The Fifth Brāhmana

SOURCE: The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Translated from the Sanskrit with an outline of the philosophy of the Upanishads and an annotated bibliography by Robert Ernest Hume. With a list of recurrent and parallel passages by George C. O. Haas. 2d ed., rev. London: Oxford University Press, 1931, pp. 112–113.

The practical way of knowing Brahma—by renunciation

Now Kahola Kaushītakeya questioned him. 'Yājñavalkya,' said he, 'explain to me him who is just the Brahma present and not beyond our ken, him who is the Soul in all things.'

'He is your soul, which is in all things.'

'Which one, O Yājñavalkya, is in all things?'

'He who passes beyond hunger and thirst, beyond sorrow and delusion, beyond old age and death—Brahmans who know such a Soul overcome desire for sons, desire for wealth, desire for worlds, and live the life of mendicants. For desire for sons is desire for wealth, and desire for wealth is desire for worlds, for both these are merely desires. Therefore let a Brahman become disgusted with learning and desire to live as a child. When he has become disgusted both with the state of childhood and with learning, then he becomes an ascetic (muni). When he has become disgusted both with the non-ascetic state and with the ascetic state, then he becomes a Brahman.'

'By what means would he become a Brahman?'

'By that means by which he does become such a one. Aught else than this Soul (Ātman) is wretched.'

Thereupon Kahola Kaushītakeya held his peace.