The Upanishads

The religious actions that came from Brahma’s vision were explained in the Vedas. During rituals involving the “sacred fire of Agnihotra” (76), the one performing the sacrifice has to take into account the time of year, the presence of guests, and complete the sacrifice according to the rules. Failing to do so will cause the one carrying out the ritual to “not attain the reward of seven worlds” (76). Sacrifices have to be conducted when the flames are brightest and the ritual has to take into account “the signs of heaven” (76).

Anyone who sees the lower knowledge expressed in the Vedas as the height of wisdom will simply be reincarnated after their death, or even fall into the “lower regions” (77) of the afterlife. Charity and religious ritual are good, but are not enough to guarantee transcending the cycle of life and death. The people who do transcend are “those who in purity and faith live in the forest” (77) and who live in peace while having no desire for material possessions.

Like sparks from a flame, all living beings come from the Creator and return to him. The Spirit is both “within all” and “outside all” (77) and beyond even the Creator. The author describes the Spirit as having a head of fire, eyes made from the sun and moon, the wind is his breath, and the Vedas are his words. 

Every aspect of nature, life itself, and everything that sustains life comes ultimately from the Spirit. By finding Brahman “in the secret place of the heart,” the wise can cut “the bonds of ignorance even in this human life” (78).

Brahman is both within everything that is and is “the goal to be aimed at” (78). Next, the author compares the Upanishads as a bow with faith as the arrow. When fired with “concentration” (79), the arrow can hit the target, which is Brahman. The author also argues that Brahman is best described as simply “ONE” (79). By knowing Brahma in both his “immanence and transcendence” (79), a person can break free from the laws of Karma.

The author describes an allegory of two birds in a tree, one who eats fruit and the other who watches. The bird eating fruit is the person who knows Brahman and the other is the one who “feels sad in his unwisdom” (80). Through truth, one can become aware of the Atman if they are pure and tapas can give “true wisdom and chastity” (80). When the wise becomes aware of the Spirit, they can transcend both good and evil and join the “unity supreme” (80).

If someone is “free from desires,” they can “pass beyond the seed of life in death” (81). However, if they are still motivated by desire, then they will remain in the cycle of life and death. Only the wise who follow the correct path can become aware of their Atman. Ascetics who have renounced all pleasure and know Vedanta, traditional interpretations of the Vedas, will achieve a blissful afterlife. They will dissolve into the Spirit just as rivers dissolve into the ocean.

OM is the “eternal Word” that represents all that was, is, and will be. Brahman is also everything including the Atman, which can be defined through four “conditions” (83). The first is our consciousness, which interacts with the external world along with the “seven outer gross elements”; the second is the dream life, which draws on the “seven subtle inner elements”; the third is deep sleep without consciousness; and the fourth is the “supreme consciousness” which is the Atman in “his own pure state” (83).

The Atman cannot be experienced through the senses or through intellect alone. The Atman can only be experienced through union with it and “is peace and love” (83). The Atman is also OM, which has three sounds: A, U, and M. The first sound A represents the human consciousness when aware and interacting with the external world. This is symbolized in the words Apti (“Attaining”) and Adimatvam (“Being first”) (83). The second sound U embodies consciousness in a state of dreaming, with the words Utkarsha (“Uprising”) and Ubbayatvam (“Bothness”) (84). M, the third sound, is deep sleep. This is shown in the words Miti (“Measure”) and Mi (“To End”). When the sounds are combined into OM, this presents the supreme consciousness that is perceived in “non-duality and love” (84).

Those who are “lovers of Brahman” (85) will ask questions such as what is the origin of the universe and whether they should think of time, nature, or the power humanity has to create. Through the “Yoga of meditation and contemplation” (85), one can see God’s power and influence over the universe and humanity. Meditation reveals “the Wheel” (85) representing reality, with three layers (light, darkness, and fire), 16 segments in the rim (five elements, five types of knowledge, five kinds of action, and the mind), 50 spokes (“states of consciousness” including states of “weakness,” “joy,” and “achievement”), “six groups of eight” (natural forces, parts of the body, abilities through yoga, the gods, and the virtues), the “rope of innumerable strands” (desire for innumerable things), and the “great illusion” (85), meaning the false idea that the Spirit is actually a duality.

Something else revealed to the wise through meditation is the “river of life” (86) gives way to five streams representing the bodily senses, which themselves are derived from the five elements and are driven by the five “breathing winds” (86). There is also a five-part “fountain of consciousness,” five whirlpools representing the “five sorrows,” and five obstacles that represent the five “stages of pain” (86). 

Brahman sustains the universe and maintains its unity, which exists despite apparent dualities like pleasure and suffering, the invisible and the seen, power and weakness, and wisdom and ignorance. One can discover Brahman through OM and prayer and “with truth and self-sacrifice” (86).

The god of inspiration, Savitri, gives human minds the means to reach the Spirit and provides life to new souls generated by the Spirit. In order to reach Brahman, the author advises the reader to tame the “wild horses” (88) who lead the chariot that represents the mind. Through practicing Yoga, one can master the elements of water, air, earth, fire, and ether and gain “a new body of spiritual fire” (88) that can survive illness and death. The practice of Yoga improves health, and then it helps one see God.

The unity of Brahman includes Maya, who is unchanging from the beginning to the end, and Rudra, who protects all beings. Rudra presides over freedom from both fear and love. Still, it is knowledge of Brahman that offers immortality and safety from despair and pain. Brahman is also represented in Siva, god of love, and in that respect Brahman “leads us unto his own joy” (90). Every being has the Atman, which is both tiny and vast. Finally, those who know and love Brahman will become reborn.

God appears in multiple forms, including a boy, a maiden, a woman, an old man, birds, the seas, and the seasons of the year. When one sees the Spirit, they become “free from sorrow” (91). The Vedas and all religious texts and rituals come from Brahman. 

Maya may be the whole of nature, but Brahman controls even Maya. Although God is “hidden in the heart of things,” God is “one” (92) with all things and beings, including the gods themselves. Brahman cannot be seen, but it can be known through the “heart” (93).

Knowledge is immortal but ignorance soon dies. However, Brahman exists beyond both ignorance and wisdom. Even the Creator or the “Golden Seed” (93) was in Brahman’s mind at the very beginning. Brahman also dictates the “transmigration” (93) of souls after death. Knowledge of the Spirit is the “mystery” (93) in the Vedas and the Upanishads.

If a soul becomes entangled with the “three powers of nature,” they become part of the three powers that stray along “three paths” (94), trapping them in the cycle of life and death. Still, each soul contains the “seed of Infinity” (94) and is neither female nor male. During a lifetime, the actions and thoughts of a soul determine if it will be bond to another life, or if it will ascend because the soul knows the Spirit through “a heart which is poor” (94).

The author rejects the theories of sages that the world was generated by nature or time. Instead, the author argues that the world was produced by the “Wheel of Brahman” (94). The world and nature operate under Brahman’s direction. Brahman also works to remove evil and is the “God of love” (95). While “hidden in nature” (95), Brahman leads people to knowing the Spirit, through which they can attain “joy eternal” (96). Other characteristics of Brahman are that he is “pure consciousness” and is the “never-created Creator” (96). To achieve freedom from the bondage of nature, one must have the “supreme love of God” (97).