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

BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD

” ce

food,” annam ad, is to “ live, exist,” “‘ function,” “energise,” ‘‘ be mode-ified’’ (-maya), or “natured.” In distinction from Godhead, Death, God lives, for all things are his “food.’’ So “ food is the supreme form (vitpa) of the Self, food the mode (-maya) of the Spirit (prdna, here “ breath of life’’) . . . from food are the begotten (prajah) born (prajdyante) . . . by food they live (j7vantt), and thereto they return at last,” Maztri Up., V1, 11: and “ it iseven He manifested Light ” : “ motionless dark . .. this darkness is the incomprehensible nature of God . . . first to arise init is Light . . . (and) this supremely pure splendour of the impartible essence illumines all things at once . . . the patent of his power, resplendent in luminous detail,” Eckhart, I, 369, 373, 366, 399. Or as our text expresses it, of him, as he shone, were the Waters “ born,” that is precisely ‘“‘ brought to light ’’; ‘He illumines (bhdsayatt) these worlds... incarnadines (raijayatt) existences here,” Maztri Up., VI, 7.

“For him who knoweth thus,’ ya evam vidvan, Comprehensor : with this constant refrain the Upanisads invariably introduce a statement of the immediate and the transcendental values of the knowledge previously imparted. Just as Eckhart, for example, after describing the procession of the Spirit as Life, “ it is flowing from the Spirit and is altogether ghostly, and in this power God comes out in the full flower of his joy and glory, as he is in himself,’ adds ‘‘ were he always recollected in this power a man would never age,” I, 291 ; or in the words of Bohme, “The magician has power in this Mystery,” Sex Puncta Mystica, V1, 2. Professor Edgerton has admirably demonstrated how the Vedas are never in search of knowledge for its own sake, but inasmuch as Understanding is thought of as synonymous with plenitude, power, and freedom. *?

The Waters, verily, were a counter-shining 7 B