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

BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD

fest that fate is in the created causes themselves,” Sum. Th., I, Q. 116, A. 2. Béhme is even more definite: “as is the harmony, viz., the life’s form in each thing, so is also the sound or tone of the eternal voice therein ; in the holy, holy, in the perverse perverse,’ and that is determined by the turba “ which Adam took in by his imagination ” and which comes into the world with every individual form of the spirit, “‘ hanging to it,” “‘ therefore no creature can blame its creator, as if he made it evil,” Signatura Rerum, XVI, 6 and 7, and XL (Questions concerning the Soule, VIII, 14. Compare also Dante Paradiso, XVII, 37-42, “Contingency, that does not extend beyond the page of your material, is all depicted in the eternal aspect ; though it takes not its necessity therefrom, no more than does a ship as it floats down the stream (depend upon) that image wherein she is mirrored.”

All that follows naturally from the conclusion that neither good nor evil can have, as such, any place in pure being: that point of view, is so constantly maintained in the Upanisads, Bhagavad Gita, and in Buddhism, that the citation of a couple of passages will amply suffice. He, Brahman, is “ other than right and wrong” (dharmddharmau), and “‘ when a mortal has rent away what is rightful (dhavmvya) and receives Him as undimensioned (anu), then he rejoices,” Katha Up., I], 13 and 14: “The Lord of the world emanates neither agency nor actions, nor the conjunction of action and reward, but it is each thing’s nature that operates.” The Lord accepts neither the ill nor the well-done of any man,” Bhagavad Gita, V. 14-15. In Christianity, besides that ““ He makes his sun to shine alike upon the just and the unjust,”’ we find uncompromising words in Eckhart : “I must let go virtue if I would see God face to face,” “God is neither good nor true,” “the vision of God transcends virtues,” “ joys and sorrows are not sown in the ground of eternal truth,” there there is “ no trace of

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