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• Preface
• Remarks Concerning the Translation Its Method and Arrangement
• List of Abbreviations
• Errata
• An Outline of the Philosophy of the Upanishads
• Chapter I: The Place of the Upanishads In the History of Philosophy
• Chapter II: The Upanishads and Their Place In Indian Philosophy
• Chapter III: First Attempts At the Conception of a Unitary World-ground
• Chapter IV: The Development of the Conception of Brahma
• Chapter V: The Development of the Conception of the Atman and Its Union With Brahma
• Chapter VI: The Realistic Conception of the Ultimate Unity, and the Doctrine of Illusion
• Chapter VII: Idealism and the Conception of Pure Unity
• Chapter VIII: The Outcome On Religion and On the Doctrine of Karma
• Chapter IX: The Outcome On Practical Life and On Morals
• Chapter X: The Artificial Method of Unity In Renunciation and In Yoga
• Chapter XI: Concluding Estimate
• BṚihad-ĀraṆyaka Upanishad
• First AdhyĀya
• Second AdhyĀya
• Third AdhyĀya
• Fourth AdhyĀya
• Fifth AdhyĀya
• Sixth AdhyĀya
• ChĀndogya Upanishad
• First PrapĀṬhaka a Glorification of the Chanting of the Sāma-veda 1
• Second PrapĀṬhaka the Significance of the Chant In Various Forms
• Third PrapĀṬhaka Brahma As the Sun of the World-all
• Fourth PrapĀṬhaka Conversational Instructions
• Fifth PrapĀṬhaka Concerning Breath, the Soul, and the Universal Soul
• Sixth PrapĀṬhaka the Instruction of Śvetaketu By Uddālaka Concerning the Key to All Knowledge
• Seventh PrapĀṬhaka the Instruction of Nārada By Sanatkumāra
• Eighth PrapĀṬhaka Concerning the Nature of the Soul
• TaittirĪya Upanishad
• First VallĪ (Śikshā Vallī, ‘chapter Concerning Instruction’)
• Second VallĪ (brahmānanda Vallī, ‘bliss-of-brahma Chapter’)
• Third VallĪ (bhṛigu Vallī, ‘chapter Concerning Bhṛigu’)
• Aitareya Upanishad
• First AdhyĀya
• Second AdhyĀya
• Third AdhyĀya
• KaushĪtaki Upanishad 1
• First AdhyĀya the Course of Reincarnation, and Its Termination Through Metaphysical Knowledge 2
• Second AdhyĀya the Doctrine of Prāṇa, Together With Certain Ceremonies
• Third AdhyĀya Doctrine of Prāṇa (the Breathing Spirit)
• Fourth AdhyĀya a Progressive Definition of Brahma 2
• Kena Upanishad 1
• (first KhaṆḌa)
• (second KhaṆḌa)
• (third KhaṆḌa) 3
• (fourth KhaṆḌa)
• KaṬha Upanishad
• First VallĪ 1
• Second VallĪ
• Third VallĪ
• Fourth VallĪ
• Fifth VallĪ
• Sixth VallĪ
• ĪŚĀ Upanishad 1
• MuṆḌaka Upanishad
• First MuṆḌaka Preparation For the Knowledge of Brahma
• Second MuṆḌaka the Doctrine of Brahma-Ātman
• Third MuṆḌaka the Way to Brahma
• PraŚna Upanishad 1
• First PraŚna
• Second PraŚna
• Third PraŚna
• Fourth PraŚna
• Fifth PraŚna
• Sixth PraŚna
• MĀṆḌŪkya Upanishad
• ŚvetĀŚvatara Upanishad
• First AdhyĀya
• Second AdhyĀya
• Third AdhyĀya
• Fourth AdhyĀya
• Fifth AdhyĀya
• Sixth AdhyĀya
• Maitri Upanishad
• First PrapĀṬhaka
• Second PrapĀṬhaka
• Third PrapĀṬhaka
• Fourth PrapĀṬhaka
• Fifth PrapĀṬhaka
• Sixth PrapĀṬhaka
• Seventh PrapĀṬhaka
• A Bibliography of the Upanishads Selected, Classified, and Annotated

FOURTH PRAŚNA

Concerning sleep and the ultimate basis of things

1. Then Sauryāyaṇin Gārgya asked him [i.e. Pippalāda]:—

[a] ‘Sir, what are they that sleep in a person here?

[b] What are they that remain awake in him?

[c] Which is the god (deva) that sees the dreams?

[d] Whose is the happiness?

[e] In whom, pray, are all things established?’

[a] All sense-functions unified in the mind during sleep

2. To him then he said: ‘O Gārgya, as the rays of the setting sun all become one in that orb of brilliance and go forth again and again when it rises, even so, verily, everything here becomes one in mind (manas), the highest god.

Therefore in that condition (tarhi) the person hears not, sees not, smells not, tastes not, touches not, speaks not, takes not, enjoys not, emits not, moves not about. “He sleeps!” they say.

[b] The five life-functions, like sacrificial fires, slumber not

3. Life’s fires, in truth, remain awake in this city.

The out-breath (apāna) is the Gārhapatya (Householder’s) fire. The diffused breath (vyāna) is the Anvāhāryapacana (Southern Sacrificial) fire. The in-breath (prāṇa) is the Āhavanīya (Oblation) fire, from “being taken” (praṇayana), since it is taken (praṇīyate) from the Gārhapatya fire.1

4. The equalizing breath (samāna) is so called because it “equalizes” (samain nayati) the two oblations: the in-breathing and the out-breathing (ucchvāsa-niḥśvāsa). The mind, verily, indeed, is the sacrificer. The fruit of the sacrifice is the up-breath (udāna). It leads the sacrificer to Brahma day by day.

[c] The universal mind, the beholder of dreams

5. There, in sleep, that god experiences greatness. Whatever object has been seen, he sees again; whatever has been heard, he hears again. That which has been severally experienced in different places and regions, he severally experiences again and again. Both what has been seen and what has not been seen, both what has been heard and what has not been heard, both what has been experienced and what has not been experienced, both the real (sat) and the unreal (a-sat)—he sees all. He sees it, himself being all.

[d] The brilliant happiness of dreamless sleep, in the mind’s non-action

6. When he is overcome with brilliance (tejas), then that god sees no dreams; then here in this body arises this happiness (sukha).

[e] The Supreme Soul the ultimate basis of the manifold world and of the individual

7. As birds resort to a tree for a resting-place, even so, O friend, it is to the supreme Soul (Ātman) that everything here resorts1 :—

8. Earth and the elements (mātra) of earth, water and the elements of water, heat (tejas) and the elements of heat, wind and the elements of wind, space and the elements of space, sight and what can be seen, hearing and what can be heard, smell and what can be smelled, taste and what can be tasted, the skin and what can be touched, speech and what can be spoken, the hands and what can be taken, the organ of generation and what can be enjoyed, the anus and what can be excreted, the feet and what can be walked, mind (manas) and what can be perceived, intellect (buddhi) and what can be conceived, egoism (ahaṁkāra) and what can be connected with “me,” thought (citta) and what can be thought, brilliance (tejas) and what can be illumined, life-breath (prāṇa) and what can be supported.

9. Truly, this seer, toucher, hearer, smeller, taster, thinker (mantr), conceiver (boddhṛ), doer, the conscious self (vijñānātman), the person—his resort is in the supreme imperishable Soul (Ātman, Self).

Knowing, and reaching, the world-ground

10. Verily, O friend! he who recognizes that shadowless, bodiless, bloodless, pure Imperishable, arrives at the Imperishable itself. He, knowing all, becomes the All. On this there is the verse (śloka):—

• 11.

  O friend! he who recognizes as the Imperishable
• That whereon the conscious self, with all its powers (deva),
• And the life-breaths (prāṇa) and the elements (bhūta) do rest—
• He, knowing all, into the All has entered.’

[1 ]Life itself being conceived of as a sacrifice, these three life-breaths are symbolically identified with the three fires which are used in the Vedic sacrificial rites. Compare the identification of the sacrificer’s priest, wife, and son with these same three altar fires at Ait. Br. 8. 24.

[1 ]The following is a noteworthy Sāṅkhya enumeration, including the five cosmic elements, the ten organs (indriya), and manas, buddhi, ahaṁkāra, citta, together with light and life. Cf. p. 391, note 4.