Path to Liberation – Selections From the Upanishads, an Ancient Hindu Text, Part 2 of 2

On today’s show, we continue with selections from the Upanishads, an ancient Hindu text, on how one can achieve eternal liberation.

“That from which the maker (mâyin) sends forth all this – the sacred verses, the offerings, […] the panaceas, the past, the future, and all that the Vedas declare – in that the other is bound up through that mâyâ [illusion]. Know then Prakriti (nature) is Mâyâ [illusion], and the great Lord the Mâyin (maker); the whole world is filled with what are his members. If a man has discerned Him, who being one only, rules over every germ (cause), in whom all this comes together and comes asunder again, who is the Lord, the bestower of blessing, the adorable God, then he passes forever into that peace.

He, the creator and supporter of the gods, Rudra, the great seer, the Lord of all, who saw, Hiranyagarbha [the ‘cosmic golden egg’, the source of creation of the Universe] being born, may He endow us with good thoughts. He who is the sovereign of the gods, He in whom all the worlds rest, He who rules over all two-footed and four-footed beings, to that God let us [offer worship].

He who has known Him who is more subtle than subtle, in the midst of chaos, creating all things, having many forms, alone enveloping everything, the happy One (Shiva), passes into peace forever. He also was in time the guardian of this world, the Lord of all, hidden in all beings. In Him the Brahmarshis [sages] and the deities are united, and he who knows Him cuts the fetters of death asunder. He who knows Shiva (the Blessed) hidden in all beings […], alone enveloping everything, – he who knows the God, is freed from all fetters. That God, the maker of all things, the great Self, always dwelling in the heart of man, is perceived by the heart, the soul, the mind; – they who know it become immortal.”

“He who knows him [the Self], who has no beginning and no end, in the midst of chaos, creating all things, having many forms, alone enveloping everything, is freed from all fetters. Those who know him [the Self], who is to be grasped by the mind, who is not to be called the nest (the body), who makes existence and non-existence, the happy One (Shiva), who also creates the elements, they have left the body.”