The commentators do not help us much. Sankara on the Taittiriyaka-upanishad explains the human Gandharvas as men who have become Gandharvas, a kind of fairies; divine Gandharvas, as Gandharvas by birth. The Fathers or Manes are called Kiraloka, because they remain long, though not for ever, in their world. The aganaga Gods are explained as born in the world of the Devas through their good works (smarta), while the Karmadevas are explained as born there through their sacred works (vaidika). The Gods are the thirty-three, whose lord is Indra, and whose teacher Brihaspati. Pragapati is Virag, Brahman Hiranyagarbha. Dvivedaganga, in his commentary on the Satapatha-brahmana, explains the Fathers as those who, proceeding on the Southern path, have conquered their world, more particularly by having themselves offered in their life sacrifices to their Fathers. The Karmadevas, according to him, are those who have become Devas by sacred works (srauta), the Aganadevas those who were gods before there were men. The Gods are Indra and the rest, while the Gandharvas are not explained. Pragapati is Virag, Brahman is Hiranyagarbha. Lastly, Sankara, in his commentary on the Brihadaranyakaupanishad, gives nearly the same explanation as before; only that he makes aganadevah still clearer, by explaining them as gods aganatah, i.e. utpattitah, from their birth.

The arrangement of these beings and their worlds, one rising above the other, reminds us of the cosmography of the Buddhists, but the elements, though in a less systematic form, existed evidently before. Thus we find in the so-called Gargi-brahmana (Satapatha-brahmana XIV, 6, 6, 1) the following succession: Water, air, ether [*a], the worlds of the sky [*b], heaven, sun, moon, stars, gods, Gandharvas [*c], Pragapati, Brahman. In the Kaushitaki-upanishad I, 3 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. i, p. 275) there is another series, the worlds of Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Indra, Pragapati, and Brahman. See Weber, Ind. Stud. II, p. 224.

^61:a Deest in Kanva-sakha.

^61:b Between sky and sun, the Kanva-sakha places the Gandharvaloka (Brih. Ar. Up. III, 6, 1, p. 609).

^61:c Instead of Gandharvas, the Brih. Ar. Up. places Indra.

NINTH ANUVAKA .

He who knows the bliss of that Brahman, from whence all speech, with the mind, turns away unable to reach it, he fears nothing .'

He does not distress himself with the thought, Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is bad? He who thus knows these two (good and bad), frees himself. He who knows both, frees himself . This is the Upanishad .

Footnotes

^63:1 Cf. II, 4.

^63:2 Even if there is no fear from anything else, after the knowledge of Self and Brahman has been obtained, it might be thought that fear might still arise from the commission of evil deeds, and the omission of good works. Therefore the next paragraphs have been added.