wards the
south, to the world of the fathers, the ether, and the moon. The great
difference, however, between the two roads is, that while those who
travel on the former do not return again to a new life on earth, but
reach in the end a true knowledge of the unconditioned Brahman, those
who pass on to the world of the fathers and the moon return to earth to
be born again and again. The speculations on the fate of the soul after
death seem to have been peculiar to the royal families of India, while
the Brahmans dwelt more on what may be called the shorter cut, a
knowledge of Brahman as the true Self. To know, with them, was to be,
and, after the dissolution of the body, they looked forward to immediate
emancipation, without any further wanderings.]

[Footnote 15: Who knows the conditioned and mythological form of Brahman
as here described, sitting on the couch.]

[Footnote 16: In the first chapter it was said, "He approaches the couch
Amitaugas, that is prana" (breath, spirit, life). Therefore having
explained in the first chapter the knowledge of the couch (of Brahman),
the next subject to be explained is the knowledge of prana, the living
spirit, taken for a time as Brahman, or the last cause of everything.]

[Footnote 17: Speech is uncertain, and has to be checked by the eye. The
eye is uncertain, taking mother of pearl for silver, and must be checked
by the ear. The ear is uncertain, and must be checked by the mind, for
unless the mind is attentive, the ear hears not. The mind, lastly,
depends on the spirit, for without spirit there is no mind.]

[Footnote 18: The vital spirits are called the highest treasure, because
a man surrenders everything to preserve his vital spirits or his life.]

[Footnote 19: This is one of the earliest, if not the earliest mention
of the yagnopavita, the sacred cord as worn over the left shoulder for
sacrificial purposes.]

[Footnote 20: Professor Cowell has translated a passage from the
commentary which is interesting as showing that its author and the
author of the Upanishads too had a clear conception of the correlative
nature of knowledge. "The organ of sense," he says, "cannot exist
without pragna (self-consciousness), nor the objects of sense be
obtained without the organ, therefore--on the principle, that when one
thing cannot exist without another, that thing is said to be identical
with the other--as the cloth, for instance, being never perceived
without the threads, is ide