Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/226

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112
KHÂNDOGYA-UPANISHAD.

Third Khanda.

1. 'Mind (manas) is better than speech. For as the closed fist holds two amalaka or two kola or two aksha fruits, thus does mind hold speech and name. For if a man is minded in his mind to read the sacred hymns, he reads them; if he is minded in his mind to perform any actions, he performs them; if he is minded to wish for sons and cattle, he wishes for them; if he is minded to wish for this world and the other, he wishes for them. For mind is indeed the self[1], mind is the world, mind is Brahman. Meditate on the mind.

2. 'He who meditates on the mind as Brahman, is, as it were, lord and master as far as the mind reaches—he who meditates on the mind as Brahman.'

'Sir, is there something better than mind?'

'Yes, there is something better than mind.'

'Sir, tell it me.'


Fourth Khanda.

1. 'Will[2] (saṅkalpa) is better than mind. For when a man wills, then he thinks in his mind, then he sends forth speech, and he sends it forth in a name. In a name the sacred hymns are contained, in the sacred hymns all sacrifices.

2. 'All these therefore (beginning with mind and


  1. The commentator explains this by saying that, without the instrument of the mind, the Self cannot act or enjoy.
  2. Saṅkalpa is elsewhere defined as a modification of manas. The commentator says that, like thinking, it is an activity of the inner organ. It is difficult to find any English term exactly corresponding to saṅkalpa. Rajendralal Mitra translates it by will, but it implies not only will, but at the same time conception, determination, and desire.