Only when men shall roll up space as if it were a simple skin, only then will there be an end of sorrow without acknowledging God.§ YAJUR VEDA, SHVETASVATARA UPANISHAD 6.20§ |
Fall & Decay
Then comes life’s afternoon, the solar source descending. It represents the inevitable waining of the life force, and the discovery that nothing resists time, and all cycles must conclude. The background shows fall moving into winter, as a man falls prey to the varied hazards encountered in one’s latter years.§
Just as an overloaded cart lumbers along creaking, in the same way the self in this body, loaded by the Self of wisdom, lumbers along creaking when its breath is getting heavy. §
When he becomes reduced, whether by old age or by disease, then, just as a mango fruit or a fig or a pipal fruit [detaches itself from its stem], so this person, being released from his limbs, returns to Life, to the place whence he has come.§
Just as, when a king is arriving, the guards, the officers, the drivers, and the village elders await him with food, drink, and a place for his dwelling, saying, “Here he comes, here he comes!” even so all beings await him who knows this [saying]: “Here comes Brahman, here he comes!” §
Just as the guards, the officers, the drivers, and the village elders gather around the king at his departure, even so all the powers of life gather around this self at the end of his time, when his breath is getting heavy.§
YAJUR VEDA, BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD 4.3§
When a man, my dear, is stricken with disease, his relatives come near to him, asking: “Do you recognize me?” As long as his speech has not merged in his mind, his mind in his breath, his breath in light, and the light in the supreme Godhead, so long does he recognize them.§
But when his speech has merged in his mind, his mind in his breath, his breath in light, and the light in the supreme Godhead, then he does not recognize them.§
SAMA VEDA, CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD 6.15§