VI, 13

1. 'Place this salt in water, and then wait on me in the morning.'

The son did as he was commanded.

The father said to him: 'Bring me the salt, which you placed in the water last night.'

The son having looked for it, found it not, for, of course, it was melted.

2. The father said: 'Taste it from the surface of the water. How is it?'

The son replied: 'It is salt.'

'Taste it from the middle. How is it?'

The son replied: 'It is salt.'

'Taste it from the bottom. How is it?'

The son replied 'It is salt.'

The father said Throw it away 1 and then wait on me.'

He did so; but salt exists for ever.

Then the father said: 'Here also, in this body, forsooth, you do not perceive the True (Sat), my son; but there indeed it is.

3. 'That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.'

'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.

'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.

Footnotes

104:1
The question which the son is supposed to have asked is How can this universe which has the form and name of earth &c. be produced from the Sat which is subtile, and has neither form nor name?
104:2
The question here is supposed to have been: If the Sat is the root of all that exists, why is it not perceived?
105:1
Read abhiprâsya, which is evidently intended by the commentary: abhiprâsya parityagya. See B. R. Sanskrit Dictionary, s. v.