" When one has seen and heard one's self, when one has reflected and concentrated on one's self,one knows this whole world. All these, all that is nothing but the self, this immense being smaller than a thumb.It has no core or surface. It is a single mass of cognition that arises out of Being. After death there is no awareness.
This self is imperishable, indestructable. For when there is a duality then the one can see the other, can sense the other, can think the other.However when the whole has become oneself (atman), then who is there for one to see and by what means? Who is there for one to perceive and by what means? By what means can one perceive that by means of whom one perceives the whole?
Look. By what means can one perceive the perceiver? there, I have answered you, Maitreyi.That's all there is to immortality.
After saying this, Yajnavalkya went away."
Extract compiled from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the oldest of the Upanishads from Northern India,anonymous anthologies of pre Buddhist teachings collected from oral teachings of forest sages,6-7th Century BC.
Some scholars consider the Upanishads to be the hidden texts referred to in the Koran,uniting all the religions of the Middle East by interpretation.
