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

BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD

(Brhadaranyaka Up., IV, 3, 33, Taittivtya Up., II, 8), as “this is not the summit of divine union so it is not the soul’s abiding place,’’ Eckhart, I, 276, cf. 410, “ that is a resting place (visyama), not a re-turn (nivytz),”’ actually “ there is no extinction (mvvana) without omniscience (sarvajna),” Saddharma Pundarika, V, 74, 75, “ not till she knows all that there is to be known does she cross over to the unknown good,” Eckhart, I, 385. So this is neither from the Indian nor the Christian point of view a final end. For that “ eternal nature wherein the soul now finds herself in her exemplar is characterised by multiplicitythe Persons being in separation. . . . Now Christ says: “No man cometh to the Father but through me.’ . .

Though the soul’s abiding place is not in him yet she must, as he says, go through him. This breaking through is the second death of the soul and is far more momentous than the first,” Eckhart, I, 275: “he invites us to enter by the door of his emanation and return into the source whence we came forth . . . the gate through which all things return perfectly free to their supreme felicity,” Eckhart, I, 400. That answers to the Vedic image of the Supernal-Sun, Aditya, as the gateway-of-the-worlds (loka-dvara), whereby there is an entrance (prapadana) for the Comprehensor into Paradise (prdudrama, playground of the Spirit) but which is a barrier (nirodha) to the foolish (avid), Chandogya Up., VIII, 6, 684: “ there is no approach by a side path here in the world,” Maiti Up., VI, 30; “ Purusa, of the cast(e) of the Sun... only by knowing Him does one pass over death,” Svetasvatara Up., UI, 8. It is also as the Supernal-Sun that Visnu is called the ‘‘ door-keeper’”’ of the Angels, and opens for the understanding sacrificer this door, Aitareya Brahmana, 1, 36. That “Agni arose aloft, touching the sky: he opened the door of the world of heaven, verily Agni is the overlord of the world of heaven,” zbid., II, 42, corresponds to the ‘“‘ myth” of Christ’s ascension and being seated in condominium at