“Of knowledge, verily, is man constituted. As is his knowledge in this world, so, when he hath gone hence, doth he become. After knowledge then let him strive.
“2. Whose substance is spirit, whose body is life, whose form is light, whose purpose is truth, whose essence is infinity, — the all-working, all-wishing, all-smelling, all-tasting one, that embraceth the universe, that is silent, untroubled, —
“3. That is my spirit within my heart, smaller than a grain of rice or a barley-corn, or a grain of mustard-seed; smaller than a grain of millet, or even than a husked grain of millet.
“This my spirit within my heart is greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than the heavens, greater than all the worlds.
“4. The all-working, all-wishing, all-smelling, all-tasting one, that embraceth the universe, that is silent, untroubled, — that is my spirit within my heart; that is Brahm. Thereunto, when I go hence, shall I attain. Who knoweth this, he in sooth hath no more doubts.
“Thus spake Shandilya — spake Shandilya.”
In such passages, which are very frequent in the Upanishads, an immediate sense of the unity of all things runs parallel with an equally strong sense that this unity is wholly in myself who know the truth, — in my heart, just because what for me is, is precisely what I know.
The famous and often quoted instruction given to the young disciple, called Shvetaketu, by his father Uddalaka, deserves closer analysis in this connection. This instruction begins with a statement of the general monistic
