ABSTRACT
The Upaniṣads appeal at once to imagination and the philosophic instinct by the problem they set forth and the promise they offer. Mankind is restive over its little existence and is anxious to get a light that can break through the phenomenal real and can satisfy all questioning. Truth is the summit of existence. Truth is the proper object of search. And so long as the heart is not upon the enduring, the heart cannot have rest, nor the soul be at peace. The search for the enduring becomes the sole motive in life when life's quest in other directions stands baffled at the little they can yield unto it. The quest for the Eternal in most persons cannot seriously begin before the conventions set up in the priestcraft and in the popular theological course have had due trial. The sacrificial rites with the promises of subtle sense-delights in the subtler planes of existence cannot satisfy the seeker, for he is still burdened with the anxieties of divided existence; and, however much privileges increase in volume and quantity, life labours in the mire of ignorance. But the failure of the sacrificial rites to give full satisfaction has its effect and use. It establishes the futility of a life in nature accumulating and enjoying no more than nature's possibilities and privileges.
