The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal

by Anonymous

We must be prepared, therefore, for apparent inconsistency, for obliviousness to one conception through temporary absorption in another. Nowhere must we expect to find the whole truth gathered together once for all in easy, triumphant, conscious formulation.

Many, though they hear of it, do not understand it. Wonderful is he who speaks of it. Intelligent is he who learns of it. Blessed is he who, taught by a good teacher, is able to comprehend it.,,

same time it would be a mistake to suppose that his allegiance to their authority is slavish or blind. If he considers them the word of God, it is because he believes their truth to be verifiable, immediately, at any moment, in his own personal experience. If he found on due examination that it was not so verifiable, he would reject it. If he found that any part of it was not so verifiable, he would reject that. And in this position the scriptures, he will tell you, uphold him. The real study, say the Upanishads, is not study of themselves but study of that "by which we realize the changeless." In other words, the real study in religion is firsthand experience of God.

They who devote themselves both to life in the world and to meditation, by life in the world overcome death, and by meditation achieve immortality.

He truly knows Brahman who knows him as beyond knowledge; he who thinks that he knows, knows not. The ignorant think that Brahman is known, but the wise know him to be beyond knowledge.