man) is the true Brahma-city (not the body[1]). In it all desires are contained. It is the Self, free from sin, free from old age, from death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but what it ought to imagine. Now as here on earth people follow as they are commanded, and depend on the object which they are attached to, be it a country or a piece of land,
6. 'And as here on earth, whatever has been acquired by exertion, perishes, so perishes whatever is acquired for the next world by sacrifices and other good actions performed on earth. Those who depart from hence without having discovered the Self and those true desires, for them there is no freedom in all the worlds. But those who depart from hence, after having discovered the Self and those true desires[2], for them there is freedom in all the worlds.
Second Khanda.
1. 'Thus he who desires the world[3] of the fathers, by his mere will the fathers come to receive him, and having obtained the world of the fathers, he is happy.
2. 'And he who desires the world of the mothers, by his mere will the mothers come to receive him,
- ↑ I translate this somewhat differently from the commentator, though the argument remains the same.
- ↑ True desires are those which we ought to desire, and the fulfilment of which depends on ourselves, supposing that we have acquired the knowledge which enables us to fulfil them.
- ↑ World is the nearest approach to loka: it means life with the fathers, or enjoying the company of the fathers.
