Here, for the first time in the history of human thought, we find the Absolute grasped and proclaimed.
A poetical account of the nature of the Ātman is given by the Kāṭhaka Upanishad in the following stanzas:—
- That whence the sun's orb rises up,
- And that in which it sinks again:
- In it the gods are all contained,
- Beyond it none can ever pass (iv. 9).
- Its form can never be to sight apparent,
- Not any one may with his eye behold it:
- By heart and mind and soul alone they grasp it,
- And those who know it thus become immortal (vi. 9).
- Since not by speech and not by thought,
- Not by the eye can it be reached:
- How else may it be understood
- But only when one says "it is" ? (vi. 12).
The place of the more personal Prajāpati is taken in the Upanishads by the Ātman as a creative power. Thus the Bṛihadāraṇyaka (I. iv.) relates that in the beginning the Ātman or the Brahma was this universe. It was afraid in its loneliness and felt no pleasure. Desiring a second being, it became man and woman, whence the human race was produced. It then proceeded to produce male and female animals in a similar way; finally creating water, fire, the gods, and so forth. The author then proceeds in a more exalted strain:—
"It (the Ātman) is here all-pervading down to the tips of the nails. One does not see it any more than a razor hidden in its case or fire in its receptacle. For it does not appear as a whole. When it breathes, it is called breath; when it speaks, voice; when it hears, ear; when it thinks, mind. These are merely the names of its activities. He
