Reading section 41

[Footnote 154: See Mahâbhâr. I. xvii-xviii and other accounts in the Râmâyaṇa and Purâṇas.]

[Footnote 155: It has also been conjectured that Sk. Asura=Ashur, the God of Assyria, and that Sumeru or Sineru (Meru)=Sumer or Shinar, see _J.R.A.S._ 1916, pp. 364-5.]

[Footnote 156: Ṛig V. I. 164. 46.]

[Footnote 157: For instance chap. III. of the Chândogya Upanishad, which compares the solar system to a beehive in which the bees are Vedic hymns, is little less than stupendous, though singular and hard for European thought to follow.]

[Footnote 158: I presume that the strong opinion expressed in Caland and Henri's _Agnishloma_ p. 484 that the sacrifice is merely a _do ut des_ operation refers only to the earliest Vedic period and not to the time of the Brâhmaṇas.]

[Footnote 159: Thus both the Vedas and the Tantras devote considerable space to rites which have for object the formation of a new body for the sacrificer. Compare for instance the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (I. 18-21: II. 35-38: III. 2 and VI. 27-31) with Avalon's account of Nyâsa, in his introduction to the Mahânirvâṇa Tantra pages cvii-cxi.]

[Footnote 160: There is considerable doubt as to what was the plant originally known as Soma. That described in the Vedas and Brâhmanas is said to grow on the mountains and to have a yellow juice of a strong smell, fiery taste and intoxicating properties. The plants used as Haom (Hum) by the modern Parsis of Yezd and Kerman are said to be members of the family Asclepiadaceae (perhaps of the genus Sarcostemma) with fleshy stalks and milky juice, and the Soma tested by Dr Haug at Poona was probably made from another species of the same or an allied genus. He found it extremely nasty, though it had some intoxicating effect. (See his _Aitareya Brdh-mana_ n. p. 489.)]

[Footnote 161: An ordinary sacrifice was offered for a private person who had to be initiated and the priests were merely officiants acting on his behalf. In a Sattra the priests were regarded as the sacrificers and were initiated. It had some analogy to Buddhist and Christian monastic foundations for reading sûtras and saying masses.]

[Footnote 162: The political importance of the Aśvamedha lay in the fact that the victim had to be let loose to roam freely for a year, so that only a king whose territories were sufficiently extensive to allow of its being followed and guarded during its wanderings could hope to sacrifice it at the end.]

[Footnote 163: R.V. x. 136 and x. 190.]

[Footnote 164: Even the Upanishads (_e.g._ Chând. III. 17, Mahânâr. 64) admit that a good life which includes _tapas_ is the equivalent of sacrifice. But this of course is teaching for the elect only. The Brih.-Âran. Up. (V. ii) contains the remarkable doctrine that sickness and pain, if regarded by the sufferer as _tapas_, bring the same reward.]

[Footnote 165: So too in the Taittirîya Upanishad _tapas_ is described as the means of attaining the knowledge of Brahman (III. 1-5).]

[Footnote 166: Any ritual without knowledge may be worse than useless. See Chând. Up. I. 10. 11.]

[Footnote 167: See the various narratives in the Chândogya, Br.-Âran. and Kaushîtaki Upanishads. The seventh chapter of the Chândogya relating how Nârada, the learned sage, was instructed by Sanatkumâra or Skanda, the god of war, seems to hint that the active military class may know the great truths of religion better than deeply read priests who may be hampered and blinded by their learning. For Skanda and Nârada in this connection see Bhagavad-gitâ x. 24, 26.]

[Footnote 168: For the necessity of a teacher see Kâth. Up. II. 8.]

[Footnote 169: See especially the bold passage at the end of Taitt. Upan. II. "He who knows the bliss of Brahman ... fears nothing. He does not torment himself by asking what good have I left undone, what evil have I done?"]

[Footnote 170: The word Upanishad probably means sitting down at the feet of a teacher to receive secret instruction: hence a secret conversation or doctrine.]

[Footnote 171: Some allusions in the older Upanishads point to this district rather than the Ganges Valley as the centre of Brahmanic philosophy. Thus the Brịhad-Âraṇyaka speaks familiarly of Gândhâra.]

[Footnote 172: Cat. Adyar Library. The Ṛig and Sâma Vedas have two Upanishads each, the Yajur Veda seven. All the others are described as belonging to the Atharva Veda. They have no real connection with it, but it was possible to add to the literature of the Atharva whereas it was hardly possible to make similar additions to the older Vedas.]

[Footnote 173: Debendranath Tagore composed a work which he called the Brâhmî Upanishad in 1848. See Autobiography, p. 170. The sectarian Upanishads are of doubtful date, but many were written between 400 and 1200 A.D. and were due to the desire of new sects to connect their worship with the Veda. Several are Śaktist (e.g. Kaula, Tripurâ, Devî) and many others show Śaktist influence. They usually advocate the worship of a special deity such as Gaṇeśa, Sûrya, Râma, Nṛi Siṃha.]

[Footnote 174: Br.-Âran. VI. 1, Ait. Âran. II. 4, Kaush. III. 3, Praśna, II. 3, Chând. V. 1. The apologue is curiously like in form to the classical fable of the belly and members.]

[Footnote 175: Br.-Âran. VI. 2, Chând. V. 3]

[Footnote 176: Br.-Âran. II. 1, Kaush. IV. 2.]

[Footnote 177: The composite structure of these works is illustrated very clearly by the Bṛihad-Âraṇyaka. It consists of three sections each concluding with a list of teachers, namely (_a_) adhyâyas 1 and 2, (_b_) adh. 3 and 4, (_c_) adh. 5 and 6. The lists are not quite the same, which indicates some slight difference between the sub-schools which composed the three parts, and a lengthy passage occurs twice in an almost identical form. The Upanishad is clearly composed of two separate collections with the addition of a third which still bears the title of _Khila_ or supplement. The whole work exists in two recensions.]

[Footnote 178: The Eleven translated in the _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. I and XV, include the oldest and most important.]

[Footnote 179: Thus the Aitareya Brâhmana is followed by the Aitareya Âraṇyaka and that by the Aitareya-Âraṇyaka-Upanishad.]

[Footnote 180: R.V. X. 121. The verses are also found in the Atharva Veda, the Vâjasaneyi, Taittirîya, Maitrâyaṇi, and Kâṭhaka Saṃhitâs and elsewhere.]

[Footnote 181: R.V. X. 129.]

[Footnote 182: IV. 5. 5 and repeated almost verbally II. 4. 5 with some omissions. My quotation is somewhat abbreviated and repetitions are omitted.]

[Footnote 183: The sentiment is perhaps the same as that underlying the words attributed to Florence Nightingale: "I must strive to see only God in my friends and God in my cats."]

[Footnote 184: It will be observed that he had said previously that the Âtman must be seen, heard, perceived and known. This is an inconsistent use of language.]

[Footnote 185: Chândogya Upanishad VI.]

[Footnote 186: In the language of the Upanishads the Âtman is often called simply Tat or it.]

[Footnote 187: _I.e._ the difference between clay and pots, etc. made of clay.]

[Footnote 188: Yet the contrary proposition is maintained in this same Upanishad (III. 19. 1), in the Taittirîya Upanishad (II. 8) and elsewhere. The reason of these divergent statements is of course the difficulty of distinguishing pure Being without attributes from not Being.]

[Footnote 189: The word union is a convenient but not wholly accurate term which covers several theories. The Upanishads sometimes speak of the union of the soul with Brahman or its absorption in Brahman (_e.g._ Maitr. Up. VI. 22, _Sâyujyatvam_ and _aśabde nidhanam eti_) but the soul is more frequently stated to be Brahman or a part of Brahman and its task is not to effect any act of union but simply to _know_ its own nature. This knowledge is in itself emancipation. The well-known simile which compares the soul to a river flowing into the sea is found in the Upanishads (Chând. VI. 10. 1, Mund. III. 2, Praśna, VI. 5) but Śankara (on Brahma S. I. iv. 21-22) evidently feels uneasy about it. From his point of view the soul is not so much a river as a bay which _is_ the sea, if the landscape can be seen properly.]

[Footnote 190: The Mâṇḍukya Up. calls the fourth state _ekâtmapratyayasâra_, founded solely on the certainty of its own self and Gauḍapâda says that in it there awakes the eternal which neither dreams nor sleeps. (Kâr. I. 15. See also III. 34 and 36.)]

[Footnote 191: Bṛ.-Âraṇyaka, IV. 3. 33.]

[Footnote 192: Cf. Bradley, _Appearance and Reality_, p. 244. "The perfect ... means the identity of idea and existence, attended also by pleasure."]

[Footnote 193: Tait. Up. II. 1-9. See too ib. III. 6.]

[Footnote 194: Bṛ.-Âran. III. 8. 10. See too VI. 2.15, speaking of those who in the forest worship the truth with faith.]

[Footnote 195: Chândog. Up. IV. 10. 5.]

[Footnote 196: It occurs Katha. Up. II. v. 13, 15, also in the Śvetâśvatara and Muṇḍaka Upanishads and there are similar words in the Bhagavad-gîtâ. "This is that" means that the individual soul is the same as Brahman.]

[Footnote 197: The Nṙisiṁhottaratapanîya Up. I. says that Îśvara is swallowed up in the Turîya.]

[Footnote 198: But still ancient and perhaps anterior to the Christian era.]

[Footnote 199: Śvet. Up. VI. 7.]

[Footnote 200: Śvet. Up. IV. 3. Max Müller's translation. The commentary attributed to Śankara explains nîlaḣ pataṅgaḣ as bhramaraḣ but Deussen seems to think it means a bird.]

[Footnote 201: Chând. Up. vi. 14. 1. Śat. Brâh. viii. 1. 4. 10.]

[Footnote 202: The Brahmans are even called low-born as compared with Kshatriyas and in the Ambattha Sutta (Dig. Nik. iii.) the Buddha demonstrates to a Brahman who boasts of his caste that the usages of Hindu society prove that "the Kshatriyas are higher and the Brahmans lower," seeing that the child of a mixed union between the castes is accepted by the Brahmans as one of themselves but not by the Kshatriyas, because he is not of pure descent.]

[Footnote 203: He had learnt the Veda and Upanishads. Brih.-Âr. iv. 2. 1.]

[Footnote 204: Chând. Up. v. 3. 7, Kaush. Up. iv., Brih.-Âr. Up. ii. 1. The Kshatriyas seem to have regarded the doctrine of the two paths which can be taken by the soul after death (_devayâna_ and _pitriyâna_, the latter involving return to earth and transmigration) as their special property.]

[Footnote 205: Literally set in front, præfectus.]

[Footnote 206: Śat. Brâh. ii. 4. 4. 5.]

[Footnote 207: Śat. Brâh. iv. 1. 4. 1-6.]

[Footnote 208: The legends of Vena, Paraśurâma and others indicate the prevalence of considerable hostility between Brahmans and Kshatriyas at some period.]

[Footnote 209: Brahmacârin, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyâsin.]

[Footnote 210: Thus in the Bṛih.-Âraṇ. Yajñavalkya retires to the forest. But even the theory of three stages was at this time only in the making, for the last section of the Chândogya Up. expressly authorizes a religious man to spend all his life as a householder after completing his studentship and the account given of the stages in Chând. ii. 21 is not very clear.]

[Footnote 211: Śat. Brâh. xi. 5. 6. 8. Cf. the lists in the Chândogya Upanishad vii. secs. 1, 2 and 7.]

[Footnote 212: In southern India at the present day it is the custom for Brahmans to live as Agnihotris and maintain the sacred fire for a few days after their marriage.]

[Footnote 213: See Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, vol. v. s.v.]