(4) He said to him: 'Two kinds of knowledge must be known, this is what all who know Brahman tell us, the higher and the lower knowledge.'

(37) And indeed he has done somewhat, in that he has set the divine power into a burning, which appeareth even in the sun and stars; also the fire in the Salitter in the elements is often kindled, so that it seemeth as if the deep were of a burning fire; of which I shall speak in another place. [He stept back out of the meekness into the anxious fire-will, and fell into darkness. The Reader is advertised that he must not understand in any place, as if the devil had kindled or fired the light of God; no, but the forms of nature only, out of which the light shineth. For he has not comprehended the light, as little as the fire does, which cannot lay hold on " the light: But he entered into the fire, and is expelled into the darkness, and has neither fire nor light, besides, without or distinct from his creature." [Or his own creaturely- ness.]

(91) "Yet the fire giveth or holdeth forth to us a mystery of the eternal nature, and of the Deity also, wherein a man is to understand two Principles of a twofold source, viz. I. a hot, fierce, astringent, bitter, anxious, consuming one in the fire-source. And out of the fire cometh II. viz. the light, which dwelleth in the fire, but is not apprehended or laid hold on by the fire; also it has another source than the fire has, which is meekness, wherein there is a desire of love, where then, in the love-desire, another will is understood than that which the fire has.

(6) Then he said: 'As truly as this knowledge has never heretofore dwelt with any Brahman (brd/imana) whatsoever, so truly may not you and your grandfathers injure us. But I will tell it to you, for who is able to refuse you when you speak thus! ' He continued (iti):

(1) There is above the Celestial Lights an Incorruptible Flame always sparkling; the Spring of Life, the Formation of all Beings, the Original of all things! This Flame produceth all things, and nothing perisheth but what it consumeth. It maketh Itself known by Itself. This Fire cannot be contained in any Place, it is without Body and without Matter. It encompasseth the Heavens. And there goeth out from it little Sparks, which make all the Fires of the Sun, of the Moon, and of the Stars. Behold! what I know of God! Strive not to know more of Him, for that is beyond thy capacity, how wise soever thou art. As to the rest, know that unjust and wicked Man cannot hide himself from the Presence of God ! No subtilty nor excuse can disguise anything from His piercing Eyes. All is full of God, and God is in All!

(14) And he awoke from his sleep, and he arose, and the sun had set ; and there was a flame, and behold a furnace was smoking, and a flame of fire passed between the pieces.

(13) To that pupil who has approached him respectfully, whose thoughts are not troubled by any desires, and who has obtained perfect peace, the wise teacher truly told that knowledge of Brahman through which he knows the eternal and true Person.

(45) But what is the Fire? First, there is the Darkness, the Hardness, the eternal Cold, and the Dryness, where there is nothing else but an eternal Hunger. Then how comes the Fire to be? Dear Soul, here [in the Fire's coming to be] the Spirit of God (viz. the eternal Light) comes to help the Hunger; for the Hunger exists also from the Light: Because the divine Virtue beholds itself in the Darkness, therefore the Darkness is desirous [and longing] after the Light; and the Desiring is the Will.

(2) "Ah, we have no fire yet! We shall die of cold," they said. Then Tohil said to them: "Do not worry! Yours shall be the lost fire which is talked of. Yours shall be what is spoken of as lost fire," Tohil said to them. "Really? Oh, God, our support, our maintenance, thou, our God!" they said, returning thanks.

(2) But to return from this digression: if the presence of the fire of the Gods, and a certain ineffable species of light, externally accede to him who is possessed, and if they wholly fill him, have dominion over and circularly comprehend him on all sides, so that he is not able to exert any one proper energy, what sense, or animadversion, or appropriate projection of intellect, can there be in him who receives a divine fire? What human motion, likewise, can then intervene, or what human reception of passion or ecstasy, or of aberration of the phantasy, or of any thing else of the like kind, such as is apprehended by the multitude, can take place? Let such, therefore, be the divine indications of true inspiration from the Gods, which he who attends to will not wander from a right knowledge concerning it.

(11) 'Even by the mind this (Brahman) is to be obtained, and then there is no difference whatsoever. He goes from death to death who sees any difference here.'

(22) For not in Matter did the Fire which is in the first beyond enclose His active Power, but in Mind; for the framer of the Fiery World is the Mind of Mind.

(11) But let those who vaunt on account of having apprehended the truth tell us from whom they boast of having heard it. They will not say from God, but will admit that it was from men. And if so, it is either from themselves that they have learned it lately, as some of them arrogantly boast, or from others like them. But human teachers, speaking of God, are not reliable, as men. For he that is man cannot speak worthily the truth concerning God: the feeble and mortal [cannot speak worthily] of the Unoriginated and Incorruptible - the work, of the Workman. Then he who is incapable of speaking what is true respecting himself, is he not much less reliable in what concerns God? For just as far as man is inferior to God in power, so much feebler is man's speech than Him; although he do not declare God, but only speak about God and the divine word.

(23) Now if we will search after the Tincture, what it is in its highest Degree, we shall find the a Spirit: For we cannot say, that the Fire is the Tincture, nor the Air neither. For the Fire is wholly contrary to the Tincture; and the Air stifles it; it is a very pleasant Refreshment; its Root, out of which is generated, is indeed the Fire: But if I may rightly mention the Seat where it sits, I cannot say otherwise, but that it is between the three Principles, viz. [between] the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Hell, and the Kingdom of this World, in the Midst, and [it] has none [of the three] for its own, and yet it is generated from all three: And it has as it were a several Principle, which yet is no Principle, but a bright pleasant Habitation. Neither is itself the Spirit, but the Spirit dwells in it, and it so renews the Spirit, that fit becomes clear and visible. Its true Name is Wonderful, and none can name [that Name,] but he to whom it is given, he names it only in himself, and not without [or outwardly,] it has no Place of its Rest in the Substance, and yet rests continually in itself, and gives Virtue and Beauty to all Things, as the in this World; and it is not the Thing itself, though indeed it works in the Thing, and makes the Thing grow and blossom, and yet it is found really [to be] in all Things, and it is the Life and Heart of all Things, but it is not the Spirit which is generated out of the Essences.

(518) Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den. That, he said, is a very just distinction. But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes. They undoubtedly say this, he replied. Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or

(12) 'Tis like water in a vessel, or light through a glass; If they think they come from themselves, they are wrong. When the vessel leaves the fountain, it sees its error; The glass also learns, when the moon sets, When his eyes are opened by the command, "Arise!" Then that disciple smiles a second time, like the dawn. He laughs also at his own previous laughter, When he returns from his long and distant wanderings He says, "Lo! this was the truth, this the secret! To experience joy in that distant valley? What a delusion I was under! what a mistake!

(8) But. up to this point, our utmost power of mental energy carries us, namely, that all divine paternity and sonship have been bequeathed from the Source of paternity and Source of sonship--pre-eminent above all--both to us and to the supercelestial powers, from which the godlike become both gods, and sons of gods, and fathers of gods, and are named Minds, such a paternity and sonship being of course accomplished spiritually, i.e. incorporeally, immaterially, intellectually,-- since the supremely Divine Spirit is seated above all intellectual immateriality, and deification, and the Father and the Son are pre-eminently elevated above all divine paternity and sonship. For there is no strict likeness, between the caused and the causes. The caused indeed possess the accepted likenesses of the causes, but the causes themselves are elevated and established above the caused, according to the ratio of their proper origin. And, to use illustrations suitable to ourselves, pleasures and pains are said to be productive of pleasure and pain, but these themselves feel neither pleasure nor pain. And fire, whilst heating and burning, is not said to be burnt and heated. And, if any one should say that the self-existent Life lives, or that the self-existent Light is enlightened, in my view he will not speak correctly, unless, perhaps, he should say this after another fashion, that the properties of the caused are abundantly and essentially pre-existent in the causes.

(43) O my heart, if you wish to arrive at the beginning of understanding, walk carefully. To each atom there is a different door, and for each atom there is a different way which leads to the mysterious Being of whom I speak. To know oneself one must live a hundred lives. But you must know God by Himself and not by you; it is He who opens the way that leads to Him, not human wisdom. The knowledge of Him is not at the door of rhetoricians. Knowledge and ignorance are here the same, for they cannot explain nor can they describe. The opinions of men on this arise only in their imagination; and it is absurd to try to deduce anything from what they say: whether ill or well, they have said it from themselves. God is above knowledge and beyond evidence, and nothing can give an idea of his Holy Majesty.

(3) Then he [i.e. Yajfiavalkya] said: 'Venerable Brahmans, let him of you that desires question me. Or do ye all question me. Or I will question him of you that desires [to be questioned]; or I will question all of you/ Those Brahmans, however, durst not.

(1) The Shaikh laughed, and said to him, "O friend, This is the tree of knowledge, O knowing one; Very high, very fine, very expansive, Thou hast run after form, O ill-informed one, Sometimes it is named tree, sometimes sun, Sometimes lake, and sometimes cloud. 'Tis one, though it has thousands of manifestations; Its least manifestation is eternal life! Though 'tis one, it has a thousand manifestations, That one is to thy personality a father, In relation to another He may be wrath and vengeance,