ition possess a certain kind of
knowledge. Men of the former kind ascend after death to the moon, where
they live for a certain time, and then return to the earth into new
forms of embodiment; persons of the latter kind proceed on the path of
the gods--on which the sun forms one stage--up to the world of Brahman,
from which there is no return. The chief passages to that effect are Ch.
Up. V, 10; Kaush. Up. I, 2 ff.; Mu/nd/. Up. I, 2, 9 ff.; B/ri/. Up. VI,
2, 15 ff.; Pra/s/na Up. I, 9 ff.--In other passages only the latter of
the two paths is referred to, cp. Ch. Up. IV, 15; VIII 6, 5; Taitt. Up.
I, 6; B/ri/. Up. IV, 4, 8, 9; V, 10; Maitr. Up. VI, 30, to mention only
the more important ones.

Now an impartial consideration of those passages shows I think, beyond
any doubt, that what is meant there by the knowledge which leads through
the sun to the world of Brahman is the highest knowledge of which the
devotee is capable, and that the world of Brahman to which his knowledge
enables him to proceed denotes the highest state which he can ever
reach, the state of final release, if we choose to call it by that
name.--Ch. Up. V, 10 says, 'Those who know this (viz. the doctrine of
the five fires), and those who in the forest follow faith and
austerities go to light,' &c.--Ch. Up. IV, 15 is manifestly intended to
convey the true knowledge of Brahman; Upako/s/ala's teacher himself
represents the instruction given by him as superior to the teaching of
the sacred fires.--Ch. Up. VIII, 6, 5 quotes the old /s/loka which says
that the man moving upwards by the artery penetrating the crown of the
head reaches the Immortal.--Kaush. Up. I, 2--which gives the most
detailed account of the ascent of the soul--contains no intimation
whatever of the knowledge of Brahman, which leads up to the Brahman
world, being of an inferior nature.--Mu/nd/. Up. I, 2, 9 agrees with the
Chandogya in saying that 'Those who practise penance and faith in the
forest, tranquil, wise, and living on alms, depart free from passion,
through the sun, to where that immortal Person dwells whose nature is
imperishable,' and nothing whatever in the context countenances the
assumption that not the highest knowledge and the highest Person are
there referred to.--B/ri/. Up. IV, 4, 8 quotes old /s/lokas clearly
referring to the road of the gods ('the small old path'), on which
'sages who know Brahman move on to the svargaloka and thence higher on
as entirely free.--That path