to them. Herein we see the whole finding of Hegel, and far more besides, included. Herein we see the three propositions of Fichte compressed into one single proposition, which is a re-arrangement of his second proposition. And it is not only a re-arrangement of it, though that is important enough, but more. If the statement that 'Being is Nothing' is not only external to us but unintelligible, the statement that 'Ego is not Non-Ego' is not yet quite internal, though certainly intelligible. It does not yet quite come home to us. The verb 'is,' and the order of the words in the sentence, make us feel that the statement embodies a cut-and-dry fact in which there is no movement, and which is there, before us, but away from us, not in us. The negative 'not' entirely over-powers the affirmative 'is,' and appropriates all the possibility of significance to itself, so that the rhythmic swing between the Ego and the Non-Ego, between us and our surroundings, which would be gained by also emphasising and bringing out the force of the affirmative 'is,' is entirely hidden out of sight, and only a bare dead negation is left. But now we change the order of the words, and the spirit of the old languages, the natural law underlying their construction, comes to our help. We place the Ego and the Non-Ego in juxtaposition, and an affirmative Relation appears between them first, to be followed afterwards by the development of the negative relation in consequence of the negative particle. And, more than this, we replace the 'is' by 'am,' the 'est' by 'sum,' as we have every right to do, for in connection with the Self, with I, , Aham, ‘is' has no other sense than 'am'; and in place of the Non-Ego,, Anaham, we substitute 'this,', Etat, for we have seen their equivalence before (vide Ch. IV.), and will do so again later, in the section on Mûla-prakriti. Our logion therefore now runs as अहं एतत् न, "Aham Etat Na," "I This Not (am)." In the Samskrit form the word corresponding to 'am,' viz., f, asmi, is not needed at all, for it is thoroughly implied and understood. But as soon as we have the logion in this new form, “Aham Etat Na," we see that there is a whole world more of significance in it than the dry statement of the logical law of contradiction, "A is not not-A," "Ego is not Non-Ego." The one law of all laws, the pulse of the world-process, the very heart-beat of all life is here, now. The rhythm between the Self and the Not-Self, their coming together and going apart, the essence of all change, is expressed by it; and yet, when we take the three constituents of it at once, it expresses changelessness also. As a man seeking for the vale of happiness, may toil for days and nights through a maze of mountain-ranges and come at last to a dead wall of rock and find himself despairing, and a sudden casual push of the arm may move aside a bush, or a slab of stone, and disclose à passage through which he may rush eagerly to the top of the highest peak, wondering how he had failed to see it all this while, it looks so unmistakable now, and may behold spread clear and still before him the panorama of the scenes of his toilsome journey, on the one side, completed and finished by the scenes of that happy vale of smiling flowers and fruits and crystal waters on the other-such is the finding of this great summation. All the problems that bewildered him before now receive easy solution, and many statements that puzzled him formerly, in the scriptural literature of the nations, begin to become intelligible. After finding the truth of this great logion for himself the enquirer will find confirmation of it everywhere in the old books, as well as the world around him. NOTE. It should be noted here that the references to the Upanishats, Purâņas, &c., are not made with any idea of supporting the logion by ' appeals to scripture.' Rather, the intention is to suggest a new way of working with the sacred books, which may be of use to some readers. Whether any definite proofs will or will not be found by experts and scholars, that the logion is and was really meant by the Aum, does not affect its importance as an explanation and summation of the world-process. The logion came to the present writer first in 1887, as the needed explanation of the universe, in the course of his studies in Indian and western philosophy. He then endeavoured to find confirmation of it in Samskrit works, but vainly, for thirteen years. Till the summer of 1900, when these chapters were first drafted, it remained for him only a guess and a possibility that the Aum meant the logion. This guess was justified, for him, in the autumn of 1900, in a most remarkable manner, the story of which will probably be told in a future publication. As to whether that remarkable manner' will prove convincing to others is for the future to decide. In the meanwhile, it should be repeated here that the logion should be judged on its own merits, and that the main purpose of quoting from the Upanishats, &c., is to help on the thought of the reader by placing before him the thought embodied in those quotations as at least working in the direction of the logion. CHAPTER VIII. BRAHMAN OR THE ABSOLUTE THE Let us see now if this summation will give us all we want, if it will withstand and resolve all doubts and queries and objections, even as the rod of power wielded by Vasishtha swallowed up and made nought of all the weapons of Vishvâmittra. Let us test it with questions the most wild and weird and fanciful. If it fails to answer one, it fails to answer all, and we must seek again for another summing up. Aham Etat Na-this logion, in its entirety, represents with the greatest accuracy that it is possible for words to attain, the nature of the Absolute, the Absolute which so many names and words endeavour to describe-the unconditioned; the transcendent; consciousness that includes unconsciousness; the compactness, , beyond the pairs, i.e., beyond the relative. |