FOOTNOTE TO “IS BRAHMOISM TRUE HINDUISM?”

[The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 5, February, 1883, p. 117]

[A correspondent, whose letter is published under the above title, quotes the Mundakopanishad, Sect. I, Pt. i, 5, as follows: “. . . The superior knowledge is that by which the UNDECAYING (God) is known.” To this H. P. B. appends the following footnote:]

The term “Undecaying” may, or may not, have meant “God,” as translated by the writer, in the mind of the author of Mundakopanishad, but we have every reason for doubting the correctness of the meaning given. No Upanishad mentions anywhere a personal god, and we believe such is the god of the Brahmos—since he is endowed with attributes in themselves all finite. The “Undecaying” means in the Upanishads—the eternal unborn, uncreated, infinite principle or Law—Parabrahm in short, not Brahm which is quite another thing.