If one knows It here, that is Truth; if one knows It not here,
then great is his loss. The wise seeing the same Self in all
beings, being liberated from this world, become immortal.




Part Third


I

The Brahman once won a victory for the Devas. Through that
victory of the Brahman, the Devas became elated. They thought,
"This victory is ours. This glory is ours."

Brahman here does not mean a personal Deity. There is a Brahma, the first
person of the Hindu Trinity; but Brahman is the Absolute, the One without a
second, the essence of all. There are different names and forms which
represent certain personal aspects of Divinity, such as Brahma the Creator,
Vishnu the Preserver and Siva the Transformer; but no one of these can fully
represent the Whole. Brahman is the vast ocean of being, on which rise
numberless ripples and waves of manifestation. From the smallest atomic form
to a Deva or an angel, all spring from that limitless ocean of Brahman, the
inexhaustible Source of life. No manifested form of life can be independent
of its source, just as no wave, however mighty, can be independent of the
ocean. Nothing moves without that Power. He is the only Doer. But the Devas
thought: "This victory is ours, this glory is ours."