03
The Source — Śruti
before this →How Truth Is Known
The Veda is heard, not written. Its authority rests on sound and unbroken transmission, not on a manuscript. Four Vedas, and within each the same four strata — a fractal architecture.
Karma-kāṇḍa and Jñāna-kāṇḍa
action and knowledge
The lower strata enjoin action; the summit knows. The first purifies the mind for the second. They are not two religions but two halves of one path.
the hingeEverything ritual exists to make the mind fit for knowledge.
Everything knowledge does is complete what ritual began.
KARMA-KĀṆḌAmantra · brāhmaṇa · āraṇyaka
PURIFICATIONyajña, tapas, discipline
JÑĀNA-KĀṆḌAupaniṣad — brahman
introduces →saṃhitābrāhmaṇaāraṇyakaupaniṣadapauruṣeya