^101:2 The light of the sun; Rig-veda, III. lxii. 10

^101:3 This is a somewhat modern poem, which is here added as it conveys with great clearness the leading psychological doctrines of the later Vedant.

^102:1 Throughout this little work the pronoun "I" is used to denote the individual soul as witness of the sense of personality, (aham-kara, egoity), and the other "determinations" of soul, while itself it consciously transcends them. The verse means that as the same predicates--existence, thought, and agreeableness--apply both to the soul and to Brahma, these two are identical.

^102:2 See above, section 16.

^102:3 The soul is eternal; for it cannot be destroyed from within, since it has self-recognition, i.e. continuous consciousness of self-identity; and it cannot be destroyed from without, for as it has no parts it cannot be dissolved into its parts; and as it is dependent upon nothing but itself it cannot suffer from the destruction of its basis.

^102:4 The physical elements, which seem real, are in truth imaginary.

^103:1 In the process of cognition, according to the Vedanta, there are two elements--viz. the object or matter of the cognition and the subject of it. The former, being wholly lifeless and inert, can only emerge into consciousness when the light of subject Thought falls upon it from without. The first word of this verse, abha-rupasya, is wrongly printed abharupasya and accordingly mistranslated in the "Pandit" of 1873, pp. 11, 130.

^103:2 No object exists unless it becomes cognised--i.e. it becomes the object of a subject conscious thereof. Thus conscious being enters into relation with unconscious being; and how is this possible? It can only be explained by assuming an adhyasa or "transference," an inveterate error of the individual consciousness making it identify itself with the phenomenal world, which is properly nothing more than an unreal emanation of the consciousness. Hence there exists in reality nothing but consciousness. See S'ankara on Brahma-sutra, i. 1.

^103:3 The sense-organs (indriya), vital functions (prana), sensorium (manas), and intelligence (dhi, i.e. buddhi), are only "determinants," upadhis, external to the soul; see p. 28 f.

^104:1 The "witness" is the consciousness impassively cognising the affections of the psychical upadhis, such as love or hate. It is "related to all things," for things exist only in so far as they are objects of thought (see v. 7). It is thus universal Being, Thought, and Bliss. On the error of confusing the absolute Self with the Ego, see p. 45. The Ego (aham-kara) is really the subject of dreaming and dreamless sleep and waking, not the transcendental Self, according to the later, Vedanta.