Shvetashvatara Upanishad 1.1-1.2

The Teachers of Brahman 

The teachers of Brahman say:

What is the primal cause?

What is Brahman?

Wherefrom have we been born?

By what do we subsist?

and on what are we founded?

By whom regulated,

do we have our being,

ye wise men?

in the changing conditions

of joy and sorrow?

Are Time, Nature, Necessity, Chance, Basic matter, the Spirit,

the primal cause?

Can the union of these be thought of as the primal cause?

It is not that, however,

because the Self exists.

Still the Self also is not powerful enough to create joy and sorrow!

~ Shvetashvatara Upanishad 1.1-1.2, Translated by Paul Deussen