Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the supreme knowledge only to the worthy was strictly insisted on. "The deepest mystery of the end of knowledge .... is not to be declared to one who is not a son or a pupil, and who is not tranquil in mind". [Shvetãshvataropanishat, vi, 22. ] So again, after a sketch of Yoga we read: "Stand up! awake ! having found the Great Ones, listen! The road is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a razor. Thus say the wise". [Kathopanishat, iii, 14. ] The Teacher is needed, for written teaching alone does not suffice. The "end of knowledge" is to know God — not only to believe; to become one with God — not only to worship afar off. Man must know the reality of the divine Existence, and then know — not only vaguely believe and hope — that his own innermost Self is one with God, and that the aim of life is to realise that unity. Unless religion can guide a man to that realisation, it is but "as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal". [ I. Cor., xiii, 1]
So also it was asserted that man should learn to leave the gross body: "Let a man with firmness separate it [the soul] from his own body, as a grass-stalk from its sheath". [Kathopanishat, vi., 17. ] And it was written! "In the golden highest sheath dwells the stainless, changeless Brahman; It is the radiant white Light of lights, known to the knowers of the Self".[Mundakopanishat, II, ii, 9 ] "When the seer sees the golden-coloured Creator, the Lord, the Spirit, whose womb is Brahman, then, having thrown away merit and demerit, stainless, the wise one reaches the highest union".[Ibid., Ill, i, 3. ]
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