While He sees not, yet without seeing He sees; the sight of the seer is not to be broken, for it is imperishable. But there is naught beside Him, naught apart from Him, that He should see... When He understands not, yet without understanding He understands; the understanding of the understander is not to be broken, for it is imperishable. But there is naught beside Him, naught apart from Him, that He should understand.

If there should be as it were another, one would see another, smell another, taste another, speak to another, hear another, think of another, feel another, understand another.

The Seer is the Waters, one with naught beside. He is the Brahma-world, O king." Thus did Yajnavalkya teach him. "This is the highest way for Him, this the highest fortune for Him,

this the highest world for Him, this the highest bliss for Him; of this bliss other creatures live on but a morsel."

Footnotes

^68:1 Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad, IV. iii. 7-33.

^68:2 Purusha; see above p. 56.

^68:3 Namely, this world in waking and dreaming, and the world of Brahma in deep sleep or death.

^69:1 The soul's seats are (1) that in this world, and (2) that in the transcendental "Brahma-world," which it visits on death. The former is the site of sorrows, the latter of pure joy. Between these is the condition of sleep; for dreaming sleep is still in touch with waking experience, and dreamless sleep is a temporary approach towards the "Brahma-world."

^70:1 In dreamless sleep the individual consciousness is merged into universal consciousness, prajna atma or "Self of Intelligence," and thus arises absolute unconsciousness.

^71:1 Two of the basest castes.

^71:2 This may refer to an Indian theory according to which water is essentially tasteless, but derives its special flavour from its surroundings, as in a cocoanut or a lemon (see Sankhya-karika, xvi.); or perhaps it is based upon the Vedic theory that made water the first principle of cosmic being, as in the doctrine of Thales of Miletus.

VIII. GaRGi AND YaJNAVALKYA

"Yajnavalkya," said she, "as a warrior from the land of Kas'i or Videha might string his unstrung bow and come forward holding in his hand two arrows to pierce through his foe, even so I have come forward against thee with two questions; answer me them."

"Ask, Gargi."

"Yajnavalkya," said she, "that which is above the heavens, which is beneath the earth, which is midway between the heavens and the earth, which they call What hath been, What is, and What shall be--in what is it woven and woofed?"

"Gargi," said he, "that which is above the heavens, which is below the earth, which is midway between the heavens and the earth, which they call What hath been, What is, and What shall be, is woven and woofed in the ether."