Refuge in God and Divine Creation – Selections From the Upanishads, an Ancient Hindu Text, Part 2 of 2

We are pleased to present selections from the Upanishads on Divine creation and spiritual fulfilment.

“[…] ‘Sir, from whence may these creatures be born?’ He replied: ‘Pragâpati (the Lord of Creatures) was desirous of creatures (pragâh). He performed meditation,’ and having performed meditation, He produces a pair, Matter (Rayi) and Spirit (Prâna), thinking that they together should produce creatures for Him in many ways.

The Sun is Spirit, Matter is the Moon. All this, what has body and what has no body, is Matter, and therefore Body indeed is Matter. Now Âditya, the Sun, when He rises, goes toward the East, and thus receives the Eastern spirits into His rays. And when He illuminates the South, the West, the North, the Zenith, the Nadir, the intermediate quarters, and everything, He thus receives all spirits into His rays. Thus, He rises, as Vaisvânara, belonging to all men, assuming all forms, as Spirit, as Fire. This has been said in the following verse: (They knew) Him who assumes all forms, the golden, who knows all things, who ascends highest, alone in His splendor, and warms us; the thousand-rayed, who abides in a hundred places, the Spirit of all creatures, the Sun, rises.

The year indeed is Pragâpati, and there are two paths thereof, the Southern and the Northern. Now those who here believe in [worshiping] and pious gifts as work done, gain the Moon only as their future world, and return again. Therefore, the sages who desire offspring, go to the South, and that path of the Fathers is Matter (Rayi).

But those who have sought the Self by [atonement], abstinence, faith, and knowledge, gain by the Northern path Âditya, the Sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From thence they do not return, for it is the end. […] Those, therefore, who observe this rule of Pragâpati, produce a pair [achieve spiritual harmony], and to them belongs this Brahma-world here. But those in whom dwell [atonement], abstinence, and truth, To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked, nothing false, and no guile.’”

“Make [favorable] that body of Thine which dwells in speech, in the ear, in the eye, and which pervades the mind; do not go away! All this is in the power of Prâna, whatever exists in the three Heavens. Protect us like a mother her [children], and give us happiness and wisdom.’”