The Konopanishad forms a part of the Jai-miniya or Talavakara Brahmana of the Sama Veda, and is, for that reason, also known as the Talava-karopanishad. Its four khandas or sections divide themselves into two parts-the first part compris-ing sections i and ii which are in a metrical form, and the second, comprising sections iii and iv, which are in simple, stately prose. This difference in the outer form of the two parts corresponds with a difference in their subject-matter as well. The first part deals with the unqualified (nirguna) Brahman or the absolute principle underlying the world of appearances, while the second, treats of the qualified (saguna) Brahman or the Isvara of popular belief. Thus the present Upanishad, in its brief compass, takes into account both the phases of Vedantic teaching and inculcates not merely the higher but also what is termed the 'lower knowledge' of Brahman. The first of these two kinds of knowledge is intended for persons who, seeing the unsubstantiality of the things of sense, withdraw their thoughts from the interests of everyday life and desire to realise the ultimate fact of the universe. The second kind of knowledge is meant for those who although deeply pious yet perceive dimly the distinction between the transient and the eternal and are consequently unable to detach themselves from the ordinary work-a-day world. As may be expected there is also a well-marked distinction between the results which these two kinds of knowledge are calculated to produce. The higher knowledge of Brahman (para vidya) procures immediate liberation (sadyomukti), when the individual Self, 'fusing all its skirts' rømerges in the Universal Being. The lower knowledge of Brahman (apard vidya), on the other hand, puts one in the right path that leads to deliverance eventually (kramammıkti). For a long time, in this case, doss the Self continue to exist individualised; but, at last, it acquires higher knowledge, and through that knowledge regains its identity with the Supreme.
The following is a summary of the teaching contained in the two parts-
(i) The first section opens with a question put to a teacher by a disciple who is convinced of the utter futility of relying on the passing thing of experience and yearns after a permanent reality by devotion to which he may attain abiding peace. He accordingly desires to know whether such a is implied in the manifold activities of the senses or and the mind whether these activities are, after all, wholly dependent upon the transient physical organism with which they are associated. The teacher denies the possibility of the physical organism-a mere 'thing of matter' -being an automaton and states that for the source of the functions of the various senses and the mind we must look elsewhere. This permanent source of their power is here termed Brahman which however, the teacher adds, cannot be expressed directly (vachyataya) for it posses-ses no specific attributes by which it can be described (in words figured in thought.) Brahman is, in other words, absolute and reason as sense-perception well as compass it.
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