an outline was given in the
beginning of this chapter, one finds a state of things which, in
general, may be said to be characteristic of the whole Upanishad
period. The same vague views in regard to cosmogony and eschatology
obtain in all save the outspoken sectarian tracts, and the same
uncertainty in regard to man's future fate prevails in this whole
cycle.[27] A few extracts will show this. According to the
Ch[=a]ndogya (4. 17. 1), a personal creator, the old Father-god of the
Br[=a]hmanas, Praj[=a]pati, made the elements proceed from the worlds
he had 'brooded' over (or had done penance over, _abhyatapat_). In 3.
19. 1, not-being was first; this became being (with the mundane egg,
etc.). In sharp contradiction (6. 2. 1): 'being was the first thing,
it willed,' etc., a conscious divinity, as is seen in _ib_. 3. 2,
where it is a 'deity,' producing elements as 'deities' (_ib._ 8. 6)
which it enters 'with the living _[=a]tm[=a]_,' and so develops names
and forms (so _T[=a]itt_. 2. 7). The latter is the prevailing view of
the Upanishad. In 1. 7. 5 ff. the _[=a]tm[=a]_ is the same with the
universal _[=a]tm[=a]_; in 3. 12. 7, the _brahma_ is the same with
ether without and within, unchanging; in 3. 13. 7, the 'light above
heaven' is identical with the light in man; in 3. 14. 1, all is
_brahma_ (neuter), and this is an intelligent universal spirit. Like
the ether is the _[=a]tm[=a]_ in the heart, this is _brahma_ (_ib_. 2
ff.); in 4. 3. air and breath are the two ends (so in the argument
above, these are immortal as distinguished from all else); in 4. 10. 5
_yad v[=a]v[=a] ka[.m] tad eva kham_ (_brahma_ is ether); in 4. 15. 1,
the ego is _brahma_; in 5. 18. 1 the universal ego is identified with
the particular ego (_[=a]tm[=a]_); in 6. 8 the ego is the True, with
which one unites in dreamless sleep; in 6. 15. 1, into _par[=a]
devat[=a]_ or 'highest divinity' enters man's spirit, like salt in
water (_ib_. 13). In 7. 15-26, a view but half correct is stated to be
that 'breath' is all, but it is better to know that _yo bh[=u]m[=a]_
_tad am[r.]tam_, the immortal (all) is infinity, which rests in its
own greatness, with a corrective 'but perhaps it doesn't' (_yadi v[=a]
na_). This infinity is ego and _[=a]tm[=a]_.[28]

What is the reward for knowing this? One obtains worlds, unchanging
happiness, _brahma_; or, with some circumnavigation, one goes to the
moon, and eventually reaches _brahma_ or obtains the worlds of the
bless