^271:5 The question put by Kitra to Svetaketu is very obscure, and was probably from the first intended to be obscure in its very wording. What Kitra wished to ask we can gather from other passages in the Upanishads, where we see another royal sage, Pravahana Gaivali (Kh. Up. V, 3; Brih. Ar. VI, 2), enlightening Svetaketu on the future life. That future life is reached by two roads; one, the Devapatha, leading to the world of Brahman (the conditioned), beyond which there lies one other stage only, represented by knowledge of and identity with the unconditioned Brahman; the other leading to the world of the fathers, and from thence, after the reward of good works has been consumed, back to a new round of mundane existence. There is a third road for creatures which live and die, worms, insects, and creeping things, but they are of little consequence. Now it is quite clear that the knowledge which king Kitra possesses, and which Svetaketu does not possess, is that of the two roads after death, sometimes called the right and the left, or the southern and northern roads. These roads are fully described in the Khandogya-upanishad and in the Brihad-aranyaka, with certain variations, yet on the whole with the same purpose. The northern or left road, called also the path of the Devas, passes on from light and day to the bright half of the moon; the southern or right road, called also the path of the fathers, passes on from smoke and night to the dark half of the moon. Both roads therefore meet in the moon, but diverge afterwards. While the northern road passes by the six months when the sun moves towards the north, through the sun, (moon,) and the lightning to the world of Brahman, the southern passes by the six months when the sun moves towards the south, to the world of the fathers, the ether, and the moon. The great difference, however, between the two roads is, that while those who travel on the former do not return again to a new life on earth, but reach in the end a true knowledge of the unconditioned Brahman, those who pass on to the world of the fathers and the moon return to earth to be born again and again.