Chapter III, Section II, Introduction

Adhikarana summary: Introduction

In the last section the passage of the soul to different spheres and its return have been explained. There are people who get disgusted with Karma or sacrifices leading to such a fate of the soul and become dispassionate. In order to make them grasp the true import of the Mahavakyas or the great Vedic dicta, this section sets itself to elucidate the true nature of ‘That’ and ‘thou’ contained in the Mahavakya, “That thou art.” In the last section the waking state of the soul (the ‘thou’) has been fully described. Now its dream state is taken up for discussion, to show that the soul is self-luminous. In this way the three states of the soul, viz. waking, dream, and deep sleep, will be shown to be merely illusory, and thus the consequent identity of the Jiva and Brahman will be established.