Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 15.djvu/100

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those desires he obtains. Therefore let every man who desires happiness worship the man who knows the Self[1].


SECOND Khanda


1. He (the knower of the Self) knows that highest home of Brahman[2], in which all is contained and shines brightly. The wise who, without desiring happiness, worship that Person[3], transcend this seed, (they are not born again.)

2. He who forms desires in his mind, is born again through his desires here and there. But to him whose desires are fulfilled and who is conscious of the true Self (within himself) all desires vanish, even here on earth.

3. That Self[4] cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be gained. The Self chooses him (his body) as his own.

4. Nor is that Self to be gained by one who is destitute of strength, or without earnestness, or without right meditation. But if a wise man strives after it by those means (by strength, earnestness, and right meditation), then his Self enters the home of Brahman.

5. When they have reached him (the Self), the sages become satisfied through knowledge, they are conscious of their Self, their passions have passed

  1. All this is said by the commentator to refer to a knowledge of the conditioned Brahman only.
  2. See verse 4.
  3. The commentator refers purusha to the knower of the Self.
  4. Kath. Up. II, 23.