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Chandogya Upanisad
Chapter Six
VI.1
1. OM. There once was a boy called Svetaketu Aruneya. His father said to him, 'Svetaketu, go and live as a brahmacarin. Good lad, there is no one in our family who is just a Brahmana by birth, without learning.'
2. So at twelve years old he went, and at twenty-four years old he returned, having learned all the Vedas, haughty, proud of his learning, and opinionated. His father said to him, 'Svetaketu, good lad, since you are haughty, proud of your learning, and opinionated, did you ask for the symbolic statement.
3. 'By which the unheard becomes head, the unthought thought, and the unknown known?'
'Blessed one, what sort of symbolic statement is that?'
4. 'Good lad, just as through one lump of clay everything made of clay is known, so difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: "clay" is the reality.
5. 'Good lad, just as through one copper ornament everything made of copper is known, so difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: "copper" is the reality.
6. 'Good lad, just as through one nail clipper everything made of iron is known, so difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: "iron" is the reality. Such, good lad, is the symbolic statement.'
7. 'The blessed ones certainly did not know this, for if they had known it, how would they not have told me?
Blessed one, you tell me about it.'
'I will, good lad,' he said.
VI.2
1. 'In the beginning, good lad, this was being, one alone without a second. Some say, "In the beginning this was not-being, one alone without a second. From that not-being, being was produced."
2. 'But, good lad, how could that be?' he said. 'How could being be produced from not-being? In the beginning, good lad, surely this was being, one alone without a second.
3. 'It thought, "Let me become many; let me born." It created heat. Heat thought, "Let me became many; let me be born." It created the waters. So when and wherever a person grieves or sweats, the waters are born from heat.
4. 'The waters thought, "Let us become many; let us be born." They created food. So when and wherever it rains, food becomes more abundant. So good food is born from the waters.
VI. 3
1. 'Beings have three seeds, the egg-born, the live-born, the shoot-born.
2. 'The deity thought, "Come, I must enter these three deities with life, with the self," and created differences of name and form.
3. 'Thinking, "I must make each one of them three-fold-each one threefold," the deity entered the three deities with the life, with the self, and created differences of name and form.
4. 'He made each one of them threefold-each one threefold. Good lad, learn from me how those three deities each became threefold-each one threefold.
VI.4
1. 'The red form of fire is the form of heat; the white is that of water; the black is that of food. The "fire-ness" of fire has disappeared. Difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: the three forms are the reality.
2. 'The red form of the sun is the form of heat; the white is that of water; the black is that of food. The "sun-ness" of the sun has disappeared. Difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: the three forms are the reality.
3. 'The red form of the moon is the form of heat; the white is that of water; the black is that of food. The "moon-ness" of the moon has disappeared. Difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: the three forms are the reality.
4. 'The red form of lightning is the form of heat; the white is that of water; the black is that of food. The "lightning-ness" of lightning has disappeared. Difference of shape is just name, dependent on speech: the three forms are the reality.
5. 'Knowing this, of old, great householders and great scholars said, "No one of ours will speak of the unheard, the unthought, the unknown," for they knew it through these
6. 'What seemed red they knew as the form of heat; what seemed white they knew as the form of water; and what seemed black they knew as the form of food.
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