adores him thus, becomes possessed of a second, his party is not cut off from him,

12. Gârgya said: 'The person that consists of the shadow, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as death.' Whoso adores him thus, he reaches his whole age in this world, death does not approach him before the time.

13. Gârgya said: 'The person that is in the body 1, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâtasatru said to him: 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him verily as embodied.' Whoso adores him thus, becomes embodied, and his offspring becomes embodied 2.

Then Gârgya became silent.

14. Agâtasatru said: 'Thus far only?' 'Thus far only,' he replied. Agâtasatru said: 'This does not suffice to know it (the true Brahman).' Gârgya replied: 'Then let me come to you, as a pupil.'

15. Agâtasatru said: 'Verily, it is unnatural that a Brâhmana should come to a Kshatriya, hoping that he should tell him the Brahman. However, I shall make you know him clearly,' thus saying he took him by the hand and rose.

And the two together came to a person who was asleep. He called him by these names, 'Thou, great one, clad in white raiment, Soma, King 3.' He did not rise. Then rubbing him with his hand, he woke him, and he arose.

16. Agâtasatru said: 'When this man was thus asleep, where was then the person (purusha), the intelligent? and from whence did he thus come back?' Gârgya did not know this?

17. Agâtasatru said: 'When this man was thus asleep, then the intelligent person (purusha), having through the intelligence of the senses (prânas) absorbed within himself all intelligence, lies in the ether, which is in the heart 1. When he takes in these different kinds of intelligence, then it is said that the man sleeps (svapiti) 2. Then the breath is kept in, speech is kept in, the ear is kept in, the eye is kept in, the mind is kept in.

18. But when he moves about in sleep (and dream), then these are his worlds. He is, as it were, a great king; he is, as it were, a great Brâhmana; he rises, as it were, and he falls. And as a great king might keep in his own subjects, and move about, according to his pleasure, within his own domain, thus does that person (who is endowed with intelligence) keep in the various senses (prânas) and move about, according to his pleasure, within his own body (while dreaming).

19. Next, when he is in profound sleep, and knows nothing, there are the seventy-two thousand arteries called Hita, which from the heart spread through the body 1. Through them he moves forth and rests in the surrounding body. And as a young man, or a great king, or a great Brâhmana, having reached the summit of happiness, might rest, so does he then rest.

20. As the spider comes out with its thread, or as small sparks come forth from fire, thus do all senses, all worlds, all Devas, all beings come forth from that Self The Upanishad (the true name and doctrine) of that Self is 'the True of the True.' Verily the senses are the true, and he is the true of the true.

Footnotes
100:1 Mâdhyandina text, p. 1058.

100:2 Whatever has been taught to the end of the third (according to the counting of the Upanishad, the first) Adhyâya, refers to avidyâ, ignorance. Now, however, vidyâ, the highest knowledge, is to be taught, and this is done, first of all, by a dialogue between Gârgya Driptabâlâki and king Agâtasatru, the former, though a Brâhmana, representing the imperfect, the latter, though a Kshatriya, the perfect knowledge of Brahman. While Gârgya worships the Brahman as the sun, the moon, &c., as limited, as active and passive, Agâtasatru knows the Brahman as the Self.

100:3 Compare with this the fourth Adhyâya of the Kaushîtaki-upanishad, Sacred Books of the East, vol. i, p. 300; Gough, Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 144.

100:4 Son of Balâkâ, of the race of the Gârgyas.

100:5 Ganaka, known as a wise and liberal king. There is a play on his name, which means father, and is understood in the sense of patron, or of teacher of wisdom. The meaning is obscure; and in the Kaush. Up. IV. i, the construction is still more difficult. What is intended seems to be that Agâtasatru is willing to offer any reward to a really wise man, because all the wise men are running after Ganaka and settling at his court.

100:6 The commentator expatiates on all these answers and brings them more into harmony with Vedanta doctrines. Thus he adds that the person in the sun is at the same time the person in the eye, who is both active and passive in the heart, &c.

101:1 We miss the annasyâtmâ, the Self of food, mentioned in the Kaush. Up., and evidently referred to in the last sentence of our paragraph. Suta and prasuta, poured out and poured forth, are explained as referring to the principal and the secondary sacrifices.

102:1 Here the Kaush. Up. has the Self of the name, instead of pratirûpa, likeness. The commentator thinks that they both mean the same thing, because a name is the likeness of a thing. Another text of the Kaush. Up. gives here the Self of light. Pratirûpa in the sense of likeness comes in later in the Kaush. Up., § 11.

103:1 'In the Âtman, in Pragâpati, in the Buddhi, and in the heart.' Comm.

103:2 It is difficult to know what is meant here by âtman and âtmanvin. In the Kaush. Up. Agâtasatru refers to Pragâpati, and the commentator here does the same, adding, however, buddhi and hrid. Gough translates âtmanvin by 'having peace of mind.' Deussen, p. 195, passes it over.

103:3 These names are given here as they occur in the Kaushîtaki-upanishad, not as in the Brihadâranyaka-upanishad, where the p. 104 first name was atishthâh sarveshâm bhûtânâm mûrdhâ râgâ. This throws an important light on the composition of the Upanishads.

104:1 The ether in the heart is meant for the real Self. He has come to himself, to his Self, i.e. to the true Brahman.

104:2 Svapiti, he sleeps, is explained as sva, his own Self, and apiti for apyeti, he goes towards, so that 'he sleeps' must be interpreted as meaning 'he comes to his Self.' In another passage it is explained by svam apîto bhavati. See Sa?kara's Commentary on the Brih. Âr. Up. vol. i, p. 372.

105:1 'Not the pericardium only, but the whole body.' Comm.