nly without a second. It thought, may I be many:
may I have offspring. It sent forth fire." Here follows a cosmogony and
an explanation of the constitution of animate beings, and then the
father continues--"All creatures have their root in the Real, dwell in
the Real and rest in the Real. That subtle being by which this universe
subsists, it is the Real, it is the Atman, and thou, Svetaketu, art It."
Many illustrations of the relations of the Atman and the universe
follow. For instance, if the life (sap) leaves a tree, it withers and
dies. So "this body withers and dies when the life has left it: the life
dies not." In the fruit of the Banyan (fig-tree) are minute seeds
innumerable. But the imperceptible subtle essence in each seed is the
whole Banyan. Each example adduced concludes with the same formula, Thou
art that subtle essence, and as in the Brihad-Aranyaka salt is used as a
metaphor. "'Place this salt in water and then come to me in the
morning.' The son did so and in the morning the father said 'Bring me
the salt.' The son looked for it but found it not, for of course it was
melted. The father said, 'Taste from the surface of the water. How is
it?' The son replied, 'It is salt.' 'Taste from the middle. How is it?'
'It is salt.' 'Taste from the bottom, how is it?' 'It is salt.' ... The
father said, 'Here also in this body you do not perceive the Real, but
there it is. That subtle being by which this universe subsists, it is
the Real, it is the Atman and thou, Svetaketu, art It.'"

The writers of these passages have not quite reached Sankara's point of
view, that the Atman is all and the whole universe mere illusion or
Maya. Their thought still tends to regard the universe as something
drawn forth from the Atman and then pervaded by it. But still the main
features of the later Advaita, or philosophy of no duality, are there.
All the universe has grown forth from the Atman: there is no real
difference in things, just as all gold is gold whatever it is made into.
The soul is identical with this Atman and after death may be one with it
in a union excluding all duality even of perceiver and perceived.

A similar union occurs in sleep. This idea is important for it is
closely connected with another belief which has had far-reaching
consequences on thought and practice in India, the belief namely that
the soul can attain without death and as the result of mental discipline
to union[189] with Brahman. This idea is commo