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12. On account of his being designated as the object of seeing, he (i.e. the highest Self) (is that object).
The followers of the Atharva-veda, in the section containing the question asked by Satyakama, read as follows: 'He again who meditates with this syllable Aum of three Matras on the highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. As a snake frees itself from its skin, so he frees himself from evil. He is led up by the Saman verses to the Brahma-world; he sees the person dwelling in the castle who is higher than the individual souls concreted with bodies and higher (than those)' (Pra. Up. V, 2). Here the terms 'he meditates' and 'he sees' have the same sense, 'seeing' being the result of devout meditation; for according to the principle expressed in the text (Kh. Up. III, 14) 'According as man's thought is in this world,' what is reached by the devotee is the object of meditation; and moreover the text exhibits the same object, viz. 'the highest Person' in connexion with both verbs.
The doubt here presents itself whether the highest Person in this text be the so-called four-faced Brahma, the Lord of the mundane egg who represents the individual souls in their collective aspect, or the supreme Person who is the Lord of all.--The Purvapakshin maintains the former view. For, he argues, on the introductory question, 'He who here among men should meditate until death on the syllable Om, what would he obtain by it?' The text first declares that he who meditates on that syllable as having one Matra, obtains the world of men; and next, that he who meditates on it as having two Matras obtains the world of the atmosphere. Hence the Brahma-world, which the text after that represents as the object reached by him who meditates on Om as having three syllables, must be the world of Brahma Katurmukha who is constituted by the aggregate of the individual souls. What the soul having reached that world sees, therefore is the same Brahma Katurmukha; and thus only the attribute 'etasmag' givaghanat parat param' is suitable; for the collective soul, i. e. Brahma Katurmukha, residing in the Brahma-world is higher (para) than the distributive or discrete soul (giva) which is concreted (ghani-bhuta) with the body and sense-organs, and at the same time is higher (para) than these. The highest Person mentioned in the text, therefore, is Brahmaa Katurmukha; and the qualities mentioned further on, such as absence of decay, &c., must be taken in such a way as to agree with that Brahma.
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