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Maitri Upanisad
Chapter Three
1. ‘They said, Blessed one, if you describe in this way the greatness of this self, what is the other, different one called self that, overcome by the white and black fruits of actions, goes to good and bad wombs: that wanders about to a bourne below or above, overcome by the dualities.
2. ‘Maitri said, There is another, different one, called the elemental self, which, overcome by the white and black fruits of actions, goes to good and bad wombs: that wanders about to a bourne below or above, overcome by the dualities.
To explain further: the five subtle elements are called by the name element, and the five coarse elements are called by the name element. Their coming together is called the body. So the one who is said to be the self in the body is said to be the elemental self. This self is to that one as a drop of water to the blue lotus on which it rests. The elemental self is overcome by the strands of nature. Because it is overcome, it falls into utter delusion. Because of this utter the blessed one, the causer of action. Delighting in the mass of strands and grown dirty, unsteadfast, fickle, utterly bewildered, full of yearning, distracted, it falls into conceitedness. I am this: this is nine: thinking like this it binds it self with like a bird with a net. Overcome b the fruits that follow on from action, he wanders around.
‘They said, Which is he?
‘Maitri told them:
3. It has been said elsewhere,
The maker is the elemental self. The causer of action through the organs of action is the person within. As a lump of iron, overcome by fire, when beaten by the smiths becomes various, so the elemental self, overcome by the inner person, when beaten by the strands becomes various. Its variousness takes this form: the mass of beings, with three strands, transformed by eighty-four hundred thousand wombs. The strands, are impelled by the person, as the wheel is by the thrower. And as, when a lump of iron is beaten, the fire is not overcome, so that person is not overcome. The elemental self is overcome on account of its close contact.
4. It has been said elsewhere:
This body comes into being from sexual intercourse, and devoid of understanding, comes out through the gate of urine into a Hell-realm. It is constructed of bones, smeared with flesh, bound up with hide, filled with faeces, urine, bile, phlegm, marrow, fat, marrow of the flesh, and many other impurities.
5. It has been said elsewhere:
The elemental self is overcome by these, which are attended by darkness- confusion, fear, despair, sleepiness, laziness, negligence, old age, grief, hunger, thirst, wretchedness, anger, unbelief, lack of knowledge, miserliness, compassionlessness, deludedness, shamelessness, baseness, arrogance, prejudice, overcome by these, which are attended by passion craving, affection, lust, greed, violence, pleasure, hate, secretiveness, envy, desire, unsteadfastness, fickleness, distractedness, rapacity, seeking for gain, favouritism to friends, clinging to possessions, hatred towards sense objects that are disliked and clinging to those that are liked. So it takes on various forms: it takes them on.
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