her, three boons. For his first
boon Na/k/iketas chooses kindness on the part of his father towards him,
for his second boon the knowledge of the fire sacrifice, for his third
boon the knowledge of the Self. That the knowledge of the Self is the
third boon appears from the indication contained in the passage (I, 1,
20), 'There is that doubt--; this is the third of my boons.'--If we
therefore supposed that the passage, 'That which thou seest as neither
this nor that,' &c., raises a new question, we should thereby assume a
question in excess of the number of boons granted, and thus destroy the
connexion of the entire Upanishad.--But--the Sa@nkhya will perhaps
interpose--it must needs be admitted that the passage last quoted does
raise a new question, because the subject enquired about is a new one.
For the former question refers to the individual soul, as we conclude
from the doubt expressed in the words, 'There is that doubt when a man
is dead--some saying, he is; others, he is not.' Now this individual
soul, as having definite attributes, &c., cannot constitute the object
of a question expressed in such terms as, 'This which thou seest as
neither this nor that,' &c.; the highest Self, on the other hand, may be
enquired about in such terms, since it is above all attributes. The
appearance of the two questions is, moreover, seen to differ; for the
former question refers to existence and non-existence, while the latter
is concerned with an entity raised above all definite attributes, &c.
Hence we conclude that the latter question, in which the former one
cannot be recognised, is a separate question, and does not merely resume
the subject of the former one.--All this argumentation is not valid, we
reply, since we maintain the unity of the highest Self and the
individual Self. If the individual Self were different from the highest
Self, we should have to declare that the two questions are separate
independent questions, but the two are not really different, as we know
from other scriptural passages, such as 'Thou art that.' And in the
Upanishad under discussion also the answer to the question, 'That which
thou seest as neither this nor that,' viz. the passage, 'The knowing
Self is not born, it dies not'--which answer is given in the form of a
denial of the birth and death of the Self-clearly shows that the
embodied Self and the highest Self are non-different. For there is room
for a denial of something only when that something