endless, and he thereby gains the endless world' (B/ri/. Up. III, 1,
9)[74]; nor is it an (in reality unfounded) ascription
(superimposition)[75], as in the passages, 'Let him meditate on mind as
Brahman,' and 'Âditya is Brahman, this is the doctrine' (Ch. Up. III,
18, 1; 19, 1), where the contemplation as Brahman is superimposed on the
mind, Âditya and so on; nor, again, is it (a figurative conception of
identity) founded on the connection (of the things viewed as identical)
with some special activity, as in the passage, 'Air is indeed the
absorber; breath is indeed the absorber[76]' (Ch. Up. IV, 3, 1; 3); nor
is it a mere (ceremonial) purification of (the Self constituting a
subordinate member) of an action (viz. the action of seeing, &c.,
Brahman), in the same way as, for instance, the act of looking at the
sacrificial butter[77]. For if the knowledge of the identity of the Self
and Brahman were understood in the way of combination and the like,
violence would be done thereby to the connection of the words whose
object, in certain passages, it clearly is to intimate the fact of
Brahman and the Self being really identical; so, for instance, in the
following passages, 'That art thou' (Ch. Up. VI, 8, 7); 'I am Brahman'
(B/ri/. Up. I, 4, 10); 'This Self is Brahman' (B/ri/. Up. II, 5, 19).
And other texts which declare that the fruit of the cognition of Brahman
is the cessation of Ignorance would be contradicted thereby; so, for
instance, 'The fetter of the heart is broken, all doubts are solved'
(Mu. Up. II, 2, 8). Nor, finally, would it be possible, in that case,
satisfactorily to explain the passages which speak of the individual
Self becoming Brahman: such as 'He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman'
(Mu. Up. III, 2, 9). Hence the knowledge of the unity of Brahman and the
Self cannot be of the nature of figurative combination and the like. The
knowledge of Brahman does, therefore, not depend on the active energy of
man, but is analogous to the knowledge of those things which are the
objects of perception, inference, and so on, and thus depends on the