# Sacred Books of the East/Volume 1/Khândogya-upanishad/Sixth Prapâthaka

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* Sixteenth
SIXTH PRAPÂTHAKA.
First Khanda.
1. Harih, Om. There lived once Svetaketu Âruneya (the grandson of Aruna). To him his father (Uddâlaka, the son of Aruna) said: 'Svetaketu, go to school; for there is none belonging to our race, darling, who, not having studied (the Veda), is, as it were, a Brâhmana by birth only.'
2. Having begun his apprenticeship (with a teacher) when he was twelve years of age, Svetaketu returned to his father, when he was twenty-four, having then studied all the Vedas,—conceited, considering himself well-read, and stern.
3. His father said to him: 'Svetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well-read, and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known?'
4. 'What is that instruction, Sir?' he asked.
The father replied: 'My dear, as by one clod of clay all that is made of clay is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is clay;
5. 'And as, my dear, by one nugget of gold ​all that is made of gold is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is gold?
6. 'And as, my dear, by one pair of nail-scissors all that is made of iron (kârshnâyasam) is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is iron,—thus, my dear, is that instruction.'
7. The son said: 'Surely those venerable men (my teachers) did not know that. For if they had known it, why should they not have told it me? Do you, Sir, therefore tell me that.' 'Be it so,' said the father.
Second Khanda.
1. 'In the beginning,' my dear, "there was that only which is (τὸ ὄν), one only, without a second. Others say, in the beginning there was that only which is not (τὸ μὴ ὄν), 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 may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire.
​'That fire thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth water.
'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 (food).
'Therefore whenever it rains anywhere, most food is then produced. From water alone is eatable food produced.
Third Khanda.
1. 'Of all living things there are indeed three origins only, that which springs from an egg (oviparous), that which springs from a living being (viviparous), and that which springs from a germ.
2. 'That Being (i.e. that which had produced fire, water, and earth) thought, let me now enter those three beings (fire, water, earth) with this living ​Self (gîva âtmâ), and let me then reveal (develop) names and forms.
3. 'Then that Being having said, Let me make each of these three tripartite (so that fire, water, and earth should each have itself for its principal ingredient, besides an admixture of the other two) entered into those three beings (devatâ) with this living self only, and revealed names and forms.
4. 'He made each of these tripartite; and how these three beings become each of them tripartite, that learn from me now, my friend!
Fourth Khanda.
1. 'The red colour of burning fire (agni) is the colour of fire, the white colour of fire is the colour of water, the black colour of fire the colour of earth. Thus vanishes what we call fire, as a mere variety, being a name, arising from speech. What is true (satya) are the three colours (or forms).
2. 'The red colour of the sun (âditya) is the colour of fire, the white of water, the black of earth. Thus vanishes what we call the sun, as a mere variety, being a name, arising from speech. What is true are the three colours.
3. 'The red colour of the moon is the colour of fire, the white of water, the black of earth. Thus vanishes what we call the moon, as a mere variety, being a name, arising from speech. What is true are the three colours.
4. 'The red colour of the lightning is the colour of fire, the white of water, the black of earth. Thus ​vanishes what we call the lightning, as a mere variety, being a name, arising from speech. What is true are the three colours.
5. 'Great householders and great theologians of olden times who knew this, have declared the same, saying, "No one can henceforth mention to us anything which we have not heard, perceived, or known." Out of these (three colours or forms) they knew all.
6. 'Whatever they thought looked red, they knew was the colour of fire. Whatever they thought looked white, they knew was the colour of water. Whatever they thought looked black, they knew was the colour of earth.
7. 'Whatever they thought was altogether unknown, they knew was some combination of those three beings (devatâ).
'Now learn from me, my friend, how those three beings, when they reach man, become each of them tripartite.'
Fifth Khanda.
1. 'The earth (food) when eaten becomes threefold; its grossest portion becomes feces, its middle portion flesh, its subtilest portion mind.
2. 'Water when drunk becomes threefold; its grossest portion becomes water, its middle portion blood, its subtilest portion breath.
3. 'Fire (i.e. in oil, butter, &c.) when eaten becomes threefold; its grossest portion becomes bone, its middle portion marrow, its subtilest portion speech.
​4. 'For truly, my child, mind comes of earth, breath of water, speech of fire.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Sixth Khanda.
1. 'That which is the subtile portion of curds, when churned, rises upwards, and becomes butter.
2. 'In the same manner, my child, the subtile portion of earth (food), when eaten, rises upwards, and becomes mind.
3. 'That which is the subtile portion of water, when drunk, rises upwards, and becomes breath.
4. 'That which is the subtile portion of fire, when consumed, rises upwards, and becomes speech.
5. 'For mind, my child, comes of earth, breath of water, speech of fire.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Seventh Khanda.
1. 'Man (purusha), my son, consists of sixteen parts. Abstain from food for fifteen days, but drink as much water as you like, for breath comes from water, and will not be cut off, if you drink water.'
2. Svetaketu abstained from food for fifteen days. Then he came to his father and said: 'What shall I say?' The father said: 'Repeat the Rik, Yagus, and Sâman verses.' He replied: 'They do not occur to me, Sir.'
3. The father said to him: 'As of a great lighted fire one coal only of the size of a firefly may be left, which would not burn much more than this (i.e. very ​little), thus, my dear son, one part only of the sixteen parts (of you) is left, and therefore with that one part you do not remember the Vedas. Go and eat!
4. 'Then wilt thou understand me.' Then Svetaketu ate, and afterwards approached his father. And whatever his father asked him, he knew it all by heart. Then his father said to him:
5. 'As of a great lighted fire one coal of the size of a firefly, if left, may be made to blaze up again by putting grass upon it, and will thus burn more than this,
6. 'Thus, my dear son, there was one part of the sixteen parts left to you, and that, lighted up with food, burnt up, and by it you remember now the Vedas.' After that, he understood what his father meant when he said: 'Mind, my son, comes from food, breath from water, speech from fire.' He understood what he said, yea, he understood it.
Eighth Khanda.
1. Uddâlaka Âruni said to his son Svetaketu: 'Learn from me the true nature of sleep (svapna). When a man sleeps here, then, my dear son, he becomes united with the True, he is gone to his ​own (Self). Therefore they say, svapiti, he sleeps, because he is gone (apîta) to his own (sva).
2. 'As a bird when tied by a string flies first in every direction, and finding no rest anywhere, settles down at last on the very place where it is fastened, exactly in the same manner, my son, that mind (the gîva, or living Self in the mind, see VI, 3, 2), after flying in every direction, and finding no rest anywhere, settles down on breath; for indeed, my son, mind is fastened to breath.
3. 'Learn from me, my son, what are hunger and thirst. When a man is thus said to be hungry, water is carrying away (digests) what has been eaten by him. Therefore as they speak of a cow-leader (go-nâya), a horse-leader (asva-nâya), a man-leader (purusha-nâya), so they call water (which digests food and causes hunger) food-leader (asa-nâya). Thus (by food digested &c), my son, know this offshoot (the body) to be brought forth, for this (body) could not be without a root (cause).
4. And where could its root be except in food (earth)? And in the same manner, my son, as ​food (earth) too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. water. And as water too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. fire. And as fire too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. the True. Yes, all these creatures, my son, have their root in the True, they dwell in the True, they rest in the True.
5. 'When a man is thus said to be thirsty, fire carries away what has been drunk by him. Therefore as they speak of a cow-leader (go-nâya), of a horse-leader (asva-nâya), of a man-leader (purusha-nâya), so they call fire udanyâ, thirst, i.e. water-leader. Thus (by water digested &c), my son, know this offshoot (the body) to be brought forth: this (body) could not be without a root (cause).
6. 'And where could its root be except in water? As water is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. fire. As fire is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. the True. Yes, all these creatures, O son, have their root in the True, they dwell in the True, they rest in the True.
'And how these three beings (devatâ), fire, water, earth, O son, when they reach man, become each of them tripartite, has been said before (VI, 4, 7). When a man departs from hence, his speech is merged ​in his mind, his mind in his breath, his breath in heat (fire), heat in the Highest Being.
7. 'Now that which is that subtile essence (the root of all), in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Ninth Khanda.
1. 'As the bees, my son, make honey by collecting the juices of distant trees, and reduce the juice into one form,
2. 'And as these juices have no discrimination, so that they might say, I am the juice of this tree or that, in the same manner, my son, all these creatures, when they have become merged in the True (either in deep sleep or in death), know not that they are merged in the True.
3. 'Whatever these creatures are here, whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar, or a worm, or a midge, or a gnat, or a musquito, that they become again and again.
4. 'Now that which is that subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Tenth Khanda.
1. 'These rivers, my son, run, the eastern (like the Gangâ) toward the east, the western (like the Sindhu) toward the west. They go from sea to sea (i.e. the clouds lift up the water from the sea to the sky, and send it back as rain to the sea). They become indeed sea. And as those rivers, when they are in the sea, do not know, I am this or that river,
2. 'In the same manner, my son, all these creatures, when they have come back from the True, know not that they have come back from the True. Whatever these creatures are here, whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar, or a worm, or a midge, or a gnat, or a musquito, that they become again and again.
3. 'That which is that subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Eleventh Khanda.
1. "If some one were to strike at the root of this large tree here, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its stem, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its top, it would bleed, but live. ​Pervaded by the living Self that tree stands firm, drinking in its nourishment and rejoicing;
2. 'But if the life (the living Self) leaves one of its branches, that branch withers; if it leaves at second, that branch withers; if it leaves a third, that branch withers. If it leaves the whole tree, the whole tree withers. In exactly the same manner, my son, know this.' Thus he spoke:
3. 'This (body) indeed withers and dies when the living Self has left it; the living Self dies not.
That which is that subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Twelfth Khanda.
1. 'Fetch me from thence a fruit of the Nyagrodha tree.'
'Here is one, Sir.'
'Break it.'
'It is broken, Sir.'
'What do you see there?'
'These seeds, almost infinitesimal.'
'Break one of them.'
'It is broken, Sir.'
'What do you see there?'
'Not anything, Sir.'
2. The father said: 'My son, that subtile essence which you do not perceive there, of that very essence this great Nyagrodha tree exists.
3. 'Believe it, my son. That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Thirteenth Khanda.
1. 'Place this salt in water, and then wait on me in the morning.'
The son did as he was commanded.
The father said to him: 'Bring me the salt, which you placed in the water last night.' ​The son having looked for it, found it not, for, of course, it was melted.
2. The father said: 'Taste it from the surface of the water. How is it?'
The son replied: 'It is salt.'
'Taste it from the middle. How is it?'
The son replied: "It is salt.'
'Taste it from the bottom. How is it?'
The son replied: 'It is salt.'
The father said: 'Throw it away and then wait on me.'
He did so; but salt exists for ever.
Then the father said: 'Here also, in this body, forsooth, you do not perceive the True (Sat), my son; but there indeed it is.
3. 'That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Fourteenth Khanda.
1. 'As one might lead a person with his eyes covered away from the Gandhâras, and leave him ​then in a place where there are no human beings; and as that person would turn towards the east, or the north, or the west, and shout, "I have been brought here with my eyes covered, I have been left here with my eyes covered,"
2. 'And as thereupon some one might loose his bandage and say to him, "Go in that direction, it is Gandhâra, go in that direction;" and as thereupon, having been informed and being able to judge for himself, he would by asking his way from village to village arrive at last at Gandhâra,—in exactly the same manner does a man, who meets with a teacher to inform him, obtain the true knowledge. For him ​ there is only delay so long as he is not delivered (from the body); then he will be perfect.
3. 'That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Fifteenth Khanda.
1. 'If a man is ill, his relatives assemble round him and ask: "Dost thou know me? Dost thou know me?" Now as long as his speech is not ​ merged in his mind, his mind in breath, breath in heat (fire), heat in the Highest Being (devatâ), he knows them.
2. 'But when his speech is merged in his mind, his mind in breath, breath in heat (fire), heat in the Highest Being, then he knows them not.
'That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
Sixteenth Khanda.
1. 'My child, they bring a man hither whom they have taken by the hand, and they say: "He has taken something, he has committed a theft." (When ​he denies, they say), "Heat the hatchet for him." If he committed the theft, then he makes himself to be what he is not. Then the false-minded, having covered his true Self by a falsehood, grasps the heated hatchet—he is burnt, and he is killed.
2. 'But if he did not commit the theft, then he makes himself to be what he is. Then the true-minded, having covered his true Self by truth, grasps the heated hatchet—he is not burnt, and he is delivered.
'As that (truthful) man is not burnt, thus has all that exists its self in That. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.' He understood what he said, yea, he understood it.
* ↑ This was rather late, for the son of a Brahman might have begun his studies when he was seven years old. Âpastamba-sûtras I, 1, 18. Twelve years was considered the right time for mastering one of the Vedas.
* ↑ Vikâra, difference, variety, change, by form and name, development, cf. VI, 3, 3.
* ↑ The commentator takes lohamani here as suvarnapinda.
* ↑ Cf. Taitt. Up. II, 6.
* ↑ Literally, it saw. This verb is explained as showing that the Sat is conscious, not unconscious (bewusst, nicht unbewusst).
* ↑ 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 accurately translating tegas are not removed by rendering it 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.
* ↑ Really the Sat, in the form of fire. Fire is whatever burns, cooks, shines, and is red.
* ↑ By water is meant all that is fluid, and bright in colour.
* ↑ By anna, food, is here meant the earth, and all that is heavy, firm, dark in colour.
* ↑ In the Ait. Up. four are mentioned, andaga, here ândaga, gâruga (i.e. garâyuga), here gîvaga, svedaga, and udbhigga, svedaga, born from heath, being additional. Cf. Atharva-veda I, 12, 1.
* ↑ The text has devatâ, deity; here used in a very general sense. The Sat, though it has produced fire, water, and earth, has not yet obtained its wish of becoming many.
* ↑ This living self is only a shadow, as it were, of the Highest Self; and as the sun, reflected in the water, does not suffer from the movement of the water, the real Self does not suffer pleasure or pain on earth, but the living self only.
* ↑ This reminds one of the Aristotelian διὰ γὰρ ταῦτα καὶ ὲκ τούτων τἄλλα γνωρίξεται, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ταῦτα διὰ ὑποκειμένων.
* ↑ Food, water, and fire are each to be taken as tripartite; hence animals which live on one of the three elements only, still share in some measure the qualities of the other elements also.
* ↑ The repetition shows that the teaching of the Trivritkarana, the tripartite nature of things, is ended.
* ↑ The deep sushupta sleep is meant, in which personal consciousness is lost, and the self for a time absorbed in the Highest Self. Sleep is produced by fatigue. Speech, mind, and the senses rest, breath only remains awake, and the gîva, the living soul, in order to recover from his fatigue, returns for a while to his true Self (âtmâ). The Sat must be taken as a substance, nay, as the highest substance or subject, the Brahman. The whole purpose of the Upanishad is obscured if we translate sat or satyam by truth, instead of the True, the true one, τὸ ὄντως ὄν.
* ↑ This is one of the many recognised plays on words in the Upanishads and the Vedânta philosophy. Svapiti, he sleeps, stands for sva (his own), i.e. the self, and apîta, gone to.
* ↑ The commentator takes prâna here in the sense of Sat, which it often has elsewhere. If so, this illustration would have the same object as the preceding one. If we took prâna in the sense of breath, breath being the result of water, this paragraph might be taken to explain the resignation of the living Self to its bondage to breath, while on earth.
* ↑ That food is the root of the body is shown by the commentator in the following way: Food when softened by water and digested becomes a fluid, blood (sonita). From it comes flesh, from flesh fat, from fat bones, from bones marrow, from marrow seed. Food eaten by a woman becomes equally blood (lohita), and from seed and blood combined the new body is produced. We must always have before us the genealogical table: Sat, τὸ ὄν | Tegas (fire) = Vâk (speech). | Ap (water) = Prâna (breath). | Anna (earth) = Manas (mind).
* ↑ If a man dies, the first thing which his friends say is, He speaks no more. Then, he understands no more. Then, he moves no more. Then, he is cold.
* ↑ At the beginning of each chapter the commentator supplies the question which the son is supposed to have asked his father. The first is: All creatures falling every day into deep sleep (sushupti) obtain thereby the Sat, the true being. How is it then that they do not know that they obtain the Sat every day?
* ↑ The next question which the son is supposed to have asked is: If a man who has slept in his own house, rises and goes to another village, he knows that he has come from his own house. Why then do people not know that they have come from the Sat?
* ↑ The next question is: Waves, foam, and bubbles arise from the water, and when they merge again in the water, they are gone. How is it that living beings, when in sleep or death they are merged again in the Sat, are not destroyed?
* ↑ The commentator remarks that according to the Veda, trees are conscious, while Buddhists and followers of Kanâda hold them to be unconscious. They live, because one sees how their sap runs and how it dries up, just as one sees the sap in a living body, which, as we saw, was produced by food and water. Therefore the simile holds good. The life, or, more correctly, the liver, the living Self, pervades the tree, as it pervades man, when it has entered the organism which produces breath, mind, and speech. If any accident happens to a branch, the living Self draws himself away from that branch, and then the branch withers. The sap which caused the living Self to remain, goes, and the living Self goes away with it. The same applies to the whole tree. The tree dies when the living Self leaves it, but the living Self does not die; it only leaves an abode which it had before occupied. Some other illustrations, to show that the living Self remains, are added by the commentator: First, with regard to the living Self being the same when it awakes from deep sleep (sushupti), he remarks that we remember quite well that we have left something unfinished before we fell asleep. And then with regard to the living Self being the same when it awakes from death to a new life, he shows that creatures, as soon as they are born take the breast, and exhibit terror, which can only be explained, as he supposes, by their possessing a recollection of a former state of existence.
* ↑ The question which the son is supposed to have asked is: How can this universe which has the form and name of earth &c. be produced from the Sat which is subtile, and has neither form nor name?
* ↑ The question here is supposed to have been: If the Sat is the root of all that exists, why is it not perceived?
* ↑ Read abhiprâsya, which is evidently intended by the commentary: abhiprâyasya parityagya. See B.R. Sanskrit Dictionary, s.v.
* ↑ The question here asked is: The salt, though no longer perceptible by means of sight or touch, could be discovered by taste. Then how can the Sat be discovered, although it is imperceptible by all the senses?
* ↑ The Gandhâras, but rarely mentioned in the Rig-veda and the Ait. Brâhmana, have left their name in Κάνδαροι and Candahar. The fact of their name being evidently quite familiar to the author of the Upanishad might be used to prove either its antiquity or its Northern origin.
* ↑ Tedious as the commentator is in general, he is sometimes almost eloquent in bringing out all that is implied or supposed to be implied in the sacred text. He explains the last simile as follows: A man was carried away by robbers from his own country. After his eyes had been covered, he was taken to a forest full of terrors and dangers arising from tigers, robbers, &c. Not knowing where he was, and suffering from hunger and thirst, he began to cry, wishing to be delivered from his bonds. Then a man took pity on him and removed his bonds, and when he had returned to his home, he was happy. Next follows the application. Our real home is the True (Sat), the Self of the world. The forest into which we are driven is the body, made of the three elements, fire, water, earth, consisting of blood, flesh, bones, &c, and liable to cold, heat, and many other evils. The bands with which our eyes are covered are our desires for many things, real or unreal, such as wife, children, cattle, &c, while the robbers by whom we are driven into the forest are our good and evil deeds. Then we cry and say: 'I am the son of so and so, these are my relatives, I am happy, I am miserable, I am foolish, I am wise, I am just, I am born, I am dead, I am old, I am wretched, my son is dead, my fortune is gone, I am undone, how shall I live, where shall I go, who will save me?' These and hundreds and thousands of other evils are the bands which blind us. Then, owing to some supererogatory good works we may have done, we suddenly meet a man who knows the Self of Brahman, whose own bonds have been broken, who takes pity on us and shows us the way to see the evil which attaches to all that we love in this world. We then withdraw ourselves from all worldly pleasures. We learn that we are not mere creatures of the world, the son of so and so, &c, but that we are that which is the True (Sat). The bands of our ignorance and blindness are removed, and, like the man of Gandâdra, we arrive at our own home, the Self, or the True. Then we are happy and blessed.
* ↑ The last words are really—'for him there is only delay so long as I shall not be delivered; then I shall be perfect.' This requires some explanation. First of all, the change from the third to the first person, is best explained by assuming that at the point where all individuality vanishes, the father, as teacher, identifies himself with the person of whom he is speaking. The delay (the kira or kshepa) of which he speaks is the time which passes between the attainment of true knowledge and death, or freedom from the effects of actions performed before the attainment of knowledge. The actions which led to our present embodiment must be altogether consumed, before the body can perish, and then only are we free. As to any actions performed after the attainment of knowledge, they do not count; otherwise there would be a new embodiment, and the attainment of even true knowledge would never lead to final deliverance.
* ↑ The question supposed to be asked is: By what degrees a man, who has been properly instructed in the knowledge of Brahman, obtains the Sat, or returns to the True. To judge from the text both he who knows the True and he who does not, reach, when they die, the Sat, passing from speech to mind and breath and heat (fire). But whereas he who knows, remains in the Sat, they who do not know, return again to a new form of existence. It is important to observe that the commentator denies that he who knows, passes at his death through the artery of the head to the sun, and then to the Sat. He holds that with him who knows there is no further cause for delay, and that as soon as he dies, he returns to the Sat.
* ↑ The next question is: Why does he who knows, on obtaining the Sat, not return, while he who does not know, though obtaining the Sat in death, returns? An illustration is chosen which is intended to show how knowledge produces a material effect. The belief in the efficacy of ordeals must have existed at the time, and appealing to that belief, the teacher says that the man who knows himself guilty, is really burnt by the heated iron, while the man who knows himself innocent, is not. In the same manner the man who knows his Self to be the true Self, on approaching after death the true Self, is not repelled and sent back into a new existence, while he who does not know, is sent back into a new round of births and deaths. The man who tells a falsehood about himself, loses his true Self and is burnt; the man who has a false conception about his Self, loses likewise his true Self, and not knowing the true Self, even though approaching it in death, he has to suffer till he acquires some day the true knowledge.
Footnotes