CHAPTER TWO
SECTION ONE
This is the truth. Just as from a blazing fire, sparks of
similar form come out by the thousands, even so, dear one, do many kinds of
beings come out from the Immutable Person, from Brahm, and return there too.
Brahm, is divine and
formless. He is without and within everything; he is inside and outside
everything. He is unborn. He is without breath, He is without mind. He is pure
and even higher than the highest immutable.
From him are born life as we know it. From him are born
mind, from Him are born all the sense organs; from Him are also born ether,
air, water, fire and the earth, which supports all.
Fire is His head. His eyes are the sun and the moon, the
regions of space are His ears, the revealed Vedas are His speech, air is His
life and His heart is the world. Out of His feet is born the earth. Indeed He
is the Self, the Atma of all beings.
From Him comes fire whose fuel is the sun, from Him comes
the moon and from the moon comes rain, and from rain come the herbs and plants
on earth. Nourished by all these, the male pours seed into the female. This is
how all creatures are produced from the person of Brahm, this is how the birth
of all beings takes place from Brahm.
From him are born the verses of the Rig Veda, the chants of
the Sama Veda, and the formulae of the Yajur Veda; from Him are born the rites
of initiation, from Him are born all the sacrifices, all the ceremonies, all
the rituals and sacrificial gifts, from Him are born the years and time too,
and the sacrificer, as also the worlds where the moon purifies and where the
radiant sun shines ever so brightly.
From Him are also born all the gods in many different ways,
all the celestials, men, cattle, birds, the in- breath and the out- breath,
rice and barley, austerity, faith, truth, chastity, and the law.
From Him come out the seven life breaths, the seven flames
and their fuel, the seven oblations,
these seven worlds in which move the life breaths, seven and seven,
which dwell in the secret place of the heart.
From Him emerge all the oceans, all the seas and all the
mountains, from Him flow rivers of every kind, from Him come all the herbs and
their juices, too, by which, together with the elements, the inner soul is
upheld.
Brahm Himself is all that has been described. He is work, He
is austerity and He is Brahma beyond death.
He who knows Brahm as residing in
the secret place of the heart he, here on earth itself, O dear one, cuts open
the knots of ignorance; he gets rid of all ignorance in his very lifetime
itself.
SECTION
2
The Great Support, Brahm, is seen in the secret place of the
heart. It is well fixed and it is moving as well. In the same Great Support is
centred all this which moves, which breathes and which winks. Know that support
as being and also as non being, and as the Supreme Object to be desired. It is
the highest and it is beyond the reach of man’s understanding.
That which is ever luminous, That which is subtler than the
subtle, and That in which are centred all the worlds, and those that dwell in
them, That is the Imperishable Brahm, That is life, That is speech, and That is
mind. That is the true, That is the truth, That is immortal, That is Brahm to
be known. Therefore, know That Brahm.
Taking the great weapon of the Upanishads as the bow, one
should place in it the arrow of the self, sharpened by meditation. Then drawing
the bowstring with a mind engaged in the contemplation of Brahm, one should
make that very Imperishable Brahm as the target.
The syllable AUM is the bow, one’s own Self, one’s own Atma,
indeed, is the arrow. Brahm is the target which is to be hit without making a
mistake. Thus, hitting the target, the arrow becomes one with the target; the
Atma becomes one with Brahm, the Atma merges with Brahm.
He in whom the sky, the earth, the inter space, the mind and
all the vital breaths are all woven together, know Him alone as the one Self.
Dismiss all other claims, dismiss all other utterances and conjectures. This is
the bridge to immortality.
The heart is where the arteries of the body are brought
together like spokes in the centre of a wheel. It is in that very heart that
the Self moves about becoming many. May you be successful in crossing over from
the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge and wisdom.
He consists of mind and is the leader of life and the body
and is seated in the body controlling the heart. By the knowledge of Brahm, the
wise are able to clearly see the Immortal who shines forth brightly.
The doubts that assail the heart are dispelled, the knots,
the bonds that bind the heart are cut, and all past deeds and actions terminate
once the higher and the lower Brahm are seen.
Brahm is encased in the highest golden covering. Brahm is
without stain, without parts, Brahm is pure and pristine; He is the light of
all lights. The knowers of the Self know this.
The sun does not shine there, nor the moon, nor the stars;
these lightnings so not shine there. Where then could this fire be? That fire
and that light is, indeed, the light of Brahm itself. Everything shines only
after the shining light of Brahm. The sun, the moon, the stars, and all the
lightnings, they all get their light only from Brahm. Brahm, indeed, is the
source of the light of this universe. It is the light of Brahm that actually
illumines the whole world.
It is Brahm, indeed, who is this immortal. Brahm is everywhere.
Brahm is in front, Brahm is behind, Brahm
is to the right, Brahm is to the left, Brahm is above and below. Brahm,
indeed, is this universe. Brahm is the greatest.
END OF CHAPTER TWO
END OF PART TWO
AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE
