Chandogya Upanishad Book 8 Part 2

VIII.7

1. ?One must seek for and want to know the self, which is free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrow-less without hunger, without thirst, of true desire, of true resolve. The one who has found and knows the self attains all worlds
and all desires.’ So said Prajapati.

2. Both gods and demons came to know of this. They said,
‘Come, we will seek for the self, since by knowing the self
one attains all worlds and all desires.’ Of the gods, Indra
set forth, and of the demons, Virocana, and unbeknown to
one another, they came into Prajapati’s presence with
firewood in their hands.

3. For thirty-two years they lived as brahmacarins. Then
Prajapati asked them, ‘What did you want, that you came
to stay here?’

They said, ‘Folk report your saying, blessed one: “One
must seek for and want to know the self, which is free from
evil, ageless, deathless, sorrow-less, without hunger, without
thirst, of true desire, of true resolve. The one who has found
and knows the self attains all worlds and all desires.” That
is what we wanted, that we came to stay here.’

4. Prajapati said to them, ‘The person who is seen in the
eye is the self.’ He said, ‘This is the immortal, the fearless:
this is brahman.’

‘Then, blessed one, which is it, the one that is discerned
in water, or the one that is discerned in a mirror?’

‘It is discerned in all places,’ he said.

VIII.8

1. ‘Look at yourselves (atman) in a dish of water, then tell
me what you do not understand about the self.’ They looked
in a dish of water. Prajapati asked them, ‘What do you see?’

They said, ‘Blessed one, we see ourselves in reflection,
from hair to nails.’

2. Prajapati said to them, ‘Make yourselves smart,
well-dressed and elegant, and look in a dish of water.’ They
made themselves smart, well-dressed and elegant, and looked
in a dish of water. Prajapati asked them, ‘What do you see?’

3. They said, ‘Blessed one, just as we are smart,
well-dressed and elegant, so these, blessed one, are smart,
well-dressed and elegant.’

‘This is the self,’ he said. ‘This is the immortal, the
fearless: this is brahman.’ And they left, their hearts at peace.

4. Seeing them, Prajapati said, ‘They are leaving without
attaining or knowing the self. Those who have this as their
inner teaching, whether gods or demons, will be defeated.’

Virocana went to the demons, his heart at peace, and
? taught them this inner teaching: ‘The self must be glorified,
the self must be served here. Glorifying and serving the
self here, one attains both worlds, this one and that one.’

5. So even here, today, they say of one who does not give,
does not have faith, does not sacrifice, ‘Alas! He is demonic!’
for this inner teaching belongs to the demons. Folk make
ready the body of the departed with alms, clothing and adornments, and think that they will win that world by
means of this one.

VIII.9

1. But before he had reached the gods, Indra saw the
danger: ‘When the body is smart, it is smart. When the
body is well-dressed, it is well-dressed. When the body is
elegant, it is elegant. But in the same way, when the body
is blind, it is blind. When the body is lame, it is lame.
When the body is mutilated, it is mutilated. On the
destruction of the body, it is destroyed. I see no satisfaction
here.’

2. He went back with firewood in his hands. Prajapati said
to him, ‘Maghavan, you went away with Virocana, your
heart at peace. So what did you want, that you came back?’

He said, ‘Blessed one, when the body is smart, it is
smart. When the body is well-dressed, it is well-dressed.
When the body is elegant, it is elegant. But in the same
way, when the body is blind, it is blind. When the body is
lame, it is lame. When the body is mutilated, it is mutilated.
On the destruction of the body, it is destroyed. I see no
satisfaction here.’

3. ‘Just so, Maghavan,’ he said. ‘I will explain it to you
further. Stay another thirty-two years.’ He stayed another
thirty-two years. Then he said to him:

VIII.10

1. ‘The one that, triumphing, moves about in dream is the
self,’ he said. ‘This is the immortal, the fearless: this is
brahman.’

He went away, his heart at peace, but before he had
reached the gods, he saw the danger: ‘Though the body
becomes blind, it is not blind. Though the body is lame, it
is not lame. It is not flawed by its flaws.

2. ‘It is not slain with its slaying, nor lamed with its laming.
But it seems to be killed; it seems to be stripped. It seems
to experience unpleasant things; it seems to weep. I see no
satisfaction here.’

3. He went back with firewood in his hands. Prajapati said
to him, ‘Maghavan, you went away, your heart at peace.
So what did you want, that you came back?’

He said, ‘Blessed one, though the body becomes blind,
it is not blind. Though the body is lame, it is not lame. It
is not flawed by its flaws.

4. ‘It is not slain with its slaying, nor lamed with its laming.
But it seems to be killed; it seems to be stripped. It seems to
experience unpleasant things; it seems to weep. I see no
satisfaction here.’

‘Just so, Maghavan he said. ‘I will explain it to you
further. Stay another thirty-two years.’ He stayed another
thirty-two years. Then he said to him:

VIII.ll

1. ‘When, asleep, withdrawn and perfectly calm, one knows
no dream, this is the self,’ he said. ‘This is the immortal,
the fearless: this is brahman.’

He went away, his heart at peace, but before he had
reached the gods, he saw the danger: ‘Surely this does not
directly know itself (atman) as “I am this”, nor does it know
beings. It merges and dissolves. I see no satisfaction here.’

2. He went back with firewood in his hands. Prajapati said
to him, ‘Maghavan, you went away, your heart at peace.
So what did you want, that you came back?’

He said, ‘Blessed one, surely this does not directly know
itself as “I am this”, nor does it know beings. It merges
and dissolves. I see no satisfaction here.’
3 ‘Just so, Maghavan,’ he said. ‘I will explain it to you
further, this and nothing else. Stay another five years.’ He
stayed another five years. Altogether it came to a hundred
and one years. So folk say, ‘Maghavan lived as a brahmacarin
with Prajapati for a hundred and one years.’ Then he said
to him:

VIII.12

1. ‘Maghavan, the body is mortal. It has been taken by
death. But it is the support of the self, which is immortal
and bodiless. The embodied has been taken by the pleasant
and the unpleasant. For the embodied, there is no escaping
the pleasant and the unpleasant. But that which is bodiless
the pleasant and the unpleasant do not touch.

2. ‘Air is bodiless. Cloud, lightning and thunder?these are
bodiless. Just as they, rising up from space and reaching
the light beyond, appear in their own form,

3. ‘So the blissful one, leaving this body and entering the
light beyond, appears in its own form. That is the highest
person. Here he moves about, feasting, playing, or taking
pleasure with women, chariots or kin, not remembering this
appendage, the body. Just as a draught animal is yoked to
a carriage, the breath is yoked to the body.

4. ‘Where the eye is fixed upon space, that is the person
of the eye. The eye is for seeing. The one who experiences,
“Let me smell this”, is the self. The nose is for smelling.
The one who experiences, “Let me say this”, is the self.
The speech is for talking. The one who experiences, “Let
me hear this”, is the self. The ear is for hearing.

5. ‘The one who experiences, “Let me think this”, is the
self. Mind is its divine eye. It takes pleasure, seeing with
this divine eye, the mind, the desires

6. ‘Which are in the world of brahman. The gods worship
the self as such, so all worlds and all desires have been
taken by them. The one who has found and knows the self
attains all worlds and all desires.’ So said Prajapati. So said
Prajapati.

VIII.13

1. From the dark I take refuge in the dappled,
From the dappled I take refuge in the dark.
Shaking off evil, as a horse shakes its mane,
Shaking off the body, as the moon breaks free from
Rahu’s mouth,
With self achieved (krtatman), I reach,
I reach the unmade (akrta) world of brahman.

VIII.14

1. Space, as it is called, is the bringer into being of name
and form. That which contains them is brahman, the
immortal: that is the self.

I reach the house, the court of Prajapati.

I become glory. I have attained

The glory of the Brahmanas, glory of the kings, glory
of the people.

The glory of glories, may I not go

To the white, toothless,

Toothless, white and slimy?

May I not go to the slimy!

VIII.15

1. Brahma taught this to Prajapati, Prajapati to Manu, and
Manu to his offspring. If one studies the Veda, according to the rule, in the time left over from one’s guru’s work; if,
after returning from the teacher’s house into the family, one
recites it to oneself in a clean place; if one brings up virtuous
children; if one establishes all one’s faculties in the self;
and if one does no harm to any beings, other than at the
due times: if one conducts oneself like this as long as
one lives, one attains the world of brahman, and does not
return?and does not return.

OM. May my limbs, speech, breath, eye, ear, strength and
all senses grow strong. Everything is the brahman of the
Upanisads. May I not reject brahman. May brahman not reject
me. May there be no rejecting. May there be no rejecting of me.
May all the dharmas which are in the Upanisads be in me, who
delight in the self. May they be in me.

OM. Peace, peace, peace.