Thirty Minor Upanishads: 9. Paiṅgala-Upanisha&#7693... | Internet Sacred Text Archive

Hinduism

PAIṄGALA-UPANISHAḌ 1

OF

ŚUKLA-YAJURVEḌA

Aḍhyāya I

Om. Paiṅgala, having served under Yājñavalkya for twelve years, asked him to initiate him into the supreme mysteries of Kaivalya. To which Yājñavalkya replied thus: "O gentle one, at first, this (universe) was Saṭ (Be-ness) only. It (Saṭ) is spoken of as Brahman which is ever free (from the trammels of matter), which is changeless, which is Truth, Wisdom, and Bliss, and which is full, permanent, and one only without a second. In It, was like a mirage in the desert, silver in mother-of-pearl, a person in the pillar, or colour, etc., in the crystals, mūlaprakṛṭi, having in equal proportions the guṇas, red, 2 white, and black, and being beyond the power of speech. That which is reflected in it is Sākshi-Chaiṭanya (lit., the witness-consciousness), It (mūlaprakṛṭi) undergoing again change becomes with the preponderance of Saṭṭva (in it), Āvaraṇa 3 Śakṭi named avyakṭa. That which is reflected in it (Avyakṭa) is Īśvara-Chaiṭanya. He (Īśvara) has Māyā under his control, is omniscient, the original cause of creation, preservation, and dissolution, and the seed of this universe. He causes the universe which was latent in Him, to manifest itself through the bonds of karma of all creatures like a painted canvas unfurled. Again through the extinction