h of the
heart, and in farthest space, he enjoys all blessings, in communion with
the omniscient Brahman.... He who knows the bliss (anandam) of that
Brahman from which all speech and mind turn away unable to reach it, he
never fears[193]."

Bliss is obtainable by union with Brahman, and the road to such union is
knowledge of Brahman. That knowledge is often represented as acquired by
tapas or asceticism, but this, though repeatedly enjoined as necessary,
seems to be regarded (in the nobler expositions at least) as an
indispensable schooling rather than as efficacious by its own virtue.
Sometimes the topic is treated in an almost Buddhist spirit of
reasonableness and depreciation of self-mortification for its own sake.
Thus Yajnavalkya says to Gargi[194]: "Whoever without knowing the
imperishable one offers oblations in this world, sacrifices, and
practises asceticism even for a thousand years, his work will perish."
And in a remarkable scene described in the Chandogya Upanishad, the
three sacred fires decide to instruct a student who is exhausted by
austerities, and tell him that Brahman is life, bliss and space[195].

Analogous to the conception of Brahman as bliss, is the description of
him as light or "light of lights." A beautiful passage[196] says: "To
the wise who perceive him (Brahman) within their own self, belongs
eternal peace, not to others. They feel that highest, unspeakable bliss
saying, this is that. How then can I understand it? Has it its own light
or does it reflect light? No sun shines there, nor moon nor stars, nor
these lightnings, much less this fire. When he shines everything shines
after him: by his light all the world is lighted."

In most of the texts which we have examined the words Brahman and Atman
are so impersonal that they cannot be replaced by God. In other passages
the conception of the deity is more personal. The universe is often said
to have been emitted or breathed forth by Brahman. By emphasizing the
origin and result of this process separately, we reach the idea of the
Maker and Master of the Universe, commonly expressed by the word Isvara,
Lord. But even when using this expression, Hindu thought tends in its
subtler moments to regard both the creator and the creature as
illusions. In the same sense as the world exists there also exists its
creator who is an aspect of Brahman, but the deeper truth is that
neither is real: there is but One who neither makes nor is made[197]. In