BU 4.4.8 - Immortal lifebreath

Excerpt from the book 'Upanishads' - A new translation by Patrick Olivelle

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

There is an ancient path
  extremely fine and extending far;
It has touched me, I've discovered it!
By it they go up to the heavenly world
released from here,
wise men, knowers of brahman.

In it are the white and the blue, they say,
  the orange, green, and red.
By brahman was this path discovered;
By it goes the knower of brahman,
  the doer of good, the man of light.

Into blind darkness they enter, 
  people who worship ignorance;
And into still blinder darkness,
  people who delight in learning.

'Joyless' are those regions called,
in blind darkness they are cloaked;
Into them after death they go,
  men who are not learned or wise. 

If a person truly perceives the self,
  knowing 'I am he';
What possibly could he want,
Whom possibly could he love,
  that he should worry about his body?

The self has entered this body, this dense jumble.
  If a man finds him,
  Recognizes him,
He's the maker of everything - the author of all!
The world is his - he's the world itself!

While we are still here, we have come to know it.
If you've not known it, great is your destruction.
Those who have known it - they become immortal.
As of the rest - only suffering awaits them.

When a man clearly sees this self as god,
  the lord of what was
  and of what will be,
He will not seek to hide from him.

Beneath which the year revolves
  together with its days,
That the gods venerate
  as the light of lights,
  as life immortal.

In which are established 
  the various groups of five,
  together with space;
I take that to be the self - 
  I who have the knowledge,
  I who am immortal,
I take that to be - 
  the brahman,
  the immortal.

The breathing behind breathing, the sight behind sight,
  the hearing behind hearing, the thinking behind thinking - 
Those who know this perceive brahman,
  the first,
  the ancient.

With the mind alone must one behold it - 
  there is here nothing diverse at all!
From death to death he goes, who sees
  here any kind of diversity.

As just singular must one behold it - 
  immeasurable and immovable,
The self is spotless and beyond space,
  unborn, immense, immovable.

By knowing that very one a wise Brahmin
  should obtain insight for himself.
Let him not ponder over a lot of words;
  it just tires the voice!

~~

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BU 4.4.7 - A man of desire

Excerpt from the book 'Upanishads' - A new translation by Patrick Olivelle

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 

A man resolves in accordance with his desire, acts in accordance with his resolve, and turns out to be in accordance with his action. 

      A man who's attached goes with his action,
        to that very place to which
        his mind and character cling.
      Reaching the end of his action,
        of whatever he has done in this world - 
      From that world he returns
        back to this world,
        back to action.

'That is the course of a man who desires.
'Now, a man who does not desire - who is without desires, who is freed from desires, whose desires are fulfilled, whose only desire is the self - his vital functions (prana) do not depart. Brahman he is, and to brahman he goes. 

      When they all are banished,
        those desires lurking in one's heart;
      Then a mortal becomes immortal,
        and attains brahman in this world. 

~~

A man turns into something good by good action and into something bad by bad action. 

Srik

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