A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

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BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD, I, 2 (= SaTapaTHA BrAumana X, 6, 5)

In the beginning (agre) no thing whatsoever was here. This-all (tdam) was veiled by Death (mrtyu), by Privation (asanaya): for Privation is Death. That (fad) took-on (akuruta) Intellect (manas), “Let me be Selfed”’ (dtmanvit syam). He (sah), Self, manifested Light (avcan acarat). Of Him, as he shone, were the Waters (apah) born (j@yanta). “‘ Verily, whilst I shone, there was Delight ” (kam), said-He (itz). This is the Sheen (avkatva) of Shining (arka). Verily, there is delight for him who knoweth thus the sheen of shining. 1.

Our text deals with the origin of Light from Darkness, Life from Death, Actuality from Possibility, Self from the Un-selfed, saguna from mirguya Brahman, “I am” from Unconsciousness, God from Godhead. ‘“ The first formal assumption in Godhead is being . . . God,’ Eckhart, I,267. “ The Nothing bringeth itself into a Will,” Bohme, XL Questions concerning the Soule, 1, 178: “an eternal will arises in the nothing, to introduce the nothing into something, that the will might find, feel, and behold itself,’ Signatura Rerum, 1,8. ‘“ The Tao became One,” Tao Té Ching, II, 42.°

Compare Taittiriya Up., Il, 7 svayam akurut’ atmanam “ of itself assumed Self,”’ and svayambhi, “ self-become,”’

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