Are there two selves, for one to know the other?

[Guest guest]

From The Bryhadaranyaka Upanishad

 

 

As all waters have their being in the sea, all touches in the skin,

all tastes in the tongue, all smells in the nose, all colors in the

eye, all sounds in the ear, all percepts in the mind, all knowledge

in the heart, all grasping in the hands, all footsteps in the feet,

and all teachings in words; and as a lump of salt dropped into water

dissolves and cannot be recovered as a lump (yet when we taste the

water it is salt)—in the same way does Being, the Self, endless,

unlimited, consisting only of knowledge, arise from these elements,

and vanish again into them.

 

When Beingness departs there is no more name or knowledge. In this

there is nothing bewildering. And this, beloved, is enough for

wisdom.

 

But when there seems to be duality, then one seems to see another,

smell another, hear another, address another, perceive another, know

another.

 

But when the Self only is all this, how could one smell another, how

could one see another, or hear another. How could one address

another, or perceive another, or know another? And how could That be

known by means of which all this is known?

 

How, dear one, could one know himself, the very knower? Are there two

selves, for one to know the other?

 

--------------------

Not two,

Richard