The Upanishads, Part 2 (SBE15)
Chapters
Svetasvatara-Upanishad: Sixth Adhyaya

SIXTH ADHYAYA.

1 . Some wise men, deluded, speak of Nature, and others of Time (as the cause of everything ); but it is the greatness of God by which this Brahma-wheel is made to turn.

2. It is at the command of him who always covers this world, the knower, the time of time , who assumes qualities and all knowledge , it is at his command that this work (creation) unfolds itself, which is called earth, water, fire, air, and ether;

3 . He who, after he has done that work and rested again, and after he has brought together one essence (the self) with the other (matter), with one, two, three, or eight, with time also and with the subtile qualities of the mind,

4. Who, after starting the works endowed with (the three) qualities, can order all things, yet when, in the absence of all these, he has caused the destruction of the work, goes on, being in truth different (from all he has produced);

5. He is the beginning, producing the causes which unite (the soul with the body), and, being

above the three kinds of time (past, present, future), he is seen as without parts , after we have first worshipped that adorable god, who has many forms, and who is the true source (of all things), as dwelling in our own mind.

6. He is beyond all the forms of the tree (of the world) and of time, he is the other, from whom this world moves round, when one has known him who

brings good and removes evil, the lord of bliss, as dwelling within the self, the immortal, the support of all.

7. Let us know that highest great lord of lords , the highest deity of deities, the master of masters, the highest above, as god, the lord of the world, the adorable.

8. There is no effect and no cause known of him, no one is seen like unto him or better; his high power is revealed as manifold, as inherent, acting as force and knowledge.

9. There is no master of his in the world, no ruler of his, not even a sign of him . He is the cause, the lord of the lords of the organs , and there is of him neither parent nor lord.

10. That only god who spontaneously covered himself, like a spider, with threads drawn from the first cause (pradhana), grant us entrance into Brahman .

11. He is the one God, hidden in all beings, all-pervading,

the self within all beings, watching over all works, dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver , the only one, free from qualities.

12 . He is the one ruler of many who (seem to act, but really do) not act ; he makes the one seed manifold. The wise who perceive him within their self, to them belongs eternal happiness, not to others.

13 . He is the eternal among eternals, the thinker among thinkers, who, though one, fulfils the desires of many. He who has known that cause which is to be apprehended by Sankhya (philosophy) and Yoga (religious discipline), he is freed from all fetters.