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Chandogya Upanisad
Chapter Eight
VIII.4
1. The self is a dam, a separation between worlds so that they do not run together. Day and night do not cross it, nor old age nor death nor grief, nor good action nor bad action. All evils turn back from it, for the world of brahman is freed from evil.
2. On crossing this dam, one who was blind is blind no longer, one who was wounded is wounded no longer; one who was suffering suffers no longer. On crossing this dam, night turns into day, for the world of brahman is always bright.
3. The world of brahman belongs to those who through studentship find the world of brahman. They win freedom to move in all worlds.
VIII.5
1. What folk call 'sacrifice' is studentship, for only through studentship does the knower find it. What they call 'offering' (isti) is studentship, for only by seeking (istva) through studentship does one find the self.
2. What they call 'a sequence of sacrifices' (sattrayana) is studentship, for only through studentship does one find protection (trana) of the self which is being (sat). What they call 'silent practice' (mauna) is studentship, for only by finding the self through studentship does one think (man-)
3. What they call 'a period of fasting' (anasakayana) is studentship, for the self that one finds through studentship does not perish (na nasyati). What they call 'going to the forest' (aranyayana) is studentship, for there are two oceans, Ara and Nya, in the world of brahman, in the sky, the third from here. There is a lake called Airammadiya, there is a fig-tree called Somasavana, there is a citadel of brahman called Aparajita, there is a golden palace, Prabhu.
4. The world of brahman belongs to those who through studentship find the two oceans, Ara and Nya. They win freedom to move in all worlds.
VIII.6
1. There exist channels of the heart, of a subtle essence, tawny, white, blue, yellow, red. The sun, too, is tawny, white, blue, yellow, red.
2. Just as a highway reaches both villages, this one and that one, so the rays of the sun go to both worlds, this one and that one. They spread out from the sun, slipping into these channels: they spread out from these channels, slipping into the sun.
3. So when, asleep, withdrawn and perfectly calm, one knows no dream, one has slipped into these channels. No evil touches one, for one is endowed with light (tejas).
4. Now when, someone is brought to weakness, folk sit around him and say, "Do you know me? Do you know me?" As long as he has not left the body, he knows them.
5. When he leaves the body, he goes upward by these rays. Chanting OM, he passes upwards: otherwise not. In goes to the sun. For those who know, this is the door of the world, a way onward, but for those who do not know, it is an obstruction.
6. There is a verse about it:
A hundred and one are the channels of the heart.
Of them, one flows out through the head.
Going up by it, one reaches immortality.
Others, on departing, go in all directions
On departing.
VIII.7
1. 'One must seek for and want to know the self, which is free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, without hunger, without thirst, of true desire, of true resolve. The one who has found and knows the self attains all worlds and all desires.' So said Prajapati.
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