2. After having killed Vṛtra, Indra became great. When he became great, then there was the Mahāvrata (the great work). This is why the Mahāvrata ceremony is called Mahāvrata.
3. Some people say: ‘Let the priest make two (recitations with the offering of the) ājya (ghee) on that day,’ but the right thing is one [1].
6. The people (visaḥ) indeed are increase [2], and therefore he (the sacrificer) becomes increased.
7. But (some say), there is the word atithim (in that hymn, which means a guest or stranger, asking for food). Let him not therefore take that hymn. Verily, the atithi (stranger) is able [3] to go begging.
9. 'For he who follows the good road and obtains distinction, he is an atithi (guest) [4].
12. If he takes that hymn, let him place the (second) tristich, āganma vṛtrahantamam, ‘we came near to the victorious,’ first.
13. For people worship the whole year (performing the Gavāmayana sacrifice) wishing for this day (the last but one)—they do come near.
14. The (next following) three tristichs begin with an Anushṭubh [5]. Now Brahman is Gāyatrī, speech is Anushṭubh. He thus joins speech with Brahman.
In the other (recitations accompanying the) offerings of ājya (where Agni is likewise mentioned) the worshippers come more slowly near to Agni (because the name of Agni does not stand at the beginning of the hymn). But here a worshipper obtains proper food at once, he strikes down evil at once.
3. Through the words (occurring in the second foot of the first verse), hastacyuti janayanta, ‘they caused the birth of Agni by moving their arms,’ the hymn becomes endowed with (the word) birth. Verily, the sacrificer is born from this day of the sacrifice, and therefore the hymn is endowed with (the word) birth.
4. There are four metrical feet (in the Trishṭubh verses of this hymn). Verily, cattle have four feet, therefore they serve for the gaining of cattle.
5. There are three metrical feet (in the Virāj, verses of this hymn). Verily, three are these three-fold 160 worlds. Therefore they serve for the conquest of the worlds.
6. These (the Trishṭubh and Virāj verses of the hymn) form two metres, which form a support (pratishṭhā). Verily, man is supported by two (feet), cattle by four feet. Therefore this hymn places the sacrificer who stands on two feet among cattle which stand on four.
7. By saying them straight on there are twenty-five verses in this hymn. Man also consists of twenty-five. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk (ātman) the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk, the twenty-fifth, by this hymn.
8. And then this day (of the sacrifice) consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five [8] (verses); it becomes the same through the same. Therefore these two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five [9].
9. These twenty-five verses, by repeating the first thrice and the last thrice, become thirty less one. This is a Virāj, verse (consisting of thirty syllables), too small by one. Into the small (heart) the vital spirits are placed, into the small stomach food is placed [10], therefore this Virāj, small by one, serves for the obtainment of those desires.
11. The verses (contained in the hymn agnim naro dīdhitibhiḥ) become the Bṛhatī [11] metre and 161 the Virāj metre, (they become) the perfection which belongs to that day (the mahāvrata). Then they also become Anushṭubh [12], for the offerings of ājya (ghee) dwell in Anushṭubhs [13].
1. Some say: ‘Let him take a Gāyatrī hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Gāyatrī is brightness and glory of countenance, and thus the sacrificer becomes bright and glorious.’
2. Others say: ‘Let him take a Ushṇih hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Ushṇih is life, and thus the sacrificer has a long life.’
Others say: ‘Let him take an Anushṭubh hymn 162 for the Pra-uga. Verily, Anushṭubh is valour, and it serves for obtaining valour.’
Others say: ‘Let him take a Bṛhatī hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Bṛhatī is fortune, and thus the sacrificer becomes fortunate.’
Others say: ‘Let him take a Paṅkti hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Paṅkti is food, and thus the sacrificer becomes rich in food.’
Others say: ‘Let him take a Trishṭubh hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Trishṭubh is strength, and thus the sacrificer becomes strong.’
Others say: ‘Let him take a Jagatī hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, cattle is Jagatī-like, and thus the sacrificer becomes rich in cattle.’
But we say: 'Let him take a Gāyatrī hymn only. Verily, Gāyatrī is Brahman, and that day (the mahāvrata) is (for the attainment of) Brahman. Thus he obtains Brahman by means of Brahman.
5. 'For Madhucchandas is called Madhucchandas, because he wishes (chandati) for honey (madhu) for the Ṛshis.
6. 'Now food verily is honey, all is honey, all desires are honey, and thus if he recites the hymn of Madhucchandas, it serves for the attainment of all desires.
This (Gāyatrī pra-uga), according to the one-day (ekāha) ceremonial [15], is perfect in form [16]. On that day (the mahāvrata) much is done now and then which 163 has to be hidden [17], and has to be atoned for y recitation of hymns). Atonement (śānti) is rest, the one-day sacrifice. Therefore at the end of the year (on the last day but one of the sacrifice that lasts a whole year) the sacrificers rest on this atonement as their rest.
8. He who knows this rests firm, and they also for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn.
1. Rv. I, 2, 1-3. Vāyav ā yāhi darśateme somā araṃ kṛtāḥ, ‘Approach, O Vāyu, conspicuous, these Somas have been made ready.’ Because the word ready occurs in these verses, therefore is this day (of the sacrifice) ready (and auspicious) for the sacrificer and for the gods.
2. Yes, this day is ready (and auspicious) to him who knows this, or for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites.
3. Rv. I, 2, 4-6. Indravāyū ime sutā, ā yātam upa nishkṛtam, ‘Indra and Vāyu, these Somas are prepared, come hither towards what has been prepared.’ By nishkṛta, prepared, he means what has been well prepared (saṃskṛta).
4. Indra and Vāyu go to what has been prepared by him who knows this, or for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites.
5. Rv. I, 2, 7. Mitraṃ huve pūtadaksham, dhiyaṃ ghṛtākīṃ sādhantā, ‘I call Mitra of holy strength; (he and Varuṇa) they fulfil the prayer accompanied with clarified butter.’ Verily, speech is the prayer accompanied with clarified butter.
7. Rv. I, 3, 1. Aśvinā yajvarīr ishaḥ, ‘O Aśvinau, (eat) the sacrificial offerings.’ Verily, the sacrificial offerings are food, and this serves for the acquirement of food.
9. The Asvinau go to the sacrifice of him who knows this, or for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites.
10. Rv. I, 3, 4-6. Indrā yāhi citrabhāno, indrā yāhi dhiyeshitaḥ, indrā yāhi tūtujāna, ‘Come hither, Indra, of bright splendour, Come hither, Indra, called by prayer, Come hither, Indra, quickly!’ Thus he recites, Come hither, come hither!
11. Indra comes to the sacrifice of him who knows this, or for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites.
12. Rv. I, 3, 7. Omāsaś carshaṇīdhṛto viśve devāsa ā gata, ‘Viśve Devas, protectors, supporters of men, come hither!’
13. Verily, the Viśve Devas come to the call of him who knows this, or for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites.
14. Rv. I, 3, 7. Dāsvāṃso dāśushaḥ sutam, ‘Come ye givers to the libation of the giver!’ By dāśushaḥ he means dadushaḥ, i. e. to the libation of every one that gives.
17. Rv. I, 3, 10. Pāvakā naḥ sarasvatī yajñaṃ vashṭu dhiyāvasuḥ, ‘May the holy Sarasvatī accept our sacrifice, rich in prayer!’ Speech is meant by ‘rich in prayer.’
19. And when he says, ‘May she accept our sacrifice!’ what he means is, ‘May she carry off our sacrifice!’
20. If these verses are recited straight on, they are twenty-one. Man also consists of twenty-one. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, and the trunk the twenty-first. He adorns that trunk, the twenty-first, by this hymn [19].
21. By repeating the first and the last verses thrice, they become twenty-five. The trunk is the twenty-fifth, and Prajāpati is the twenty-fifth. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk, the twenty-fifth, by this hymn’.
Now this day consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five: it becomes the same through the same. Therefore these two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five, yea, twenty-five.
1. The two tṛcas, Rv. VIII, 68, 1-3, ā tvā rathaṃ yathotaye, and Rv. VIII, 2, 1-3, idaṃ vaso sutam andhaḥ, form the first (pratipad) and the second (anucara) of the Marutvatīya hymn.
2. Both, as belonging to the one-day ceremonial [21], are perfect in form. On that day much is done now and then which has to be hidden, and has to be atoned for. Atonement is rest, the one-day sacrifice. Therefore at the end of the year the sacrificers rest on this atonement as their rest. He who knows this rests firm, and they also for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn [22].
3. In the second verse of (the Pragātha [23]), indra nedīya ed ihi, pra sū tirā sacībhir ye ta ukthinaḥ (Rv. VIII, 53, 5, 6), there occurs the word ukthinaḥ, reciters of hymns [24]. Verily, this day (the mahāvrata) is an uktha (hymn), and as endowed with an uktha, the form of this day is perfect.
4. In the first verse (of another Pragātha) the word vīra, strong, occurs (Rv. I, 40, 3), and as endowed with the word vīra, strong, the form of this day is perfect.
5. In the second verse (of another Pragātha) the word suvīryam, strength, occurs (Rv. I. 40, 1), and as endowed with the word suvīrya, strength, the form of this day is perfect.
6. In the first verse (of another Pragātha) the word ukthyam, to be hymned, occurs (Rv. I, 40, 5). Verily, this day is an uktha, and as endowed with an uktha, the form of this day is perfect.
7. In the (Dhayyā) verse agnir netā (Rv. III, 2 0, 4) the word vṛtrahā, killer of Vṛtra, occurs. The killing of Vṛtra is a form (character) of Indra, this day (the mahāvrata) belongs to Indra, and this is the (perfect) form of that day.
8. In the (Dhayyā) verse tvaṃ soma kratubhiḥ sukratur bhūḥ (Rv. I, 91, 2) the word vṛshā [25], powerful, occurs. Powerful is a form (character) of Indra, this day belongs to Indra, and this is the (perfect) form of that day.
9. In the (Dhayyā) verse pinvanty apaḥ (Rv. I, 64, 6) the word vājinam, endowed with food, occurs. Endowed with food is a form (character) of Indra, this day belongs to Indra, and this is the (perfect) form of that day.
10. In the same verse the word stanayantam, thundering, occurs. Endowed with thundering is a form (character) of Indra, this day belongs to Indra, and this is the (perfect) form of that day.
11. In (the Pragātha) pra va indrāya bṛhate (Rv. VIII, 89, 3) (the word bṛhat occurs). Verily, bṛhat is mahat (great), and as endowed with mahat, great, the form of this day (mahāvrata) is perfect.
12. In (the Pragātha) bṛhad indrāya gāyata (Rv. VIII, 89, 1) 168 (the word bṛhat occurs). Verily, bṛhat is mahat (great), and as endowed with mahat, the form of this day is perfect.
13. In (the Pragātha) nakiḥ sudāso ratham pary āsa na rīramad (Rv. VII, 32, 10) the words paryāsa (he moved round) and na rīramad (he did not enjoy) occur, and as endowed with the words paryasta and rānti the form of this day is perfect [26].
He recites all (these) Pragāthas, in order to obtain all the days (of the sacrifice), all the Ukthas [27], all the Pṛshṭhas [28], all the Śastras [29], all the Pra-ugas [30], and all the Savanas (libations).
1. He recites the hymn, asat su me jaritaḥ sābhivegaḥ (Rv. X, 27, 1), (and in. it the word) satyadhvṛtam, the destroyer of truth. Verily, that day 169 is truth, and as endowed with the word satya, truth, the form of this day is perfect [32].
2. That hymn is composed by Vasukra. Verily, Vasukra is Brahman, and that day is Brahman. Thus he obtains Brahman by means of Brahman [33].
3. Here they say: ‘Why then is that Marutvatīya, hymn completed by the hymn of Vasukra?’ Surely because no other Ṛshi but Vasukra brought out a Marutvatīya hymn, or divided it properly [34]. Therefore that Marutvatīya hymn is completed by the hymn of Vasukra.
4. That hymn, asat su me, is not definitely addressed to any deity, and is therefore supposed to be addressed to Prajāpati. Verily, Prajāpati is indefinite, and therefore the hymn serves to win Prajāpati.
5. Once in the hymn (Rv. X, 27, 22) he defines Indra (indrāya sunvat); therefore it does not fall off from its form, as connected with Indra.
7. In the verse ūrvam gavyam mahi gṛṇāna indra the word mahi, great, occurs. Endowed with the word mahat, the form of this day is perfect.
8. That hymn is composed by Bharadvāja, and Bharadvāja was he who knew most, who lived longest, and performed the greatest austerities among the Ṛshis, and by this hymn he drove away evil. Therefore if he recites the hymn of Bharadvāja, 170 then, after having driven away evil, he becomes learned, long-lived, and full of austerities.
10. In the verse ā śāsate prati haryanty ukthā (Rv. I, 165, 4) the word uktha occurs. Verily, that day (the mahāvrata) is uktha (hymn). Endowed with the word uktha, the form of this day becomes perfect.
11. That hymn is called Kayāśubhīya [35]. Verily, that hymn, which is called Kayāśubhīya, is mutual understanding and it is lasting. By means of it Indra, Agastya, and the Maruts came to a mutual understanding. Therefore, if he recites the Kayāśubhīya hymn, it serves for mutual understanding.
12. The same hymn is also long life. Therefore, if the sacrificer is dear to the Hotṛ, let him recite the Kayāśubhīya hymn for him.
14. In it the words indra vṛshabha (powerful) occur. Verily, powerful is a form of Indra [36], this day belongs to Indra, and this is the perfect form of that day.
16. Everybody is the friend of him who knows this, and for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn.
17. The next hymn, janishṭhā ugraḥ sahase turāya (Rv. I, 73, 1), forms a Nividdhāna [37], and, 171 according to the one-day (ekāha) ceremonial, is perfect in form. On that day much is done now and then which has to be hidden, and has to be atoned for (by recitation of hymns). Atonement is rest, the one-day sacrifice. Therefore at the end of the year (on the last day but one of the sacrifice that lasts a whole year) the sacrificers rest on this atonement as their rest.
He who knows this rests firm, and they also for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn [38].
18. These, if recited straight on, are ninety-seven verses [39]. The ninety are three Virāj, each consisting of thirty, and then the seven verses which are over. Whatever is the praise of the seven, is the praise of ninety also.
19. By repeating the first and last verses three times each, they become one hundred and one verses.
20. There are five fingers, of four joints each, two pits (in the elbow and the arm), the arm, the eye, the shoulder-blade; this makes twenty-five. The other three parts have likewise twenty-five each [40]. That makes a hundred, and the trunk is the one hundred and first.
21. Hundred is life, health, strength, brightness. The sacrificer as the one hundred and first rests in life, health, strength, and brightness.
22. These verses become Trishṭubh [41], for the noonday-libation consists of Trishṭubh verses.
1. They say: ‘What is the meaning of preṅkha, swing?’ Verily, he is the swing, who blows (the wind). He indeed goes forward (pra + iṅkhate) in these worlds, and that is why the swing is called preṅkha.
2. Some say, that there should be one plank, because the wind blows in one way, and it should be like the wind.
4. Some say, there should be three planks, because there are these three threefold worlds, and it should be like them.
6. Let there be two, for these two worlds (the earth and heaven) are seen as if most real, while the ether (space) between the two is the sky (antariksha). Therefore let there be two planks.
7. Let them be made of Udumbara wood. Verily, the Udumbara tree is sap and eatable food, and thus it serves to obtain sap and eatable food.
8. Let them be elevated in the middle (between the earth and the cross-beam). Food, if placed in the middle, delights man, and thus he places the sacrificer in the middle of eatable food.
9. There are two kinds of rope, twisted towards the right and twisted towards the left. The right ropes serve for some animals, the left ropes for others. If there are both kinds of rope, they serve for the attainment of both kinds of cattle.
10. Let them be made of Darbha (Kuśa grass), for among plants Darbha is free from evil, therefore they should be made of Darbha grass.
1. Some say: ‘Let the swing be one ell (aratni) above the ground, for by that measure verily the Svarga worlds are measured.’ That is not to be regarded.
2. Others say: ‘Let it be one span (prādeśa), for by that measure verily the vital airs were measured.’ That is not to be regarded [43].
3. Let it be one fist (mushṭi), for by that measure verily all eatable food is made, and by that measure 174 all eatable food is taken; therefore let it be one fist above the ground.
4. They say: ‘Let him mount the swing from east to west, like he who shines; for the sun mounts these worlds from east to west.’ That is not to be regarded.
5. Others say: ‘Let him mount the swing sideways, for people mount a horse sideways [44], thinking that thus they will obtain all desires.’ That is not to be regarded.
6. They say: ‘Let him mount the swing [45] from behind, for people mount a ship from behind, and this swing is a ship in which to go to heaven.’ Therefore let him mount it from behind.
7. Let him touch the swing with his chin (chubuka). The parrot (śuka) thus mounts a tree, and he is of all birds the one who eats most food. Therefore let him touch it with his chin.
8. Let him mount the swing with his arms [46]. The hawk swoops thus on birds and on trees, and he is of all birds the strongest. Therefore let him mount with his arms.
9. Let him not withdraw one foot (the right or left) from the earth, for fear that he may lose his hold.
10. The Hotṛ mounts the swing, the Udgātṛ the seat made of Udumbara wood. The swing is masculine, the seat feminine, and they form a union. Thus he makes a union at the beginning of the uktha in order to get offspring.
13. The Hotrakas (the Prasāstṛ, Brāhmaṇācchaṃsin, Potṛ, Neshṭri, Agnādhra, and Acchāvāka) together with the Brahman sit down on cushions made of grass, reeds, leaves, &c.
14. Plants and trees, after they have grown up, bear fruit. Thus if the priests mount on that day altogether (on their seats), they mount on solid and fluid as their proper food. Therefore this serves for the attainment of solid as proper food [47].
15. Some say: 'Let him descend after saying vashaṭ [48]. 'That is not to be regarded. For, verily, that respect is not shown which is shown to one who does not see it [49].
16. Others say: ‘Let him descend after he has taken the food in his hand.’ That is not to be regarded. For, verily, that respect is not shown which is shown to one after he has approached quite close.
17. Let him descend after he has seen the food. For, verily, that is real respect which is shown to one when he sees it. Only after having actually 176 seen the food (that is brought to the sacrifice), let him descend from the swing.
18. Let him descend turning towards the east, for in the east the seed of the gods springs up [50]. Therefore let him rise turning towards the east, yea, turning towards the east.
1. Let him begin this day [51] with singing ‘Him,’ thus they say.
2. Verily, the sound Him is Brahman, that day also is Brahman. He who knows this, obtains Brahman even by Brahman.
3. As he begins with the sound Him, surely that masculine sound of Him and the feminine Ṛc (the verse) make a couple. Thus he makes a couple at the beginning of the hymn in order to get offspring [52]. He who knows this, gets cattle and offspring.
4. Or, as he begins with the sound Him, surely like a wooden spade, so the sound Him serves to dig up Brahman (the sap of the Veda). And as a man wishes to dig up any, even the hardest soil, with a spade, thus he digs up Brahman.
Therefore, he who begins, after having uttered the sound Him, holds apart divine and human speech [53].
1. And here they ask: ‘What is the beginning of this day?’ Let him say: ‘Mind and speech [54].’
7. Here they say: ‘Let him not begin this day with a Ṛc, a Yajus, or a Sāman verse (divine speech), for it is said, he should not start with a Ṛc, a Yajus, or a Sāman [55].’
9. These interjections Bhūs, Bhuvas, Svar are the three Vedas, Bhūs the Ṛj-veda, Bhuvas the Yajur-veda, Svar the Sāma-veda. Therefore (by 178 intercalating these) he does not begin simply with a Ṛc, Yajus, or Sāman verse, he does not start with a Ṛc, Yajus, or Sāman verse.
1. He begins with tad, this, (the first word of the first hymn, tad id āsa). Verily ‘this, this’ is food, and thus he obtains food.
2. Prajāpati indeed uttered this as the first word, consisting of one or two syllables, viz. tata and tāta (or tat) [56]. And thus does a child, as soon as he begins to speak, utter the word, consisting of one or two syllables, viz. tata and tāta (or tat). With this very word, consisting of tat or tatta, he begins.
3. This has been said by a Ṛshi (Rv. X, 71, 1) [57]:—
7. ‘That which was hidden by their love, is made manifest;’—for this was hidden in the body, viz. those deities (which enter the body, Agni as voice, entering the mouth, &c.); and that was manifest among the gods in heaven. This is what was intended by the verse.
1. He begins with: ‘That indeed was the oldest in the worlds [59];’—for that (the Brahman) is verily the oldest in the worlds.
2. ‘Whence was born the fierce one, endowed with brilliant force;’—for from it was born the fierce one, who is endowed with brilliant force.
4. ‘He after whom all friends rejoice;’—verily all friends are the creatures, and they rejoice after him, saying, ‘He has risen, he has risen [60].’
5. ‘Growing by strength, the almighty [61];’—for he (the sun) does grow by strength, the almighty.
9. ‘All turn their thought also on thee [62];’—this 180 means all these beings, all minds, all thoughts also turn to thee.
12. ‘Join what is sweeter than sweet (offspring) with the sweet (the parents);’—for the couple (father and mother) is sweet, the offspring is sweet, and he thus joins the offspring with the couple.
13. ‘And this (the son, when married) being very sweet, conquered through the sweet;’—i. e. the couple is sweet, the offspring is sweet, and thus through the couple he conquers offspring [63].
14. This is declared by a Ṛshi [64]: ‘Because he (Prajāpati) raised his body (the hymn tad id āsa or the Veda in general) in the body (of the sacrificer)’ (therefore that Nishkevalya hymn is praised);—i. e. this body, consisting of the Veda, in that corporeal form (of the sacrificer).
15. ‘Then let this body indeed be the medicine of that body;’—i. e. this body, consisting of the Veda, of that corporeal form (of the sacrificer).
16. Of this (the first foot of Rv. X, 120, 1) the eight syllables are Gāyatrī, the eleven syllables are Trishṭubh, the twelve syllables are Jagatī, the ten syllables are Virāj. The Virāj, consisting of ten syllables, rests in these three metres [65].
17. The word purusha, consisting of three syllables, that indeed goes into the Virāj [66].
18. Verily, these are all metres, these (Gāyatrī, Trishṭubh, Gagatī) having the Virāj as the fourth. In this manner this day is complete in all metres to him who knows this.
1. He extends these (verses) by (interpolating) the sound [67]. Verily, the sound is purusha, man. Therefore every man when he speaks, sounds loud, as it were.
2. At the end of each foot of the first verse of the hymn tad id āsa, he inserts one foot of the second verse of hymn Rv. VIII, 69, nadaṃ va odatīnām, &c. Thus the verse is to be recited as follows:
Tad id āsa bhuvaneshu jyeshṭham pu nadaṃ va odatīnām, Yato jajña ugras tveshanṛmṇo ru nadaṃ yoyuvatīnām, Sadyo gajñāno ni riṇāti śatrūn patiṃ vo aghnyānām, Anu yam viśve madanti ūmāḥ sho dhenūnām ishudhyasi.
In nadaṃ va odatīnām (Rv. VIII, 69, 2), odati [68] are the waters in heaven, for they water all this; and they are the waters in the mouth, for they water all good food.
3. In nadaṃ yoyuvatīnām (Rv. VIII, 69, 2), yoyuvatī are the waters in the sky, for they seem to inundate; and they are the waters of perspiration, for they seem to run continually.
4. In patiṃ vo aghnyānām (Rv. VIII, 69, 2), aghnyā are the waters which spring from the smoke of fire, and they are the waters which spring from the organ.
5. In dhenūnām ishudhyasi (Rv. VIII, 69, 2), the dhenu (cows) are the waters, for they delight all this; and ishudhyasi means, thou art food.
6. He extends a Trishṭubh and an Anushṭubh [69]. Trishṭubh is the man, Anushṭubh the wife, and they make a couple. Therefore does a man, after having found a wife, consider himself a more perfect man.
7. These verses, by repeating the first three times, become twenty-five. The trunk is the twenty-fifth, and Prajāpati is the twenty-fifth [70]. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk as the twenty-fifth. Now this day consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five: it becomes the same 183 through the same. Therefore the two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five [71].
This is an exact repetition of the third khaṇḍa. According to the commentator, the third khaṇḍa was intended for the glory of the first word tad, while the sixth is intended for the glory of the whole hymn.
1. He begins with the hymn, Tad id āsa, bhuvaneshu jyeshṭham (Rv. X, 120). Verily, jyeshṭha, the oldest, is mahat, great. Endowed with mahat the form of this day is perfect.
2. Then follows the hymn, Tāṃ su te kīrtim maghavan mahitvā (Rv. X, 54), with the auspicious word mahitvā.
4. Then follows the hymn, Nṛṇām u tvā nṛtaṃaṃ gobhir ukthaiḥ (Rv. I, 51, 4), with the auspicious word uktha.
5. He extends the first two pādas, which are too small, by one syllable (Rv. X, 120, 1 a, and Rv. VIII, 69, 2 a) [72]. Into the small heart the vital spirits are placed, into the small stomach food is placed. It 184 serves for the attainment of these desires. He who knows this, obtains these desires.
6. The two feet, each consisting of ten syllables (Rv. X, 120, 1 a, b), serve for the gaining of both kinds of food [73], of what has feet (animal food), and what has no feet (vegetable food).
7. They come to be of eighteen syllables each [74]. Of those which are ten, nine are the prāṇas (openings of the body) [75], the tenth is the (vital) self. This is the perfection of the (vital) self; Eight syllables remain in each. He who knows them, obtains whatever he desires.
1. He extends (these verses) by (interpolating) the sound [76]. Verily, breath (prāṇa) is sound. Therefore every breath when it sounds, sounds loud, as it were.
2. The verse (VIII, 69, 2) nadaṃ va odatīnām, &c., is by its syllables an Ushṇih [77], by its feet an Anushṭubh [78]. Ushṇih is life, Anushṭubh, speech. He thus places life and speech in him (the sacrificer.)
3. By repeating the first verse three times, they 185 become twenty-five. The trunk is the twenty-fifth, and Prajāpati is the twenty-fifth. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk as the twenty-fifth. Now this day consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five: it becomes the same through the same. Therefore the two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five. This is the twenty-fifth with regard to the body.
4. Next, with regard to the deities: The eye, the ear, the mind, speech, and breath, these five deities (powers) have entered into that person (purusha), and that person entered into the five deities. He is wholly pervaded there with his limbs to the very hairs and nails. Therefore all beings to the very insects are born as pervaded (by the deities or senses) [79].
6. ‘A thousandfold are these fifteen hymns;’—for five arise from ten [80].
7. ‘As large as heaven and earth, so large is it;’—verily, the self (jīvātman) is as large as heaven and earth.
8. ‘A thousandfold are the thousand powers [81];’— 186 by saying this the poet pleases the hymns (the senses), and magnifies them.
9. ‘As far as Brahman reaches, so far reaches speech;’—wherever there is Brahman, there is a word; and wherever there is a word, there is Brahman, this was intended.
10. The first of the hymns among all those hymns has nine verses. Verily, there are nine prāṇas (openings), and it serves for their benefit.
12. Then follows a hymn of five verses. Verily’ the Paṅkti consists of five feet. Verily, Paṅkti is food, and it serves for the gaining of proper food.
14. These verses become Bṛhatīs [82], that metre being immortal, leading to the world of the Devas. That body of verses is the trunk (of the bird represented by the whole śastra), and thus it is. He who knows this comes by this way (by making the verses the trunk of the bird) near to the immortal Self, yea, to the immortal Self [83].
1. Next comes the Sūdadohas [84] verse. Sūdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
2. Next follow the neck verses. They recite them as Ushṇih, according to their metre [85].
3. Next comes (again) the Sūdadohas verse. Sūdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
4. Next follows the head. That is in Gāyatrī verses. The Gāyatrī is the beginning of all metres [86]; the head the first of all members. It is in Arkavat verses (Rv. I, 7, 1-9) [87]. Arka is Agni. They are nine verses. The head consists of nine pieces. He recites the tenth verse, and that is the skin and the hairs on the head. It serves for reciting one verse more than (the nine verses contained in) the Stoma [88]. 188 These form the Trivrit Stoma and the Gāyatrī metre, and whatever there exists, all this is produced after the production of this Stoma and this metre. Therefore the recitation of these head-hymns serves for production.
6. Next comes the Sūdadohas verse. Verily, Sūdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
7. Next follow the vertebrae [89] (of the bird). These verses are Virāj (shining). Therefore man says to man, ‘Thou shinest above us;’ or to a stiff and proud man, ‘Thou carriest thy neck stiff.’ Or because the (vertebrae of the neck) run close together, they are taken to be the best food. For Virāj, is food, and food is strength.
8. Next comes the Sūdadohas verse. Sūdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
1. Next follows the right wing. It is this world (the earth), it is this Agni, it is speech, it is the Rathantara [90], it is Vasishṭha, it is a hundred [91]. These are the six powers (of the right wing) [92]. The Sampāta hymn (Rv. IV, 20) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Paṅkti verse (Rv. I, 80, 1) serves for proper food.
3. Next follows the left wing. It is that world (heaven), it is that sun, it is mind, it is the Brihat, it 190 a, it is a hundred [93]. These are the six powers (of the left wing). The Sampāta hymn (Rv. IV, 23) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Paṅkti verse (Rv. I, 81, 1) serves for proper food.
4. These two (the right and the left wings) are deficient and excessive [94]. The Brihat (the left wing) is man, the Rathantara (the right wing) is woman. The excess belongs to the man, the deficiency to the woman. Therefore they are deficient and excessive.
5. Now the left wing of a bird is verily by one feather better, therefore the left wing is larger by one verse.
6. Next comes the Sūdadohas verse. Sūdadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
7. Next follows the tail. They are twenty-one Dvipadā verses [95]. For there are twenty-one backward feathers in a bird.
8. Then the Ekaviṃsa is the support of all Stomas, and the tail the support of all birds [96].
9. He recites a twenty-second verse. This is made the form of two supports. Therefore all birds support themselves on their tail, and having supported themselves on their tail, they fly up. For the tail is a support.
10. He (the bird and the hymn) is supported by two decades which are Virāj. The man (the sacrificer) is supported by the two Dvipadās, the twenty first and twenty-second. That which forms the bird serves for the attainment of all desires; that which forms the man, serves for his happiness, glory, proper food, and honour.
11. Next comes a Sūdadohas verse, then a Dhayyā, then a Sūdadohas verse. The Sūdadohas is a man, the Dhayyā a woman, therefore he recites the Dhayyā as embraced on both sides by the Sūdadohas. Therefore does the seed of both, when it is effused, obtain oneness, and this with regard to the 192 woman only. Hence birth takes place in and from the woman. Therefore he recites that Dhayyā in that place [97].
1. He recites the eighty tristichs of Gāyatrīs [98]. Verily, the eighty Gāyatrī tristichs are this world (earth). Whatever there is in this world of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine.
3. He recites the eighty tristichs of Bṛhatīs. Verily, the eighty Bṛhatī tristichs are the world of the sky. Whatever there is in the world of the sky of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine.
4. Next comes the Sūdadohas verse. Sūdadohas verily is breath. He joins the world of the sky with breath.
5. He recites the eighty tristichs of Ushṇih. Verily, the eighty Ushṇih tristichs are that world, the heaven. Whatever there is in that world of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, also the divine being of the Devas (Brahman), may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine.
6. Next comes the Sūdadohas verse. Sūdadohas verily is the breath. He joins that world with breath, yea, with breath.
1. He recites the Vaśa hymn [99], wishing, May everything be in my power.
2. They (its verses) are twenty-one [100], for twenty-one are the parts (the lungs, spleen, &c.) in the belly.
5. He recites them with the praṇava [101], according to the metre [102], and according to rule [103]. Verily, the intestines are according to rule, as it were; some shorter, some longer.
7. After having recited that verse twelve times he 194 leaves it off there. These prāṇas are verily twelvefold, seven in the head, two on the breast, three below. In these twelve places the prāṇas are contained, there they are perfect. Therefore he leaves it off there [104].
8. The hymn indrāgnī yuvaṃ su nah (Rv. VIII, 40) forms the two thighs (of the bird) belonging to Indra and Agni, the two supports with broad bones.
9. These (verses) consist of six feet, so that they may stand firm. Man stands firm on two feet, animals on four. He thus places man (the sacrificer), standing on two feet, among four-footed cattle.
10. The second verse has seven feet, and he makes it into a Gāyatrī and Anushṭubh. Gāyatrī is Brahman, Anushṭubh is speech; and he thus puts together speech with Brahman.
11. He recites a Trishṭubh at the end. Trishṭubh is strength, and thus does he come round animals by strength. Therefore animals come near where there is strength (of command, &c.); they come to be roused and to rise up, (they obey the commands of a strong shepherd.)
1. When he recites the Nishkevalya hymn addressed to Indra (Rv. X, 50), pra vo mahe, he inserts a Nivid [105] (between the fourth and fifth verses). Thus he clearly places strength in himself (in the śastra, in the bird, in himself).
3. There they say: ‘Why does he insert a Nivid among mixed Trishṭubhs and Jagatīs [106]?’ But surely one metre would never support the Nivid of this day, nor fill it: therefore he inserts the Nivid among mixed Trishṭubhs and Jagatīs.
4. Let him know that this day has three Nivids: the Vasa hymn is a Nivid, the Vālakhilyas [107] are a Nivid, and the Nivid itself is a Nivid. Thus let him know that day as having three Nivids.
5. Then follow the hymns vane na vā (Rv. X, 29) and yo jāta eva (Rv. II, 12). In the fourth verse of the former hymn occur the words anne samasya yad asan manīshāḥ, and they serve for the winning of proper food.
6. Then comes an insertion. As many Trishṭubh and Jagatī verses [108], taken from the ten Maṇḍalas and addressed to Indra, as they insert (between the two above-mentioned hymns), after changing them into Bṛhatīs, so many years do they live beyond the (usual) age (of one hundred years). By this insertion age is obtained.
8. Then he recites the Tārkshya hymn [109]. Tārkshya is verily welfare, and the hymn leads to welfare. Thus (by reciting the hymn) he fares well [110].
9. Then he recites the Ekapadā (indro viśvaṃ vi rājati), wishing, May I be everything at once, and may I thus finish the whole work of metres [111].
10. In reciting the hymn indraṃ viśvā avivṛdhan (Rv. I, 11) he intertwines the first seven verses by intertwining their feet [112]. There are seven prāṇas (openings) in the head, and he thus places seven prāṇas in the head. The eighth verse (half-verse) he does not intertwine [113]. The eighth is speech, and he thinks, May my speech never be intertwined with the other prāṇas. Speech therefore, though dwelling in the same abode as the other prāṇas, is not intertwined with them.
11. He recites the Virāj verses [114]. Verily, Virāj verses are food, and they thus serve for the gaining of food.
12. He ends with the hymn of Vasishṭha [115], wishing, May I be Vasishṭha!
13. But let him end with the fifth verse, esha stomo maha ugrāya vāhe, which, possessing the word mahat, is auspicious.
14. In the second foot of the fifth verse the word dhuri occurs. Verily, dhuḥ (the place where the horse is fastened to the car) is the end (of the car). This day also is the end (of the sacrifice which lasts a whole year) [116]. Thus the verse is fit for the day.
16. The last foot is: ‘Make our glory high as heaven over heaven.’ Thus wherever Brahmanic speech is uttered, there his glory will be, when he who knows this finishes with that verse. Therefore let a man who knows this, finish (the Nishkevalya) with that verse.
1. Tat savitur vṛṇīmahe (Rv. V, 82, 1-3) and adyā no deva savitar (Rv. V, 82, 4-6) are the beginning (pratipad) and the next step (anucara) of the Vaiśvadeva hymn, taken from the Ekāha ceremonial and therefore proper [118].
2. On that day [119] much is done now and then which has to be hidden, and has to be atoned for. Atonement is rest, the one-day sacrifice. Therefore at the end of the year the sacrificers; rest on this atonement as their rest. He who knows this rests firm, and they also for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn.
3. Then (follows) the hymn addressed to Savitṛ, tad devasya savitur vāryam mahat (Rv. IV, 53). Verily, mahat, great, (in this foot) is the end [120]. This day too is the end. Thus the verse is fit for the day.
4. The hymn katarā pūrvā katarā parāyoḥ (Rv. I, 185), addressed to Dyāvāpṛthivī, is one in which many verses have the same ending. Verily, this day also (the mahāvrata) is one in which many receive the same reward [121]. Thus it is fit for the day.
6. In the first verse the word tri (cakraḥ) occurs, and trivat [122] is verily the end. This day also is the end (of the sacrifice). Thus the verse is fit for the day.
7. The hymn asya vāmasya palitasya hotuḥ (Rv. I, 164), addressed to the Viśvedevas, is multiform. This day also is multiform [123]. Thus the verse is fit for the day.
9. The hymn ā no bhadrāḥ kratavo yantu viśvataḥ (Rv. I, 89), addressed to the Viśvedevas, forms the Nividdhāna, taken from the Ekāha ceremonial, and therefore proper.
10. On that day much is done now and then which has to be hidden, and has to be atoned for. Atonement is rest, the one-day sacrifice. Therefore at the end of the year the sacrificers rest on this atonement as their rest. He who knows this rests firm, and they also for whom a Hotṛ priest who knows this, recites this hymn.
11. The hymn vaiśvānarāya dhishaṇām ṛtavṛdhe 199 (Rv. III, 2) forms the beginning of the Āgnimāruta. Dhishaṇā, thought, is verily the end, this day also is the end. Thus it is fit for the day.
12. The hymn prayajyavo maruto bhrājadṛshṭayaḥ (Rv. V, 55), addressed to the Maruts, is one in which many verses have the same ending. Verily, this day also is one in which many receive the same reward. Thus it is fit for the day [124].
13. He recites the verse jātavedase sunavāma somam (Rv. I, 99, 1), addressed to Jātavedas, before the (next following) hymn. That verse addressed to Jātavedas is verily welfare, and leads to welfare. Thus (by reciting it) he fares well [125].
14. The hymn imaṃ stomam arhate jātavedase (Rv. I, 94), addressed to Jātavedas, is one in which many verses have the same ending. Verily, this day also (the mahāvrata) is one in which many receive the same reward. Thus it is fit for the day, yea, it is fit for the day.
WITH the second Āraṇyaka the Upanishad begins. It comprises the second and third Āraṇyakas, and may be said to consist of three divisions, or three Upanishads. Their general title is Bahvṛca-upanishad, sometimes Mahaitareya-upanishad, while the Upanishad generally known as, Aitareya-upanishad comprises the 4th, 5th, and 6th adhyāyas only of the second Āraṇyaka.
The character of the three component portions of the Upanishad can best be described in Śaṅkara’s own words (Ār. III, 1, I, Introd. p. 306): ‘There are three classes of men who want to acquire knowledge. The highest consists of those who have turned away from the world, whose minds are fixed on one subject and collected, and who yearn to be free at once. For these a knowledge of Brahman is intended, as taught in the Ait. Ār. II, 4-6. The middle class are those who wish to become free gradually by attaining to the world of Hiraṇyagarbha. For them the knowledge and worship of Prāṇa (breath and life) is intended, as explained in the Ait. Ār. II, 1-3. The lowest class consists of those who do not care either for immediate or gradual freedom, but who desire nothing but offspring, cattle, &c. For these the meditative worship of the Saṃhitā is intended, as explained in the third Āraṇyaka. They cling too strongly to the letter of the sacred text to be able to surrender it for a knowledge either of Prāṇa (life) or of Brahman.’
The connexion between the Upanishad or rather the three Upanishads and the first Āraṇyaka seems at first sight very slight. Still we soon perceive that it would be impossible to understand the first Upanishad, without a previous knowledge of the Mahāvrata ceremony as described in the first Āraṇyaka.
On this point too there are some pertinent remarks in Śaṅkara’s commentary on the Āraṇyaka II, 1, 2. ‘Our first duty,’ he says, ‘consists in performing sacrifices, such as are described in the first portion of the Veda,, the Saṃhitās, Brāhmaṇas, and, to a certain extent, in the Āraṇyakas also. Afterwards arises a desire for knowledge, which cannot be satisfied except a man has first attained 201 complete concentration of thought (ēkāgratā). In order to acquire that concentration, the performance of certain upāsanas or meditations is enjoined, such as we find described in our Upanishad, viz. in Ār. II, I-V.’
This meditation or, as it is sometimes translated, worship is of two kinds, either brahmopāsana or pratīkopāsana. Brahmopāsana or meditation on Brahman consists in thinking of him as distinguished by certain qualities. Pratīkopāsana or meditation on symbols consists in looking upon certain worldly objects as if they were Brahman, in order thus to withdraw the mind from the too powerful influence of external objects.
These objects, thus lifted up into symbols of Brahman, are of two kinds, either connected with sacrifice or not. In our Upanishad we have to deal with the former class only, viz. with certain portions of the Mahāvrata, as described in the first Āraṇyaka. In order that the mind may not be entirely absorbed by the sacrifice, it is lifted up during the performance from the consideration of these sacrificial objects to a meditation on higher objects, leading up at last to Brahman as prāṇa or life.
This meditation is to be performed by the priests, and while they meditate they may meditate on a hymn or on a single word of it as meaning something else, such as the sun, the earth, or the sky, but not vice versā. And if in one Śākhā, as in that of the Aitareyins, for instance, a certain hymn has been symbolically explained, the same explanation may be adopted by another Śākhā also, such as that of the Kaushītakins. It is not necessary, however, that every part of the sacrifice should be accompanied by meditation, but it is left optional to the priest in what particular meditation he wishes to engage, nor is even the time of the sacrifice the only right time for him to engage in these meditations.
1. This is the path: this sacrifice, and this Brahman. This is the true [126].
4. This has been declared by a Ṛshi (Rv. VIII, 101, 14): ‘Three (classes of) people transgressed, others settled down round about the venerable (Agni, fire); the great (sun) stood in the midst of the worlds, the blowing (Vāyu, air) entered the Harits (the dawns, or the ends of the earth).’
5. When he says: ‘Three (classes of) people transgressed,’ the three (classes of) people who transgressed are what we see here (on earth, born again) as birds, trees, herbs, and serpents [127].
6. When he says: ‘Others settled down round about the venerable,’ he means those who now sit down to worship Agni (fire).
7. When he says: ‘The great stood in the midst of the worlds,’ the great one in the midst of the world is meant for this Āditya, the sun.
8. When he says: ‘The blowing entered the Harits,’ he means that Vāyu, the air, the purifier, entered all the corners of the earth [128].
1. People say: ‘Uktha, uktha,’ hymns, hymns! (without knowing what uktha, hymn [129], means.) The 203 hymn is truly (to be considered as) the earth, for from it all whatsoever exists arises.
2. The object of its praise is Agni (fire), and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food one obtains everything.
3. The hymn is truly the sky, for the birds fly along the sky, and men drive following the sky. The object of its praise is Vāyu (air), and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food one obtains everything.
4. The hymn is truly the heaven, for from its gift (rain) all whatsoever exists arises. The object of its praise is Āditya (the sun), and the eighty verses are food, for by means of food one obtains everything.
8. The object of its praise is speech, and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food he obtains everything.
10. The object of its praise is breath, and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food he obtains everything.
11. The slight bent (at the root) of the nose is, as it were, the place of the brilliant (Āditya, the sun).
12. The hymn is the forehead, as before in the case of heaven. The object of its praise is the eye, and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food he obtains everything.
13. The eighty verses (of the hymn) are alike food with reference to the gods as well as with reference to man. For all these beings breathe and live by means of food indeed. By food (given in alms, &c.) he conquers this world, by food (given in sacrifice) he conquers the other. Therefore the eighty verses (of the hymn) are alike food, with reference to the gods as well as with reference to man.
14. All this that is food, and all this that consumes food, is only the earth, for from the earth arises all whatever there is.
115. And all that goes hence (dies on earth), heaven consumes it all; and all that goes thence (returns from heaven to a new life) the earth consumes it all.
He also (the true worshipper who meditates on himself as being the uktha) is both consumer and consumed (subject and object [130]). No one possesses that which he does not eat, or the things which do not eat him [131].
1. Next follows the origin of seed. The seed of Prajāpati are the Devas (gods). The seed of the Devas is rain. The seed of rain are herbs. The seed of herbs is food. The seed of food is seed. The seed of seed are creatures. The seed of creatures is the heart. The seed of the heart is the mind. The seed of the mind is speech (Veda). The seed of speech is action (sacrifice). The action done (in a former state) is this man, the abode of Brahman.
2. He (man) consists of food (irā), and because he consists of food (irāmaya), he consists of gold (hiraṇmaya [132]). He who knows this becomes golden in the other world, and is seen as golden (as the sun) for the benefit of all beings.
1. Brahman (in the shape of prāṇa, breath) entered into that man by the tips of his feet, and because Brahman entered (prāpadyata) into that man by the tips of his feet, therefore people call them the tips of the feet (prapada), but hoofs and claws in other animals.
2. Then Brahman crept up higher, and therefore they were (called) [133] the thighs (ūrū).
5. The Śārkarākshyas meditate on the belly as Brahman, the Āruṇis on the heart [134]. Both (these places) are Brahman indeed [135].
6. But Brahman crept upwards and came to the head, and because he came to the head, therefore the head is called head [136].
9. These (five delights or senses) strove together, saying: ‘I am the uktha (hymn), I am the uktha [137].’ ‘Well,’ they said, ‘let us all go out from 207 this body; then on whose departure this body shall fall, he shall be the uktha among us [138].’
11. It was decayed, and because people said, it decayed, therefore it was (called) body (śarīra). That is the reason of its name.
12. If a man knows this, then the evil enemy who hates him decays, or the evil enemy who hates him is defeated.
13. They strove again, saying: ‘I am the uktha, I am the uktha.’ ‘Well,’ they said, ‘let us enter that body again; then on whose entrance this body shall rise again, he shall be the uktha among us.’
14. Speech entered, but the body lay still. Sight entered, but the body lay still. Hearing entered, but the body lay still. Mind entered, but the body lay still. Breath entered, and when breath had entered, the body rose, and it became the uktha.
17. The Devas (the other senses) said to breath: ‘Thou art the uktha, thou art all this, we are thine, thou art ours.’ 208 18. This has also been said by a Ṛshi (Rv. VIII, 92, 32): ‘Thou art ours, we are thine.’
Then the Devas carried him (the breath) forth, and being carried forth, he was stretched out, and when people said, ‘He was stretched out,’ then it was in the morning; when they said, ‘He is gone to rest,’ then it was in the evening. Day, therefore, is the breathing up, night the breathing down [139].
2. Speech is Agni, sight that Āditya (sun), mind the moon, hearing the Diś (quarters): this is the prahitāṃ saṃyoga [140], the union of the deities as sent forth. These deities (Agni, &c.) are thus in the body, but their (phenomenal) appearance yonder is among the deities—this was intended.
3. And Hiraṇyadat Vaida also, who knew this (and who by his knowledge had become Hiraṇyagarbha or the universal spirit), said: ‘Whatever they do not give to me, they do not possess themselves.’ I know the prahitāṃ saṃyoga, the union of the deities, as entered into the body [141]. This is it.
5. That breath is (to be called) sattya (the true), for sat is breath, ti is food, yam is the sun [142]. This is threefold, and threefold the eye also may be called, it being white, dark, and the pupil. He who knows why true is true (why sattya is sattya), even if he should speak falsely, yet what he says is true.
1. Speech is his (the breath’s) rope, the names the knots [143]. Thus by his speech as by a rope, and by his names as by knots, all this is bound. For all this are names indeed, and with speech he calls everything.
3. Of the body of the breath thus meditated on, the Ushṇih verse forms the hairs, the Gāyatrī the skin, the Trishṭubh the flesh, the Anushṭubh the muscles, the Jagatī the bone, the Paṅkti the marrow, the Bṛhatī the breath [144] (prāṇa). He is covered with the verses (khaṇḍas, metres). Because he is thus covered with verses, therefore they call them khaṇḍas (coverings, metres).
4. If a man knows the reason why khaṇḍas are called khaṇḍas, the verses cover him in whatever place he likes against any evil deed.
6. ‘I saw (the breath) as a guardian, never tiring, coming and going on his ways (the arteries). That breath (in the body, being identified with the sun among the Devas), illuminating the principal and intermediate quarters of the sky, is returning constantly in the midst of the worlds.’
9. He says: ‘Illuminating the principal and intermediate,’ because he illuminates these only, the principal and intermediate quarters of the sky.
10. He says. ‘He is returning constantly in the midst of the worlds,’ because he returns indeed constantly in the midst of the worlds.
11. And then, there is another verse (Rv. I, 55, 81): ‘They are covered like caves by those who make them,’
13. This ether is supported by breath as Bṛhatī, and as this ether is supported by breath as Bṛhatī, so one should know that all things, not excepting ants, are supported by breath as Bṛhatī.
1. Next follow the powers of that Person [145].
2. By his speech earth and fire were created. 211 Herbs are produced on the earth, and Agni (fire) makes them ripe and sweet. ‘Take this, take this,’ thus saying do earth and fire serve their parent, speech.
3. As far as the earth reaches, as far as fire reaches, so far does his world extend, and as long as the world of the earth and fire does not decay, so long does his world not decay who thus knows this power of speech.
4. By breath (in the nose) the sky and the air were created. People follow the sky, and hear along the sky, while the air carries along pure scent. Thus do sky and air serve their parent, the breath.
As far as the sky reaches, as far as the air reaches, so far does his world extend, and as long as the world of the sky and the air does not decay, so long does his world not decay who thus knows this power of breath.
5. By his eye heaven and the sun were created. Heaven gives him rain and food, while the sun causes his light to shine. Thus do the heaven and the sun serve their parent, the eye.
As far as heaven reaches and as far as the sun reaches, so far does his world extend, and as long as the world of heaven and the sun does not decay, so long does his world not decay who thus knows the power of the eye.
6. By his ear the quarters and the moon were created. From all the quarters they come to him, and from all the quarters he hears, while the moon produces for him the bright and the dark halves for the sake of sacrificial work. Thus do the quarters and the moon serve their parent, the ear.
As far as the quarters reach and as far as the 212 moon reaches, so far does his world extend, and as long as the world of the quarters and the moon does not decay, so long does his world not decay who thus knows the power of the ear.
7. By his mind the water and Varuṇa were created. Water yields to him faith (being used for sacred acts), Varuṇa keeps his offspring within the law. Thus do water and Varuṇa serve their parent, the mind.
As far as water reaches and as far as Varuṇa reaches, so far does his world extend, and as long as the world of water and Varuṇa does not decay, so long does his world not decay who thus knows the power of the mind.
1. Was it water really? Was it water? Yes, all this was water indeed. This (water) was the root (cause), that (the world) was the shoot (effect). He (the person) is the father, they (earth, fire, &c.) are the sons. Whatever there is belonging to the son, belongs to the father; whatever there is belonging to the father, belongs to the son. This was intended [147].
2. Mahidāsa Aitareya, who knew this, said: ‘I know myself (reaching) as far as the gods, and I know the gods (reaching) as far as me. For these 213 gods receive their gifts from hence, and are supported from hence.’
3. This is the mountain [148], viz. eye, ear, mind, speech, and breath. They call it the mountain of Brahman.
4. He who knows this, throws down the evil enemy who hates him; the evil enemy who hates him is defeated.
5. He (the Prāṇa, identified with Brahman) is the life, the breath; he is being (while the jīvātman remains), and not-being (when the jīvātman departs).
6. The Devas (speech, &c.) worshipped him (prāṇa) as Bhūti or being, and thus they became great beings. And therefore even now a man who sleeps, breathes like bhūrbhuḥ.
11. ‘Downwards and upwards he (the wind of the breath) goes, held by food;’—for this up-breathing, being held back by the down-breathing, does not move forward (and leave the body altogether).
12. ‘The immortal dwells with the mortal;’—for through him (the breath) all this dwells together, the bodies being clearly mortal, but this being (the breath), being immortal.
13. ‘These two (body and breath) go for ever in different directions (the breath moving the senses of the body, the body supporting the senses of the breath: the former going upwards to another world, the body dying and remaining on earth). They increase the one (the body), but they do not increase the other,’ i. e. they increase these bodies (by food), but this being (breath) is immortal.
14. He who knows this becomes immortal in that world (having become united with Hiraṇyagarbha), and is seen as immortal (in the sun) by all beings, yea, by all beings.
1. He (the sun), who shines, honoured this world (the body of the worshipper, by entering into it), in the form of man [150] (the worshipper who meditates on breath). For he who shines (the sun) is (the same as) the breath. He honoured this (body of the worshipper) during a hundred years, therefore there are a hundred years in the life of a man. Because he honoured him during a hundred years, therefore there are (the poets of the first Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) the Satarcin, (having honour for a 215 hundred years.) Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), the Satarcin poets [151].
2. He (breath) placed himself in the midst of all whatsoever exists. Because he placed himself in the midst of all whatsoever exists, therefore there are (the poets of the second to the ninth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) the Mādhyamas. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), the Mādhyama poets.
3. He as up-breathing is the swallower (gṛtsa), as down-breathing he is delight (mada). Because as up-breathing he is swallower (gṛtsa) and as down-breathing delight (mada), therefore there is (the poet of the second Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Gṛtsamada. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Gritsamada.
4. Of him. (breath) all this whatsoever was a friend. Because of him all (viśvam) this whatsoever was a friend (mitram), therefore there is (the poet of the third Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Viśvāmitra. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Viśvāmitra.
5. The Devas (speech, &c.) said to him (the breath): ‘He is to be loved by all of us.’ Because the Devas said of him, that he was to be loved (vāma) by all of them, therefore there is (the poet of the fourth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Vāmadeva. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Vāmadeva.
6. He (breath) guarded all this whatsoever from evil. Because he guarded (atrāyata) all this whatsoever 216 from evil, therefore there are (the poets of the fifth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Atrayaḥ. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Atrayaḥ.
1. He (breath) is likewise a Bibhradvāga (bringer of offspring). Offspring is vāja, and he (breath) supports offspring. Because he supports it, therefore there is (the poet of the sixth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Bharadvāga. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Bharadvāga.
2. The Devas (speech, &c.) said to him: ‘He it is who chiefly causes us to dwell on earth.’ Because the Devas said of him, that he chiefly caused them to dwell on earth, therefore there is (the poet of the seventh Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) Vasishṭha. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Vasishṭha [152].
3. He (breath) went forth towards [153] all this whatsoever. Because he went forth toward all this whatsoever, therefore there are (the poets of the eighth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) the Pragāthas. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), the Pragāthas.
4. He (breath) purified all this whatsoever. Because he purified all this whatsoever, therefore there 217 are (the hymns and also the poets [154] of the ninth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) the Pavamānīs. Therefore people called him who is really Prāṇa (breath), the Pavamānīs.
5. He (breath) said: ‘Let me be everything whatsoever, small (kshudra) and great (mahat), and this became the Kshudrasūktas and Mahāsūktas.’ Therefore there were (the hymns and also the poets of the tenth Maṇḍala of the Rig-veda, called) the Kshudrasūktas (and Mahāsūktas). Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), the Kshudrasūktas (and Mahāsūktas).
6. He (breath) said once: ‘You have said what is well said (su-ukta) indeed. This became a Sūkta (hymn).’ Therefore there was the Sūkta. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Sūkta [155].
7. He (breath) is a Ṛc (verse), for he did honour [156] to all beings (by entering into them). Because he did honour to all beings, therefore there was the Ṛc verse. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Ṛc.
8. He (breath) is an Ardharca (half-verse), for he did honour to all places (ardha) [157]. Because he did honour to all places, therefore there was the Ardharca. Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Ardharca.
9. He (breath) is a Pada (word) [158], for he got into all these beings. Because he got (pādi) into all these beings, therefore there was the Pada (word). Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Pada.
10. He (breath) is an Akshara (syllable), for he pours out (ksharati) gifts to all these beings, and without him no one can pour out (atiksharati) gifts. Therefore there was the Akshara (syllable). Therefore people call him who is really Prāṇa (breath), Akshara [159].
11. Thus all these Ṛc verses, all Vedas, all sounds [160] are one word, viz. Prāṇa (breath). Let him know that Prāṇa is all Ṛc verses.
1. While Viśvāmitra was going to repeat the hymns of this day (the mahāvrata), Indra sat down near him [161]. Viśvāmitra (guessing that Indra wanted food) said to him, ‘This (the verses of the hymn) is food,’ and repeated the thousand Bṛhatī verses [162] 219 By means of this he went to the delightful home of Indra (Svarga).
2. Indra said to him: ‘Ṛshi, thou hast come to my delightful home. Ṛshi, repeat a second hymn [163].’ Viśvāmitra (guessing that Indra wanted food) said to him, ‘This (the verses of the hymn) is food,’ and repeated the thousand Bṛhatī verses. By means of this he went to the delightful home of Indra (Svarga).
3. Indra said to him: ‘Ṛshi, thou hast come to my delightful home. Ṛshi, repeat a third hymn.’ Viśvāmitra (guessing that Indra wanted food) said to him, ‘This (the verses of the hymn) is food,’ and repeated the thousand Bṛhatī verses. By means of this he went to the delightful home of Indra (Svarga).
4. Indra said to him: ‘Ṛshi, thou hast come to my delightful home. I grant thee a boon.’ Viśvāmitra said: ‘May I know thee.’ Indra said: ‘I am Prāṇa (breath), O Ṛshi, thou art Prāṇa, all things are Prāṇa. For it is Prāṇa who shines as the sun, and I here pervade all regions under that form. This food of mine (the hymn) is my friend and my support (dakshiṇa). This is the food prepared by Visvāmitra. I am verily he who shines (the sun).’
1. This then becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatī verses. Its consonants [164] form its body, its voice [165] (vowels) the Soul [166], its sibilants [167] the air of the breath.
2. He who knew this became Vasishṭha, he took this name from thence [168].
3. Indra verily declared this to Viśvāmitra, and Indra verily declared this to Bharadvāga. Therefore Indra is invoked by him as a friend [169].
4. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatī verses [170], and of that hymn perfect with a thousand Brihad verses, there are 36,000 syllables [171]. So many are also the thousands of days of a hundred years (36,000). With the consonants they fill the nights, with the vowels the days.
5. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatī verses. He who knows this, after this thousand of Bṛhatīs thus accomplished, becomes full of knowledge, full of the gods, full of Brahman, full of the immortal, and then goes also to the gods.
1. He who knows himself as the fivefold hymn (uktha), the emblem of Prāṇa (breath), from whence all this springs [173], he is clever. These five are the earth, air, ether, water, and fire (jyotis). This is the self, the fivefold uktha. For from him all this springs, and into him it enters again (at the dissolution of the world). He who knows this, becomes the refuge of his friends.
2. And to him who knows the food (object) and the feeder (subject) in that uktha, a strong son is born, and food is never wanting. Water and earth are food, for all food consists of these two. Fire and air are the feeder, for by means of them [174] man eats all food. Ether is the bowl, for all this is poured into the ether. He who knows this, becomes the bowl or support of his friends.
3. To him who knows the food and the feeder in that uktha, a strong son is born, and food is never wanting. Herbs and trees are food, animals the feeder, for animals eat herbs and trees.
4. Of them again those who have teeth above 222 and below, shaped after the likeness of man, are feeders, the other animals are food. Therefore these overcome the other animals, for the eater is over the food.
1. He who knows the gradual development of the self in him (the man conceived as the uktha), obtains himself more development.
2. There are herbs and trees and all that is animated, and he knows the self gradually developing in them. For in herbs and trees sap only is seen [176], but thought (citta) in animated beings.
Among animated beings again the self develops gradually, for in some sap (blood) is seen (as well as thought), but in others thought is not seen.
4. And in man again the self develops gradually, for he is most endowed with knowledge. He says what he has known, he sees what he has known [177]. He knows what is to happen to-morrow, he knows heaven and hell. By means of the mortal he desires the immortal—thus is he endowed.
5. With regard to the other animals hunger and thirst only are a kind of understanding. But they do not say what they have known, nor do they see 223 what they have known. They do not know what is to happen to-morrow, nor heaven and hell. They go so far and no further, for they are born according to their knowledge (in a former life).
1. That man (conceived as uktha) is the sea, rising beyond the whole world [178]. Whatever he reaches, he wishes to go beyond [179]. If he reaches the sky, he wishes to go beyond.
3. That man is fivefold. The heat in him is fire; the apertures (of the senses) are ether; blood, mucus, and seed are water; the body is earth; breath is air.
4. That air is fivefold, viz. up-breathing, down-breathing, back-breathing, out-breathing, on-breathing. The other powers (devatās), viz. sight, hearing, mind, and speech, are comprised under up-breathing and down-breathing. For when breath departs, they also depart with it.
5. That man (conceived as uktha) is the sacrifice, which is a succession now of speech and now of thought. That sacrifice is fivefold, viz. the Agnihotra, the new and full moon sacrifices, the four-monthly sacrifices, the animal sacrifice, the Soma sacrifice. The Soma sacrifice is the most perfect of sacrifices, for in it these five kinds of ceremonies are seen: the first which precedes the libations (the Dīkshā, &c.), then three libations, and what follows (the Avabhṛtha, &c.) is the fifth.
1. He who knows one sacrifice above another, one day above another, one deity above the others, he is clever. Now this great uktha (the nishkevalya-śastra) is the sacrifice above another, the day above another, the deity above others [180].
2. This uktha is fivefold. With regard to its being performed as a Stoma (chorus), it is Trivṛt, Pañcadaśa, Saptadaśa, Ekaviṃsa, and Pañcaviṃsa. With regard to its being performed as a Sāman (song), it is Gāyatra, Rathantara, Bṛhat, Bhadra, and Rāgana. With regard to metre, it is Gāyatrī, Ushṇih, Bṛhatī, Trishṭubh, and Dvipadā. And the explanation (given before in the Āraṇyaka) is that it is the head, the right wing, the left wing, the tail, and the body of the bird [181].
in each hymn. This, is the first round. He then sings the three middle verses in each hymn. This is the second round. He lastly sings the last three verses in each hymn. This is the third round. This song is called Udyatī.
The Pañcadaśa stoma is formed out of one Sūkta only, consisting of three verses. In the first round he sings the first verse 225 three times, the second and third once. In the second round he sings the middle verse three times, in the third round he sings the last verse three times. This song is called Vishṭuti.
The Saptadasa stoma is formed in the same manner, only that in the first round he sings the first verse three times, in the second the middle verse three times, in the third round the middle and last verses three times. This song is called Daśasapta.
The Ekaviṃsa stoma is formed in the same manner, only that in the first round he sings the last verse once, in the second the first verse once, in the third the middle verse once, while the other verses are each repeated three times. This song is called Saptasaptinī.
The Pañcaviṃśa stoma is formed in the same manner, only that in the first round he sings the first verse three times, the second four times, the last once; in the second round the first once, the second three times, the third four times; in the third round the first five times, the second once, the last three times; or he sings in the third round the first verse four times, the second twice, the last three times.
Sāyaṇa in his commentary on the Ait. Ār. takes the Trivṛt stoma to be formed out of three hymns, each consisting of three verses, while he says that the other stomas are formed out of one hymn only. B. and R., sv. trivṛt, state that this stoma consists of verses 1, 4, 7; 2, 5, 8; and 3, 6, 9 of the Rig-veda hymn IX, 11, but, according to Sāyaṇa, the stoma consists (1) of the first verses of the three Sūktas, upāsmai gāyata, davidyutatyā, and pavamānasya at the beginning of the Sāma-veda-Uttarārcika, (2) of the second, (3) Of the third verses of the same three hymns. Mahīdhāra (Yv. X, 9) takes the same view, though the MSS. seem to have left out the description of the second paryāya, while Sāyaṇa in his commentary to the Tāṇḍya-brāhmaṇa seems to support the opinion of B. and R. There is an omission, however, in the printed text of the commentary, which makes it difficult to see the exact meaning of Sāyaṇa.
The Pañcadaśa stoma is well described by Sāyaṇa, Tāṇḍya Br. II, 4. Taking the Sūkta agna ā yāhi (Uttarārcika I, 1, 4 = Rv. VI, 16, 10-12), he shows the stoma to consist of (1) verse 1 × 3, 2, 3 (2) verse 1, 2 × 3, 3; (3) verse 1, 2, 3 × 3.
The five Sāmans are explained by the commentator. The 226 Gāyatra is formed out of the Ṛc (III, 62, 10) tat savitur vareṇyam. The Rathantara is formed out of the Ṛc (VII, 32, 22) abhi tvā śūra nonuma. The Bṛhat is formed out of the Ṛc (VI, 46, 1) tvām id dhi havāmahe. The Bhadra is formed out of the Ṛc (X, 57, 1) imā nu kam. The Rājana is formed out of the Ṛc (VII, 27, 1) indram naro nemadhitā.
In identifying certain portions of the Nishkevalya hymn with a bird, the head of the bird corresponds to the hymns indram id gāthinaḥ, &c.; the right wing to the hymns abhi tvā śūra, &c.; the left wing to the hymns tvām id dhi, &c.; the tail to the hymns imā nu kam, &c.; the body to the hymns tad id āsa, &c. All this was explained in the first Āraṇyaka.
3. He performs the Prastāva in five ways, he performs the Udgītha in five ways, he performs the 226 Pratihāra in five ways, he performs the Upadrava in five ways, he performs the Nidhana in five ways [182]. All this together forms one thousand Stobhas, or musical syllables [183].
4. Thus also are the Ṛc verses, contained in the Nishkevalya, recited (by the Hotṛ) in five orders. What precedes the eighty tṛcas, that is one order, then follow the three sets of eighty tṛcas each, and what comes after is the fifth order [184].
5. This (the hymns of this Sastra) as a whole (if properly counted with the Stobha syllables) comes to one thousand (of Bṛhatī verses). That (thousand) is the whole, and ten, ten is called the whole. For number is such (measured by ten). Ten tens are a hundred, ten hundreds are a thousand, and that is the whole. These are the three metres (the tens, pervading everything). And this food also (the three sets of hymns being represented as food) is threefold, eating, drinking, and chewing. He obtains that food by those (three numbers, ten, hundred, and thousand, or by the three sets of eighty tṛcas).
2. Some teachers (belonging to a different Sākhā) recognise a thousand of different metres (not of Bṛhatīs only). They say: ‘Is another thousand (a thousand of other verses) good? Let us say it is good.’
3. Some say, a thousand of Trishṭubh verses, others a thousand of Jagatī verses, others a thousand of Anushṭubh verses.
5. ‘Poets through their understanding discovered Indra dancing an Anushṭubh.’ This is meant to say: They discovered (and meditated) in speech (called Anushṭubh)—at that time (when they worshipped 228 the uktha)—the Prāṇa (breath) connected with Indra.
7. No! he says; rather is such a man liable to die before his time. For that self (consisting of Anushṭubhs) is incomplete. For if a man confines himself to speech, not to breath, then driven by his mind, he does not succeed with speech [185].
9. That self (jīvātman) is surrounded on all sides by members. And as that self is on all sides surrounded by members, the Bṛhatī also is on all sides surrounded by metres [186].
10. For the self (in the heart) is the middle of these members, and the Bṛhatī is the middle of the metres.
11. ‘He is able to become celebrated and of good 229 report, but (the other) able to die before his time,’ thus he said. For the Bṛhatī is the complete self, therefore let him work towards the Bṛhatī (let him reckon the śastra recitation as a thousand Bṛhatīs).
1. This (nishkevalya-śastra) becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatī verses. In this thousand of Bṛhatīs there are one thousand one hundred and twenty-five Anushṭubhs. For the smaller is contained in the larger.
4. ‘Of nine corners;’—because the Bṛhatī becomes nine-cornered (having nine feet of four syllables each).
5. ‘Touching the truth;’—because speech (Anushṭubh) is truth, touched by the verse (Bṛhatī) [187].
6. 'He (the Hotṛ) makes the body out of Indra;—'for out of this thousand of Bṛhatī verses turned into Anushṭubhs, and therefore out of Prāṇa as connected with Indra [188], and out of the Bṛhatī (which is Prāṇa), he makes speech, that is Anushṭubh, as a body [189].
7. This Mahaduktha is the highest development 230 of speech, and it is fivefold, viz. measured, not measured, music, true, and untrue.
8. A Ṛc verse, a gāthā [190], a kumbyā [191] are measured (metrical). A Yajus line, an invocation, and general remarks [192], these are not measured (they are in prose). A Sāman, or any portion (parvan) of it, is music. Om is true, Na is untrue.
9. What is true (Om) is the flower and fruit of speech. He is able to become celebrated and of good report, for he speaks the true (Om), the flower and fruit of speech.
10. Now the untrue is the root [193] of speech, and as a tree whose root is exposed dries up and perishes, thus a man who says what is untrue exposes his root, dries up and perishes. Therefore one should not say what is untrue, but guard oneself from it.
11. That syllable Om (yes) goes forward (to the first cause of the world) and is empty. Therefore if a man says Om (yes) to everything, then that (which he gives away) is wanting to him here [194]. If he says Om (yes) to everything, then he would empty himself, and would not be capable of any enjoyments.
12. That syllable Na (no) is full for oneself [195]. If a man says No to everything, then his reputation 231 would become evil, and that would ruin him even here.
13. Therefore let a man give at the proper time only, not at the wrong time. Thus he unites the true and the untrue, and from the union of those two he grows, and becomes greater and greater.
14. He who knows this speech of which this (the mahaduktha) is a development, he is clever. A is the whole of speech, and manifested through different kinds of contact (mutes) and of wind (sibilants), it becomes manifold and different.
15. Speech if uttered in a whisper is breath, if spoken aloud, it is body. Therefore (if whispered) it is almost hidden, for what is incorporeal is almost hidden, and breath is incorporeal. But if spoken aloud, it is body, and therefore it is perceptible, for body is perceptible.
1. This (nishkevalya-śastra) becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatīs. It is glory (the glorious Brahman, not the absolute Brahman), it is Indra. Indra is the lord of all beings. He who thus knows Indra as the lord of all beings, departs from this world by loosening the bonds of life [196]—so said Mahidāsa Aitareya. Having departed he becomes Indra (or Hiraṇyagarbha) and shines in those worlds [197].
2. And with regard to this they say: ‘If a man obtains the other world in this form (by meditating on the prāṇa, breath, which is the uktha, the hymn of the mahāvrata), then in what form does he obtain this world [198]?’
3. Here the blood of the woman is a form of Agni (fire); therefore no one should despise it. And the seed of the man is a form of Āditya (sun); therefore no one should despise it. This self (the woman) gives her self (skin, blood, and flesh) to that self (fat, bone, and marrow), and that self (man) gives his self (fat, bone, and marrow) to this self (skin, blood, and flesh). Thus [199] these two grow together. In this form (belonging to the woman and to fire) he goes to that world (belonging to the man and the sun), and in that form (belonging to man and the sun) he goes to this world (belonging to the woman and to fire [200]).
2. The fivefold body into which the indestructible (prāṇa, breath) enters, that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true (the highest Brahman) follows after, in that body (of the worshipper) all gods [201] become one.
3. That body into which goes the indestructible (the breath) which we have joined (in meditation), proceeding from the indestructible (the highest Brahman), that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true follows after, in that body all gods become one.
4. After separating themselves from the Yes and No of language, and of all that is hard and cruel, poets have discovered (what they sought for); dependent on names they rejoiced in what had been revealed [202].
5. That in which the poets rejoiced (the revealed nature of prāṇa, breath), in it the gods exist all joined together. Having driven away evil by means of that Brahman (which is hidden in prāṇa), the enlightened man goes to the Svarga world (becomes one with Hiraṇyagarbha [203], the universal spirit).
6. No one wishing to describe him (prāṇa, breath) by speech, describes him by calling him ‘woman,’ ‘neither woman nor man,’ or ‘man’ (all such names applying only to the material body, and not to prāṇa or breath).
7. Brahman (as hidden beneath prāṇa) is called the A; and the I (ego) is gone there (the worshipper should know that he is uktha and prāṇa).
8. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Bṛhatī verses, and of that hymn, perfect with a thousand Brihad verses, there are 36,000 syllables. So many are also the thousands of days of human life [204]. By means of the syllable of life (the a) alone (which is contained in that thousand of hymns) does a man obtain the day of life (the mahāvrata day, which completes the number of the days in the Gavāmayana, sacrifice), and by means of the day of life (he obtains) the syllable of life.
9. Now there is a chariot of the god (prāṇa) destroying all desires (for the worlds of Indra, the moon, the earth, all of which lie below the place of Hiraṇyagarbha). Its front part (the point of the two shafts of the carriage where the yoke is fastened) is speech, its wheels the cars, the horses the eyes, the driver the mind. Prāṇa (breath) mounts that chariot (and on it, i. e. by means of meditating on Prāṇa, he reaches Hiraṇyagarbha).
11. ‘Come hither on that which is quicker than mind,’ and (Rv. VIII, 73, 2) ‘Come hither on that which is quicker than the twinkling of an eye,’ yea, the twinkling of an eye [205].
With this adhyāya begins the real Upanishad, best known under the name of the Aitareya-upanishad, and often separately edited, commented on, and translated. If treated separately, what we call the fourth adhyāya of the second Āraṇyaka, becomes the first adhyāya of the Upanishad, sometimes also, by counting all adhyāya from the beginning of the Aitareya-āranyaka, the ninth. The divisions adopted by Sāyaṇa, who explains the Upanishad as part of the Āraṇyaka, and by Śaṅkara, who explains it independently, vary, though Sāyaṇa states that he follows in his commentary on the Upanishad the earlier commentary of Śaṅkara. I have given the divisions adopted by Sāyaṇa, and have marked those of Śaṅkara’s by figures in parentheses, placed at the end of each paragraph. The difference between this Upanishad and the three preceding adhyāyas is easily perceived. Hitherto the answer to the question, Whence this world? had been, From Prāṇa, prāṇa meaning breath and life, which was looked upon for a time as a sufficient explanation of all that is. From a psychological point of view this prāṇa is the conscious self (prajñātman); in a more mythological form it appears as Hiraṇyagarbha, ‘the golden germ,’ sometimes even as Indra. It is one of the chief objects of the prāṇavidyā, or life-knowledge, to show that the living principle in us is the same as the living principle in the sun, and that by a recognition of their identity and of the true nature of prāṇa, the devotee, or he who has rightly meditated on prāṇa during his life, enters after death into the world of Hiraṇyagarbha.
This is well expressed in the Kaushītaki-upanishad III, 2, where Indra says to Pratardana: ‘I am Prāṇa; meditate on me as the conscious self (prajñātman), as life, as immortality. Life is prāṇa, prāṇa is life. Immortality is prāṇa, prāṇa is immortality. By prāṇa he obtains immortality in the other world, by knowledge (prajñā) true conception. Prāṇa is consciousness (prajñā), consciousness is prāṇa.’
This, however, though it may have satisfied the mind of the Brahmans for a time, was not a final solution. That final solution of the problem not simply of life, but of existence, is given in the Upanishad which teaches that Ātman, the Self, and not Prāṇa, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this 237 doctrine is laid down in all its simplicity. Our true self, it is said, has its true being in the Highest Self only. In other passages, however, and nearly in the whole of this Upanishad, this simple doctrine is mixed up with much that is mythological, fanciful, and absurd, arthavāda, as the commentators call it, but as it might often be more truly called, anarthavāda, and it is only towards the end that the identity of the self-conscious self with the Highest Self or Brahman is clearly enuntiated.
1. Verily, in the beginning [206] all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking [207] whatsoever.
4. That Ambhas (water) is above the heaven, and it is heaven, the support. The Marīcis (the lights) are the sky. The Mara (mortal) is the earth, and the waters under the earth are the Ap world [208]. (2) 238 5. He thought: ‘There are these worlds; shall I send forth guardians of the worlds?’
6. He brooded on him [211], and when that person had thus been brooded on, a mouth burst forth [212] like an egg. From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) [213].
Nostrils burst forth. From the nostrils proceeded scent (prāṇa) [214], from scent Vāyu (air).
The navel burst forth. From the navel proceeded the Apāna (the down-breathing) [215], from Apāna death.
1. Those deities (devatā), Agni and the rest, after they had been sent forth, fell into this great ocean [216].
2. The deities then (tormented by hunger and thirst) spoke to him (the Self): ‘Allow us a place in which we may rest and eat food [217].’ (1)
He led a cow towards them (the deities). They said: ‘This is not enough.’ He led a horse towards them. They said: ‘This is not enough.’ (2)
He led man [218] towards them. Then they said: ‘Well done [219], indeed.’ Therefore man is well done.
4. Then Agni (fire), having become speech, entered the mouth. Vāyu (air), having become scent, entered the nostrils. Āditya (sun), having become sight, entered the eyes. The Diś (regions), having become hearing, entered the ears. The shrubs and trees, having become hairs, entered the skin. Candramas (the moon), having become mind, entered 240 the heart. Death, having become down-breathing, entered the navel. The waters, having become seed, entered the generative organ. (4)
5. Then Hunger and Thirst spoke to him (the Self): ‘Allow us two (a place).’ He said to them: ‘I assign you to those very deities there, I make you co-partners with them.’ Therefore to whatever deity an oblation is offered, hunger and thirst are co-partners in it. (5)
1. He thought: ‘There are these worlds and the guardians of the worlds. Let me send forth food for them.’ (1)
He brooded over the water [220]. From the water thus brooded on, matter [221] (mūrti) was born. And that matter which was born, that verily was food [222]. (2)
2. When this food (the object matter) had thus been sent forth, it wished to flee [223], crying and turning away. He (the subject) tried to grasp it by speech. He could not grasp it by speech. If he had grasped it by speech, man would be satisfied by naming food. (3)
He tried to grasp it by scent (breath). He could not grasp it by scent. If he had grasped it by scent, man would be satisfied by smelling food. (4)
He tried to grasp it by the eye. He could not 241 grasp it by the eye. If he had grasped it by the eye, man would be satisfied by seeing food. (5)
He tried to grasp it by the ear. He could not grasp it by the ear. If he had grasped it by the ear, man would be satisfied by hearing food. (6)
He tried to grasp it by the skin. He could not grasp it by the skin. If he had grasped it by the skin, man would be satisfied by touching food. (7)
He tried to grasp it by the mind. He could not grasp it by the mind. If he had grasped it by the mind, man would be satisfied by thinking food. (8)
He tried to grasp it by the generative organ. He could not grasp it by the organ. If he had grasped it by the organ, man would be satisfied by sending forth food. (9)
He tried to grasp it by the down-breathing (the breath which helps to swallow food through the mouth and to carry it off through the rectum, the pāyvindriya). He got it.
3. Thus it is Vāyu (the getter [224]) who lays hold of food, and the Vāyu is verily Annāyu (he who gives life or who lives by food). (10)
5. And then he thought: ‘By what way shall I get there [225]?’
6. And then he thought: ‘If speech names, if scent smells, if the eye sees, if the ear hears, if the skin feels, if the mind thinks, if the off-breathing digests, if the organ sends forth, then what am I?’ (11) 242 7. Then opening the suture of the skull, he got in by that door.
9. There are three dwelling-places for him, three dreams; this dwelling-place (the eye), this dwelling-place (the throat), this dwelling-place (the heart) [226]. (12)
10. When born (when the Highest Self had entered the body) he looked through all things, in order to see whether anything wished to proclaim here another (Self). He saw this person only (himself) as the widely spread Brahman. ‘I saw it,’ thus he said [227]; (13)
11. Being Idaṃdra by name, they call him Indra mysteriously. For the Devas love mystery, yea, they love mystery. (14)
1. Let the women who are with child move away [228]!
3. This (seed), which is strength gathered from all the limbs of the body, he (the man) bears as self in his self (body). When he commits the seed to the woman, then he (the father) causes it to be born. That is his first birth. (1)
4. That seed becomes the self of the woman, as 244 if one of her own limbs. Therefore it does not injure her.
5. She nourishes his (her husband’s) self (the son) within her. (2) She who nourishes, is to be nourished.
6. The woman bears the germ. He (the father) elevates the child even before the birth, and immediately after [229].
7. When he thus elevates the child both before and after his birth, he really elevates his own self,
10. He (the son), being his self, is then placed in his stead for (the performance of) all good works.
11. But his other self (the father), having done all he has to do, and having reached the full measure of his life, departs.
14. ‘While dwelling in the womb, I discovered all the births of these Devas. A hundred iron strongholds kept me, but I escaped quickly down like a falcon.’
And having this knowledge he stepped forth, after this dissolution of the body, and having obtained all his desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal. (6)
3. That by which we see (form), that by which we hear (sound), that by which we perceive smells, that by which we utter speech, that by which we distinguish sweet and not sweet, (1) and what comes from the heart and the mind, namely, perception, command, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, seeing, holding, thinking, considering, readiness (or suffering), remembering, conceiving, willing, breathing, loving, desiring?
5. And that Self, consisting of (knowledge), is Brahman (m.) [232], it is Indra, it is Prajāpati [233]. All these Devas, these five great elements, earth, air, ether, water, fire, these and those which are, as it were, small and mixed [234], and seeds of this kind and that kind, born from eggs, born from the womb., born from heat, born from germs [235], horses, cows, men, elephants, and whatsoever breathes, whether walking or flying, and what is immoveable—all that is led (produced) by knowledge (the Self).
6. It rests on knowledge (the Self). The world 246 is led (produced) by knowledge (the Self). Knowledge is its cause [236].
8. He (Vāmadeva), having by this conscious self stepped forth from this world, and having obtained all desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal. Thus it is, Om. (4)
1. My speech rests in the mind, my mind rests in speech [238]. Appear to me (thou, the Highest Self)! You (speech and mind) are the two pins [239] (that hold the wheels) of the Veda. May what I have learnt not forsake me [240]. I join day and night with what I have learnt [241]. I shall speak of the real, I shall speak the true. May this protect me, may this protect the teacher! May it protect me, may it protect the teacher, yea, the teacher!
1. Next follows the Upanishad of the Saṃhitā [243].
2. The former half is the earth, the latter half the heaven, their union the air [244], thus says Māṇḍukeya; their union is the ether, thus did Mākshavya teach it.
3. That air is not considered [245] independent [246], therefore I do not agree with his (Mandūka’s) son.
4. Verily, the two are the same, therefore air is 248 considered independent, thus says Āgastya. For it is the same, whether they say air or ether [247].
5. So far with reference to deities (mythologically); now with reference to the body (physiologically):
6. The former half is speech, the latter half is mind, their union breath (prāṇa), thus says Śūravīra [248] Māṇḍukeya.
7. But his eldest son said: The former half is mind, the latter half speech. For we first conceive with the mind indeed [249], and then we utter with speech. Therefore the former half is indeed mind, the latter half speech, but their union is really breath.
8. Verily, it is the same with both, the father (Māṇḍukeya) and the son [250].
9. This (meditation as here described), joined [251] with mind, speech, and breath, is (like) a chariot drawn by two horses and one horse between them (prashṭivāhana).
10. And he who thus knows this union, becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
2. The first half is the earth, the second half heaven, their uniting the rain, the uniter Parjanya [252].
3. And so it is when he (Parjanya) rains thus strongly, without ceasing, day and night [253],
6. Every man is indeed like an egg [254]. There are two halves [255] (of him), thus they say: ‘This half is the earth, that half heaven.’ And there between them is the ether (the space of the mouth), like the ether between heaven and earth. In this ether there (in the mouth) the breath is fixed, as in that other ether the air is fixed. And as there are those three luminaries (in heaven), there are these three luminaries in man.
7. As there is that sun in heaven, there is this eye in the head. As there is that lightning in the sky, there is this heart in the body; as there is that fire on earth, there is this seed in the member.
8. Having thus represented the self (body) as the whole world, Śākalya said: This half is the earth, that half heaven.
9. He who thus knows this union, becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, 250 and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
1. Next come the reciters of the Nirbhuja [257].
3. Now, if any one should chide him who recites the Nirbhuja, let him answer: ‘Thou art fallen from the two lower places [258].’ If any one should chide him who recites the Pratṛṇṇa, let him answer: ‘Thou art fallen from the two higher places [259].’ But he who recites the Ubhayamantareṇa, there is no chiding him.
4. For when he turns out the Sandhi (the union of words), that is the form of Nirbhuja [260]; and when be pronounces two syllables pure (without modification), that is the form of Pratṛṇṇa [261]. This comes 251 first [262]. By the Ubhayamantara (what is between the two) both are fulfilled (both the sandhi and the pada).
5. Let him who wishes for proper food say the Nirbhuja; let him who wishes for Svarga, say the Pratṛṇṇa; let him who wishes for both say the Ubhayamantareṇa.
6. Now if another man (an enemy) should chide him who says the Nirbhuja, let him say to him: ‘Thou hast offended the earth, the deity; the earth, the deity, will strike thee.’
If another man should chide him who says the Pratṛṇṇa, let him say to him: ‘Thou hast offended heaven, the deity; heaven, the deity, will strike thee.’
If another man should chide him who says the Ubhayamantareṇa, let him say to him: ‘Thou hast offended the sky, the deity; the sky, the deity, will strike thee.’
7. And whatever the reciter shall say to one who speaks to him or does not speak to him, depend upon it, it will come to pass.
9. Only he may curse a Brāhmaṇa in excessive wealth [263].
10. Nay, not even in excessive wealth should he curse a Brāhmaṇa, but he should say, ‘I bow before Brāhmaṇas,’—thus says Śūravīra Māṇḍūkeya.
1. Next follow the imprecations [264].
2. Let him know that breath [265] is the beam (on which the whole house of the body rests).
3. If any one (a Brāhmaṇa or another man) should chide him, who by meditation has become that breath as beam [266], then, if he thinks himself strong, he says: ‘I grasped the breath, the beam, well; thou dost not prevail against me who have grasped the breath as the beam.’ Let him say to him: ‘Breath, the beam, will forsake thee.’
4. But if he thinks himself not strong, let him say to him: ‘Thou couldst not grasp him who wishes to grasp the breath as the beam. Breath, the beam, will forsake thee.’
5. And whatever the reciter shall say to one who speaks to him or does not speak to him, depend upon it, it will come to pass. But to a Brāhmaṇa let him not say anything except what is auspicious. Only he may curse a Brāhmaṇa in excessive wealth. Nay, not even in excessive wealth should he curse a Brāhmaṇa, but he should say, ‘I bow before Brāhmaṇas,’—thus says Śūravīra Māṇḍūkeya.
2. ‘The former half [267] is the first syllable, the latter half the second syllable, and the space between the first and second halves is the Saṃhitā (union).’
3. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
4. Now Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya says: ‘We reciters of Nirbhuga say, “Yes, the former half is the first syllable, and the latter half the second syllable, but the Saṃhitā is the space between the first and second halves in so far as by it one turns out the union (sandhi), and knows what is the accent and what is not [268], and distinguishes what is the mora and what is not.”’
5. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
6. Now his middle son, the child of his mother Prātibodhī [269], says: 'One pronounces these two syllables letter by letter, without entirely separating 254 them, and without entirely uniting them [270]. Then that mora between the first and second halves, which indicates the union, that is the Sāman (evenness, sliding). I therefore hold Sāman only to be the Saṃhitā (union).
9. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
1. Tārukshya [271] said: ‘The Saṃhitā (union) is formed by means of the Bṛhat and Rathantara [272] Sāmans.’
2. Verily, the Rathantara Sāman is speech, the Bṛhat Sāman is breath. By both, by speech and breath, the Saṃhitā is formed [273].
3. For this Upanishad (for acquiring from his teacher the knowledge of this Saṃhitā of speech and breath) Tārukshya guards (his teacher’s) cows a whole year.
7. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
8. Kauṇṭharavya said: ‘Speech is united with breath, breath with the blowing air, the blowing air with the Viśvedevas, the Viśvedevas with the heavenly world, the heavenly world with Brahman. That Saṃhitā is called the gradual Saṃhitā.’
9. He who knows this gradual Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga, in exactly the same manner as this Saṃhitā, i.e. gradually.
10. If that worshipper, whether for his own sake or for that of another, recites (the Saṃhitā), let him know when he is going to recite, that this Saṃhitā went up to heaven, and that it will be even so with those who by knowing it become Devas. May it always be so!
11. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
13. Verily, by speech the Vedas, by speech the metres are composed. Friends unite through speech, all beings unite through speech; therefore speech is everything here [274].
14. With regard to this (view of speech being more than breath), it should be borne in mind that when we thus repeat (the Veda) or speak, breath is (absorbed) in speech; speech swallows breath. And when we are silent or sleep, speech is (absorbed) in breath; breath swallows speech. The two swallow each other. Verily, speech is the mother, breath the son.
16. ‘There is one bird; (as wind) he has entered the sky; (as breath or living soul) he saw this whole world. With my ripe mind I saw him close to me (in the heart); the mother (licks or) absorbs him (breath), and he absorbs the mother (speech).’
17. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
19. The former half is the wife, the latter half the man; the result of their union the son; the act of their union the begetting; that Saṃhitā is Aditi (indestructible).
23. He who thus knows this Saṃhitā (union), becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.
1. Sthavira Śākalya said that breath is the beam [276], and as the other beams rest on the house-beam, thus the eye, the ear, the mind, the speech, the senses, the body, the whole self rests on this [277] breath.
2. Of that self the breathing is like the sibilants, the bones like the mutes, the marrow like the vowels, and the fourth part, flesh, blood, and the rest, like the semivowels [278],—so said Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya.
3. To us it was said to be a triad only [279].
4. Of that triad, viz. bones, marrow, and joints, there are 360 (parts) on this side (the right), and 360 on that side (the left). They make 720 together, and 720 [280] are the days and nights of the year. Thus that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech is like unto the days.
5. He who thus knows this self, which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, as like unto the days, obtains union, likeness, or nearness with the days, has sons and cattle, and lives his full age.
3. What we called syllables are the days, what we called sibilants are the nights, what we called groups are the junctions of days and nights. So far with regard to the gods (the days).
4. Now with regard to the body. The syllables which we explained mythologically, are physiologically the bones; the sibilants which we explained mythologically, are physiologically the marrow.
5. Marrow is the real breath (life), for marrow is seed, and without breath (life) seed is not sown. Or when it is sown without breath (life), it will decay, it will not grow.
7. Of that triad, viz. bones, marrow, and joints, there are 540 (parts) on this side (the right), and 540 on that side (the left). They make 1080 together, and 1080 are the rays of the sun. They make the Bṛhatī verses and the day (of the Mahāvrata) [281].
8. Thus that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech is like unto the syllables.
9. He who knows this self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, as like unto syllables, obtains union, likeness, or nearness with the syllables, has sons and cattle, and lives his full age.
1. Bādhva [282] says, there are four persons (to be meditated on and worshipped).
3. What we call the person of the body is this corporeal self. Its essence is the incorporeal conscious self.
4. What we call the person of the metres is this collection of letters (the Veda). Its essence is the vowel a.
5. What we call the person of the Veda is (the mind) by which we know the Vedas, the Ṛg-veda, Yajur-veda, and Sāma-veda. Its essence is Brahman [283] (m.)
6. Therefore let one chose a Brahman-priest who is full of Brahman (the Veda), and is able to see any flaw in the sacrifice.
7. What we call the Great person is the year, which causes some beings to fall together, and causes others to grow up. Its essence is yonder sun.
8. One should know that the incorporeal conscious self and yonder sun are both one and the same. Therefore the sun appears to every man singly (and differently).
10. ‘The bright face of the gods arose, the eye of Mitra, Varuṇa, and Agni; it filled heaven and earth 260 and the sky,—the sun is the self of all that rests and moves.’
12. For the Bahvṛcas consider him (the self) in the great hymn (mahad uktha), the Adhvaryus in the sacrificial fire, the Chandogas in the Mahāvrata ceremony. Him they see in this earth, in heaven, in the air, in the ether, in the water, in herbs, in trees, in the moon, in the stars, in all beings. Him alone they call Brahman.
14. He who recites to another that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, and is like unto the year,
1. To him the Vedas yield no more milk, he has no luck in what he has learnt (from his Guru); he does not know the path of virtue.
3. ‘He who has forsaken the friend (the Veda), that knows his friends, in his speech there is no luck. Though he hears, he hears in vain, for he does not know the path of virtue.’
4. Here it is clearly said that he has no luck in what he has learnt, and that he does not know the path of virtue.
5. Therefore let no one who knows this, lay the sacrificial fire (belonging to the Mahāvrata) for another, let him not sing the Sāmans of the Mahāvrata 261 for another, let him not recite the Sastras of that day for another.
6. However, let him willingly do this for a father or for an Ācārya; for that is done really for himself.
7. We have said that the incorporeal conscious self and the sun are one [284]. When these two become separated [285], the sun is seen as if it were the moon [286]; no rays spring from it; the sky is red like madder; the patient cannot retain the wind, his head smells bad like a raven’s nest:—let him know then that his self (in the body) is gone, and that he will not live very long [287].
8. Then whatever he thinks he has to do,. let him do it, and let him recite the following hymns: Yad anti yac ca dūrake (Rv. IX, 67, 21-27); Ad it pratnasya retasaḥ (Rv. VIII, 6, 30); Yatra brahmā pavamāna (Rv. IX, 113, 6-11); Ud vayaṃ tamasas pari (Rv. I, 50, 10).
9. Next, when the sun is seen pierced, and seems like the nave of a cart-wheel, when he sees his own shadow pierced, let him know then that it is so (as stated before, i. e. that he is going to die soon).
10. Next, when he sees himself in a mirror or in the water with a crooked head, or without a head [288], or when his pupils are seen inverted [289] or not straight, let him know then that it is so.
11. Next, let him cover his eyes and watch, then threads are seen as if falling together [290]. But if he does not see them, let him know then that it is so.
12. Next, let him cover his ears and listen, and there will be a sound as if of a burning fire or of a carriage [291]. But if he does not hear it, let him know then that it is so.
13. Next, when fire looks blue like the neck of a peacock [292], or when he sees lightning in a cloudless sky, or no lightning in a clouded sky, or when he sees as it were bright rays in a dark cloud, let him know then that it is so.
16. Next come the dreams [293].
17. If he sees a black man with black teeth, and that man kills him; or a boar kills him; a monkey jumps on [294] him; the wind carries him along quickly; having swallowed gold he spits it out [295]; he eats honey; he chews stalks; he carries a red lotus; he drives with asses and boars; wearing a wreath of red flowers (naladas) he drives a black cow with a black calf, facing the south [296],
18. If a man sees any one of these (dreams), let 263 him fast, and cook a pot of milk, sacrifice it, accompanying each oblation with a verse of the Rātri hymn (Rv. X, 12 7), and then, after having fed the Brāhmaṇas, with other food (prepared at his house) eat himself the (rest of the) oblation.
19. Let him know that the person within all beings, not heard here [297], not reached, not thought, not subdued, not seen, not understood, not classed, but hearing, thinking, seeing, classing, sounding, understanding, knowing, is his Self.
The mute consonants represent the up-breathing, the sibilants the down-breathing, the vowels the back-breathing.
3. Next comes this divine lute (the human body, made by the gods). The lute made by man is an imitation of it.
4. As there is a head of this, so there is a head of that (lute, made by man). As there is a stomach 264 of this, so there is the cavity [299] (In the board) of that. As there is a tongue of this, so there is a tongue [300] in that. As there are fingers of this, so there are strings of that [301]. As there are vowels of this, so there are tones of that. As there are consonants of this, so there are touches of that. As this is endowed with sound and firmly strung, so that is endowed with sound and firmly strung. As this is covered with a hairy skin, so that is covered with a hairy skin.
6. He who knows this lute made by the Devas (and meditates on it), is willingly listened to, his glory fills the earth, and wherever they speak Āryan languages, there they know him.
7. Next follows the verse, called vāgrasa, the essence of speech. When a man reciting or speaking in an assembly does not please, let him say this verse:
8. ‘May the queen of all speech, who is covered, as it were, by the lips, surrounded by teeth, as if by spears, who is a thunderbolt, help me to speak well.’ This is the vāgrasa, the essence of speech.
2. Prajāpati, the year, after having sent forth all creatures, burst. He put himself together again by means of chandas (Vedas). Because he put himself together again by means of chandas, therefore (the text of the Veda) is called Saṃhitā (put together).
4. He who knows the Ṛc verses and the letters ṇ and sh for every Saṃhitā, he knows the Saṃhitā with strength and breath. Let him know that this is the life of the Saṃhitā.
5. If the pupil asks, 'Shall I say it with the letter ṇ or without it? 'let the teacher say, ‘With the letter ṇ.’ And if he asks, ‘Shall I say it with the letter sh or without it?’ let the teacher say, ‘With the letter sh [304].’
6. Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya said: ‘If we here recite the verses according to the Saṃhitā (attending to the necessary changes of n and s into ṇ and sh [305]), and if we say the adhyāya of Māṇḍūkeya (Ait. Ār. III, 1), then the letters ṇ and sh (strength and breath) have by this been obtained for us.’
7. Sthavira Sākalya said: ‘If we recite the verses according to the Saṃhitā, and if we say the adhyāya of Māṇḍūkeya, then the letters ṇ and sh have by this been obtained for us.’
8. Here the Ṛshis, the Kāvasheyas [306], knowing 266 this, said: ‘Why should we repeat (the Veda), why should we sacrifice? We offer as a sacrifice breath in speech, or speech in breath. What is the beginning (of one), that is the end (of the other).’
9. Let no one tell these Saṃhitās (Ait. Ār. III, 1-III, 2) to one who is not a resident pupil, who has not been with his teacher at least one year, and who is not himself to become an instructor [307]. Thus say the teachers, yea, thus say the teachers.
11. 'And in the place where he reads this, he should not read 268 anything else, though he may read this (the Mahāvrata) where he has read something else.
12. 'No one should bathe and become a snātaka who does not read this. Even if he has read many other things, he should not become a snātaka if he has not read this.
13. 'Nor should he forget it, and even if he should forget anything else, he should not forget this.
15. 'If he does not forget this, it will be enough for himself (or for acquiring a knowledge of the Self).
17. ‘Let him who knows this not communicate, nor dine, nor amuse himself with any one who does not know it.’
18. 'When the old water that stood round the roots of trees is dried up (after about the month of Pausha, January to February ) he should not read; nor (at any time) in the morning or in the afternoon, when the shadows meet (he should begin at sunrise so soon as the shadows divide, and end in the evening before they fall together). Nor should he read when a cloud has risen; and when there is an unseasonable rain (after the months of Srāvaṇa and Bhādrapada, August and September ) he should stop his Vedic reading for three nights. Nor should he at that time tell stories, not even during the night, nor should he glory in his knowledge.
19. ‘This (the Veda thus learnt and studied) is the name of that Great Being; and he who thus knows the name of that Great Being, he becomes Brahman, yea, he becomes Brahman.’
That it should be one only is proved from the types, i. e. from other sacrifices, that have to be followed in the performance of the Mahāvrata. The first type is the Agnishṭoma, where one śastra is enjoined as ājyaśastra, viz. pra vo devāyāgnaye. In the Viśvajit, which has to follow the Agnishṭoma, another hymn is put in its place, viz. agniṃ naro dīdhitibhiḥ. In the Mahāvrata, which has to follow the Viśvajit, some people recommend the use of both these hymns. But that is wrong, for there must be in the sacrifices which follow the Agnishṭoma twelve śastras altogether; and if there were two here, instead of one, we should get a total of thirteen. ↩︎
The word visaḥ, which occurs in the hymn, means people. The commentator says that because the Vaiśyas or tradespeople increase their capital, therefore they are called increase. ↩︎
Able, or liable; cf. Ait. Ār. II, 3, 5, 7. ↩︎
Atithi is here explained by yo bhavati, and bhavati is explained as walking on the good road. One expects yo vā atati. The obtaining of distinction is probably derived from ati, above, in atithi. ↩︎
In the first and second the Anushṭubh is followed by two Gāyatrīs. ↩︎
Annādyam is always explained as food, here as annam tad ādyaṃ ca. It must be so translated here and elsewhere (1, 2, 10), though it is often an abstract of annāda, an eater of food, a healthy man. ↩︎
This hymn is prescribed in the Viśvajit sacrifice, and taken over to the Mahāvrata, according to rule. It is used, however, both as obligatory and as optional at the same time, i. e. it is an essential part of the sacrifice, and at the same time to be used by those who wish for proper food. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. I, 1, 4, 21; II, 3, 4, 2. ↩︎
The plural after the dual is explained by the fact that the hymn means the twenty-five verses. ↩︎
Cf. I, 3, 7, 5. ↩︎
The hymn consists of eighteen Virāj and seven Trishṭubh 161 verses. Therefore the eighteen Virāj verses remain what they are, only that the first is repeated three times, so that we have twenty Virāj verses. The seven Trishṭubhs, by repeating the last three times, become nine. We then take eight syllables away from each verse, thus changing them into nine Bṛhatī verses. The nine times eight syllables, which were taken off, give us seventy-two syllables, and as each Bṛhatī consists of thirty-six syllables, two Bṛhatīs. ↩︎
The change of the first verse, which is a Virāj of thirty-three syllables, into an Anushṭubh is produced by a still easier process. The first Virāj consists here of thirty-three syllables, the Anushṭubh should have thirty-two. But one or two syllables more or less does not destroy a metre, according to the views of native metricians. The Virāj itself, for instance, should have thirty syllables, and here has thirty-three. Therefore if changed into an Anushṭubh, it simply has one syllable over, which is of no consequence. Comm. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. I, 1, 1, 4. ↩︎
Thus far the hymn which has to be recited by the Hotṛ priest, after the eating of the ṛtugrabas, has been considered. What follows next is the so-called Pra-uga hymn, consisting of seven tṛcas, which the Hotṛ has to recite after the Viśvedevagraha. Different Śākhās recommend hymns of different metres, our Śākhā fixes on the Gāyatrī. ↩︎
It is copied from the Viśvajit, and that from the Agnishṭoma. ↩︎
Nothing is wanting for its performance, if one only follows the rules given in the Agnishṭoma. ↩︎
Dāsīnṛtya-bahubhūtamaithuna-brahmacāripuṃścalīsampravā-dādikam. See Rajendralal Mitra, Introduction to his edition of the Aitareya-āraṇyaka, p. 25. It might be better to join ekāhaḥ with śāntyām, but even then the argumentation is not quite clear. ↩︎
Next follows a list of the verses which form the seven tṛcas (groups of three verses) of the Pra-uga hymn, with occasional remarks on certain words. ↩︎
Cf. I, 1, 2, 7; I, 3, 5, 7. ↩︎
In the first adhyāya the two hymns to be recited by the Hotṛ priest at the morning-libation (the ājya and pra-uga śastra) have been considered. Now follows the Marutvatīya hymn, to be recited by the Hotṛ priest at the noon-libation. ↩︎
Taken from the Agnishṭoma. ↩︎
Cf. I, 1, 3, 7-8. ↩︎
All these Pragāthas consist of two verses expanded into a tṛca. ↩︎
Hotrādaya ukthinaḥ śastriṇaḥ. ↩︎
Cf. I, 2, 2, 14. ↩︎
Because the performance of the Mahāvrata sacrifice moves the worshipper round to another world and gives him enjoyment. Comm. It is difficult to surpass the absurdity of these explanations. Na rīramat means no one stopped the chariot of Sudās. But even if it meant that no one rejoiced through the chariot of Sudās, it would be difficult to see how the negative of enjoyment, mentioned in the hymn, could contribute to the perfection of a sacrifice which is to confer positive enjoyment on the worshipper. ↩︎
The stotras following after the Yajñāyajñīya Sāman, serving for the ukthya-kratus. ↩︎
The stotras of the noon-libation, to be performed with the Rathantara, Bṛhat, and other Sāmans. ↩︎
The śastras, recitations, accompanying the oblations of ājya. ↩︎
The pra-ugas, a division of śastras, described above. ↩︎
The type after which the Marutvatīya-śastra is to be performed is the Caturviṃsa day. Hitherto (from ā tvā ratham to nakiḥ sudāsaḥ), all that is taken over from the type to the modification, i. e. the Marutvatīya, has been explained. Now follow the verses which are new and peculiar to the Marutvatīya of the Mahāvrata. ↩︎
The commentator endeavours to make the meaning more natural by taking in the word prahantā, he who kills the destroyer of truth. But considering the general character of these remarks, this is hardly necessary. ↩︎
Cf. I, 1, 3, 3. ↩︎
By separating the first tṛca from the second, and so forth. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Brāhm. V, 16. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. II, 2, 1, 8. ↩︎
The hymn consists of eleven verses. In the middle, after the sixth verse, nivids or invocations, such as indro marutvān, are inserted, and therefore it is called a nividdhāna hymn. ↩︎
With this hymn the Marutvatīya-śastra is finished. All the hymns from ā tvā ratham to asat su me jaritar are simply taken over from the Caturviṃsa ceremonial, the rest are peculiar to the Mahāvrata day, the day preceding the Udayanīya or final day of the Gavāmayana sattra. All this is more fully described in the fifth Āraṇyaka (V, 1, 1, 8), containing the Sūtras or rules of Śaunaka, while the earlier Āraṇyakas are reckoned as Brāhmaṇas, and are therefore mixed up with matters not actually required for the performance of the sacrifice. ↩︎
| | | | - | - | | The first Stotriya and Ānurūpa tṛcas = | 6 (I, 2, 1, 1). | | The six Pragāthas, each of 2 verses raised to 3 (but the text gives seven Pragāthas) = | 18 (I, 2, 1, 3; 4; 5; 6; 11; 12; 13). | | Three Dhāyyās = | 3 (I, 2, 1, 7; 8; 9). | | Asat su = | 24 (I, 2, 2, 1). | | Pibā somam = | 15 (I,2,2,6). | | Kayā śubhā = | 15 (I, 2,2,9). | | Marutvāṇ indra = | 5 (I, 2, 2, 13). | | Janishṭhā ugraḥ = | 11 (1, 2, 2, 17). | | (TOTAL) | 97 | ↩︎
The left side as well as the right, and then the left and right side of the lower body. Thus we have twenty joints of the five toes, a thigh, a leg, and three joints, making twenty-five on each side. ↩︎
Approach the Trishṭubh metre of the last hymn. Comm. ↩︎
After having considered the Marutvatīya, he proceeds to consider the Nishkevalya. This has to be recited by the Hotṛ while sitting on a swing. ↩︎
They rise one span above the heart, and they proceed one span from out the mouth. Comm. ↩︎
Here we have clearly riding on horseback. ↩︎
While the swing points to the east, let him stand west, and thus mount. ↩︎
The fore-arms, from the elbow to the end, the aratnī. Comm. ↩︎
One expects ishaḥ before ūrjaḥ, but it is wanting in both text and commentary, and in other MSS. also. ↩︎
The word by which the Hotṛ invites the Adhvaryu to offer the oblation to the gods. The descending from the swing belongs, of course, to a later part of the sacrifice. ↩︎
it is supposed that the Hotṛ rises from the swing to show respect to the sacrificial food, when it is brought near. But as it is not brought near, immediately after the Hotṛ has finished his part with the word vashaṭ, the food could not see the Hotṛ rise, and this mark of respect, intended for the food, would thus be lost. ↩︎
Should it be devaretaḥ samprajāyate, or devaretasam prajāyate? ↩︎
The Nishkevalya-śastra, of the noon-libation; Cf. I, 2, 2, 1. ↩︎
Cf. I, 2, 4, 10. ↩︎
Human speech is the ordinary speech, divine speech that of the Veda. Thus between the hymns, or the divine speech, and the ordinary language of conversation the sound Him is interposed as a barrier. ↩︎
Mind, to think about the hymns which have to be recited; speech, to recite them without a flaw. ↩︎
It is doubtful whether neyād ṛkaḥ and apagacchet can have this meaning. However, what is intended is clear, viz. that the priest, even after having uttered the sound Him, should not immediately begin with verses from the Vedas, but should intercalate the three syllables bhūr bhuvaḥ svar, or, if taken singly, bhūs, bhuvas, svar. ↩︎
Tata and tāta are used both by children in addressing their parents, and by parents in addressing their children. If tat is called the very same word, eva is used in the sense of iva. ↩︎
The verse is cited to confirm the meaning of tat, the first word of the first hymn (tad id āsa), as explained before. It was said that tat was the first name applied to a child. Now, according to Āśvalāyana Gṛhya-sūtra I, 16, 8, a name is given to a child at the time of its birth, a name which no one knows except father and mother, till the time when he is initiated by a Guru. This is called the abhivadanīya name. In allusion to this custom it is said here that tata is the secret name of the child, which becomes publicly known at a later time only. Of course the interpretation of the verse in that sense is unnatural, but quite in keeping with the general character of the Āraṇyaka. I doubt whether even the commentator understood what was intended by the author, and whether the gods who enter the body are supposed to know the name, or whether the name refers to these gods, or, it may be, to tad, the Brahman. ↩︎
He now explains the first hymn of the Nishkevalya, which is called the Rājana. ↩︎
Rv. X, 120, 1. ↩︎
The sun and the fire. ↩︎
Rv. X, 120, 2. ↩︎
Rv. X, 120, 3. ↩︎
All these are purely fanciful interpretations. ↩︎
Not to be found in our Śākhā of the Rig-veda. ↩︎
These metres are obtained by a purely arbitrary counting of syllables in the hymn tadidāsa, which really consists of Trishṭubh verses. ↩︎
If we simply count syllables, the first and second feet of the 181 first verse consist of ten syllables only, the fourth of nine or ten. In order to bring them to the right number, the word purusha is to be added to what is a Virāj, i.e. to the first, the second, and fourth feet. We thus get:
tad id āsa bhuvaneshu jyeshṭham pu yato jajña ugras tveshanṛmṇo ru sadyo gajñāno ni riṇāti śatrūn anu yaṃ viśve madanti ūmāḥ shaḥ.
Cf. Ait. Ār. V, 1, 6. ↩︎
The sound, nada, is really a verse beginning with nadam, and which is interpolated after the syllables pu ru shaḥ. ↩︎
The nasal pluta on iti is explained as pādapratīkagrahaṇe 'tyantamādarārthaḥ. Cf. Ait. Ār. II, 1, 4, 3. ↩︎
Tad id āsa is a Trishṭubh, nadaṃ vaḥ an Anushṭubh. ↩︎
Cf. I, 1, 2, 7; I, 1, 4, 21. ↩︎
The number is obtained as follows:
| | | | - | - | | 1. Tad id āsa (Rv. X, 120) = | 9 verses | | 2. Tāṃ su te kīrtim (Rv. X, 54) = | 6 " | | 3. Bhūya id vavṛdhe vīryāya (Rv. VI, 30) = | 5 " | | 4. Nṛṇām u tvā (Rv. I, 51, 4) = | 3 " | | | 23 + 2 = 25 | ↩︎
Cf. I, 1, 2, 9. ↩︎
Because Virāj, a foot of ten syllables, is food. ↩︎
| | | | - | - | | Rv. X, 120, 1 a = | 10 | | Rv. VIII, 69, 2 a= | 7 | | Syllable pu = | 1 | | | 18 | ↩︎
Seven in the head and two in the body; sapta vai sirshaṇyāḥ prāṇā dvāv avāñcāv iti. ↩︎
Cf. I, 3, 5, 1. ↩︎
Each pāda has seven syllables, the third only six; but a seventh syllable is gained by pronouncing the y as i. Comm. ↩︎
Because it has four pādas. ↩︎
The commentator takes this in a different sense, explaining atra, there, as the body pervaded by the person, yet afterwards stating that all beings are born, pervaded by the senses. ↩︎
The commentator explains ukthā, hymns, as members or organs. They are the five, and they spring from the ten, i. e. from the five elements (earth, water, fire, wind, and ether), forming part of the father and mother each, and therefore called ten, or a decade. Daśataḥ is explained by bhūtadaśakāt. ↩︎
The application of the senses to a thousand different objects. ↩︎
Each foot of the Trishṭubh has eleven syllables, to which seven are added from the Nada hymn. This gives eighteen syllables for each pāda. Two pādas therefore give thirty-six syllables, and this is a Bṛhatī. In this manner the twenty-three verses of the hymns yield forty-six Bṛhatīs. Comm. ↩︎
He obtains a birth among the gods by means of this Mahāvrata ceremonial, if performed with meditation and a right understanding of its hidden meaning. ↩︎
The Nishkevalya-śastra is represented in the shape of a bird, consisting of trunk, neck, head, vertebrae, wings, tail, and stomach. Before describing the hymns which form the neck, another hymn has to be mentioned, called Sūdadohas, which has to be recited at the end of the hymns, described before, which form the trunk. Sūdadohas is explained as ‘yielding milk,’ and because that word occurs in the verse, the verse is called Sūdadohas. It follows on the Nada verse, Rv. VIII, 69, 3. Cf. Ait. Ār. I, 5, 1, 7. ↩︎
They occur in another śākhā, and are to be recited such as they are, without any insertions. They are given by Śaunaka, Ait. Ār. V, 2, 1. ↩︎
It was created from the mouth of Prajāpati. ↩︎
They are called so, because the word arka occurs in them. ↩︎
The chanters of the Sāma-veda make a Trivṛt Stoma of this hymn, without any repetitions, leaving out the tenth verse. The reciters of the Rig-veda excel them therefore by reciting a tenth verse. This is called atiśaṃsanam (or -nā). ↩︎
Vijavas may be a singular, and the commentator seems to take it as such in his first explanation. The text, tā virājo bhavanti, proves nothing, because it could not be sa virājo bhavanti, nor even sa virāḍ bhavati. Possibly the word may occur in both forms, viju, plural vijavaḥ, and vijavaḥ. In a somewhat similar way we find grīvā and grīvāḥ, folia and la feuille. On p. 109, the commentator speaks of vijavabhāga, and again, p. 110, pakshamūlarūpā vijavā abhihitāḥ. He, however, explains its meaning rightly, as the root of the wings, or rather the lower bones of the neck. Grīvāḥ, plural, were originally the vertebrae of the neck. The paragraph, though very empty, contains at least some interesting forms of language. First viju, vertebrae, then the participles duta and sambāḷḥatama, and lastly the verb pratyac, the last probably used in the sense of to bring near, to represent, with the superlative adverb annatamām (Pāṇ. V, 4, 11), i. e. they are represented as if they brought the best food. ↩︎
Rathantara is the name of the whole number of hymns to be recited at this part of the sacrifice. It was made by Vasishṭha, and consists of one hundred verses. ↩︎
| | | | - | - | | 1. Stotriya, abhi tvā śūra nonumaḥ (Rv. VII, 32, 22) | 2 (3) | | 2. Anurūpa, abhi tvā pūrvapītaye (Rv. VIII, 3, 7) | 2 (3) | | 3. Indrasya nu (Rv. I, 32) | 15 | | 4. Tve ha (Rv. VII, 18, 1-15) | 15 | | 5. Yas tigma (Rv. VII. 19) | 11 | | 6. Ugro jajñe (Rv. VII, 20) | 10 | | 7. Ud u (Rv. VII, 23) | 6 | | 8. Ā te mahaḥ (Rv. VII, 25) | 6 | | 9. Na somaḥ (Rv. VII, 26) | 5 | | 10. Indraṃ naraḥ (Rv. VII, 27) | 5 | | 11. Brahmā naḥ (Rv. VII, 28) | 5 | | 12. Ayaṃ somaḥ (Rv. VII, 29) | 5 | | 13. Ā na indraḥ (Rv. IV, 20) | 11 | | | 98 (100) | | 14. Itthā hi (Rv. I, 80, 1) | 1 | | | 99 (101) |
These hymns and verses are given Ait. Ār. V, 2, 2, 1. Here we also learn that hymn Rv. IV, 20, is called Sampāta, and that the last verse is a Paṅkti. ↩︎
The six powers are earth, Agni, speech, Rathantara, Vasishṭha, and a hundred. ↩︎
The hundred verses are given Ait. Ār. V, 2, 2, 5.
| | | | - | - | | 1. Stotriya, tvāṃ id dhi (Rv. VI, 46, 1) | 2 (3) | | 2. Anurūpa, tvam hy ehi (Rv. VIII, 61, 7) | 2 (3) | | 3. Tam u shṭuhi (Rv. VI, 18) | 15 | | 4. Suta it tvam (Rv. VI, 23) | 10 | | 5. Vṛshā madaḥ (Rv. VI, 24) | 10 | | 6. Yā ta ūtiḥ (Rv. VI, 25) | 9 | | 7. Abhūr ekaḥ (Rv. VI, 31) | 5 | | 8. Apūrvyā (Rv. VI, 32) | 5 | | 9. Ya ogishṭhaḥ (Rv. VI, 33) | 5 | | 10. Saṃ ca tve (Rv. VI, 34) | 5 | | 11. Kadā bhuvan (Rv. VI, 35) | 5 | | 12. Satrā madāsaḥ (Rv. VI, 36) | 5 | | 13. Arvāg ratham (Rv. VI, 37) | 5 | | 14. Apād (Rv. VI, 38) | 5 | | 15. Kathā mahān (Rv. IV, 23) | 1 | | | 99 (101) | | 16. Indro madāya (Rv. I, 81, 1) | 1 | | | 100 (102) |
Though there are said to be 100 verses before the Paṅkti (No. 16), I can get only 99 or 101. See the following note. ↩︎
The right wing, is deficient by one verse, the left wing exceeds by one verse. I count 99 or 101 verses in the right, and 100 or 102 in the left wing. ↩︎
These verses are given Ait. Ār. V, 2, 2, 9.
| | | | - | - | | 1. Imā nu kam (Rv. X, 157) | 5 | | 2. Ā yāhi (Rv. X, 172) | 4 | | 3. Pra va indrāya &c. (not in the Śākalya-saṃhitā) | 9 | | 4. Esha brahmā &c. (not in the Śākalya-saṃhitā) | 3 | | | 21 | ↩︎
The other Stomas of the Agnishṭoma are the Trivṛt, Pañcadaśa, Saptadaśa, the Ekaviṃśa being the highest. Cf. I, 5, 1, 3. ↩︎
Asmin vijavabhāge. Comm. ↩︎
These and the following verses form the food of the bird. Comm. The verses themselves are given by Śaunaka in the fifth Āraṇyaka. ↩︎
Having recited the verses which form the body, neck, head, wings, and tail of the bird, also the food intended for the bird, he now describes the Vaśa hymn, i.e. the hymn composed by Vaśa, Rv. VIII, 46. That hymn takes the place of the stomach which receives the food intended for the bird. Cf. Ait. Ār. V, 2, 5. In I, 5, 2, 4 it is called a Nivid. ↩︎
Verses 1-20 of the Vasa hymn, and one Sūdadohas. ↩︎
Praṇāvam means ‘with praṇava,’ i.e. inserting Om in the proper places. ↩︎
According as the metres of the different verses are fixed by Śaunaka, Ait. Ār. V, 2, 5, who says that verse 15 is Dvipadā, and that the last four words, nūnam atha, form an Ekapadā. ↩︎
According to rule, i.e. so that they should come right as Āśvalāyana has prescribed the recitation of Dvipadā and Ekapadā verses. In a Dvipadā there should be a stop after the first foot, and Om at the end o f the second. Ira an Ekapadā there should be Om at the beginning and at the end. ↩︎
He repeats the Sūdadohas verse no more. Comm. ↩︎
Sentences like indro devaḥ somam pibatu. ↩︎
According to the Prakṛti of the Agnishṭoma they ought to be all Trishṭubhs. Comm. ↩︎
These hymns occur in the eighty Bṛhatī tristichs. ↩︎
From the Saṃhitā, which consists of ten thousand verses. Comm. ↩︎
Rv. X, 178. Tārksha Garuḍa being the deity of the hymn, it is called Tārkshya. ↩︎
Cf. I, 5, 3, 13 ↩︎
The Ekapadā forms the last metre in this ceremony. ↩︎
The first and last half-verses of the hymn are not to be intertwined. Of the remaining fourteen half-verses he joins, for instance, the fourth foot of the first verse with the second foot of the second verse, and so on. Comm. ↩︎
Because nothing more follows. Comm. ↩︎
Rv. VII, 22, 1-6. ↩︎
Rv. VII, 24. ↩︎
The last day is the udayanīyātirātra. Comm. ↩︎
After finishing the Nishkevalya of the noon-libation, he explains the vaiśvadevaśastra of the third libation. ↩︎
The norm of the Mahāvrata is the Viśvajit, and the norm of that, the Agnishṭoma Ekāha. The verses to be used for the Vaisvadeva hymn are prescribed in those normal sacrifices, and are here adopted. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. I, 2, 1, 2. ↩︎
Nothing higher than the great can be wished for or obtained. Comm. ↩︎
All who perform the ceremony obtain Brahman. Cf. § 12. ↩︎
The third wheel, in addition to the usual two wheels, forms the end of a carriage, as before the dhuh, Cf. I, 5, 2, 14. This day also is the end. ↩︎
Consisting of Vedic hymns and dances, &c. Comm. ↩︎
Cf. § 4. ↩︎
Cf. I, 5, 2, 8. ↩︎
Comm. The path is twofold, consisting of works and knowledge. Works or sacrifices have been described in the Saṃhitā, the Brāhmaṇa, and the first Āraṇyaka. Knowledge of Brahman forms the subject of the second and third Āraṇyakas. The true path is that of knowledge. ↩︎
Vaṅgāḥ is explained by vanagatā vṛkshāḥ; avagadhāḥ is explained by vrīhiyavādyā oshadhayaḥ; īrapādāḥ is explained by uraḥpādāḥ sarpāḥ. Possibly they are all old ethnic names, like Vaṅga, Cera, &c. In Ānandatīrtha’s commentary vayāṃsi are explained by Piśāca, Vaṅāvagadhas by Rākshasa, and Īrapādas by Asuras. ↩︎
Three classes of men go to Naraka (hell); the fourth class, full of faith and desirous of reaching the highest world, worships Agni, Vāyu, and other gods. Comm. ↩︎
The Comm. explains uktha as that from whence the favour of the gods arises, uttishṭhaty anena devatāprasāda iti vyutpatteḥ. 203 The object is now to show that the uktha or hymn used at the Mahāvrata ceremony has a deeper meaning than it seems to have, and that its highest aim is Brahman; not, however, the highest Brahman, but Brahman considered as life (prāṇa). ↩︎
As a master who lives by his servants, while his servants live by him. Comm. ↩︎
I have translated these paragraphs, as much as possible, according to the commentator. I doubt whether, either in the original or in the interpretation of the commentator, they yield any very definite sense. They are vague speculations, vague, at least, to us, though intended by the Brahmans to give a deeper meaning to certain ceremonial observances connected with the Mahāvrata. The uktha, or hymn, which is to be meditated on, as connected with the sacrifice, is part of the Mahāvrata, an important ceremony, to be 205 performed on the last day but one (the twenty-fourth) of the Gavāmayana sacrifice. That sacrifice lasts a whole year, and its performance has been fully described in the Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas. But while the ordinary performer of the Mahāvrata has simply to recite the uktha or nishkevalya-śastra, consisting of eighty verses (tṛca) in the Gāyatrī, Bṛhatī, and Ushṇih metres, the more advanced worshipper (or priest) is to know that this uktha has a deeper meaning, and is to meditate on it as being the earth, sky, heaven, also as the human body, mouth, nostrils, and forehead. The worshipper is in fact to identify himself by meditation with the uktha in all its senses, and thus to become the universal spirit or Hiraṇyagarbha. By this process he becomes the consumer and consumed, the subject and object, of everything, while another sacrificer, not knowing this, remains in his limited individual sphere, or, as the text expresses it, does not possess what he cannot eat (perceive), or what cannot eat him (perceive him). The last sentence is explained differently by the commentator, but in connexion with the whole passage it seems to me to become more intelligible, if interpreted as I have proposed to interpret it. ↩︎
Play on words. Comm. ↩︎
These are all plays on words. Comm. ↩︎
This does not appear to be the case either in the Ch. Up. V, 15; 17, or in the Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa X, 6, 1. ↩︎
The pluti in tāȝi is explained as śāstrīyaprasiddhyarthā. ↩︎
All puns, as if we were to say, because he hied up to the head, therefore the head was called head. ↩︎
Each wished to be identified with the uktha, as it was said before that the human body, mouth, nostrils, forehead were to be identified with the uktha. Cf. Kaush. Up. III, 3. ↩︎
Cf. Ch. Up. V, 1; Bṛh. Up. VI, 1; Kaush. Up. II, 12-14; III, 2; Prasna Up. II, 1. ↩︎
All these are plays on words, prātar being derived from prātāyi, sāyam from samāgāt. The real object, however, is to show that breath, which is the uktha, which is the worshipper, is endowed with certain qualities, viz. time, speech, &c. ↩︎
The meaning is, that the four deities, Agni, Āditya, Moon, and the Diś proceed from their own places to dwell together in the body of man, and that this is called the prahitāṃ saṃyogaḥ. Prahit is explained as prahita, placed, sent. It is probably formed from hi, not from dhā. Prahitoḥ saṃyoganam is the name of a Sāman, Ind. Stud. III, 225. As Devas or gods they appear each in its own place. The whole passage is very obscure. ↩︎
All this is extremely obscure, possibly incorrect. For yam, unless it refers to some other word, we expect yan. For dadyuḥ one expects dadyāt. What is intended is that Hiraṇyadat had 209 through meditation acquired identity with the universal spirit, and that therefore he might say that whatever was not surrendered to him did not really belong to anybody. On Hiranyadat, see Ait. Brāhm. III, 6. ↩︎
Cf. Ch. Up. VIII, 3, 5. ↩︎
The rope is supposed to be the chief rope to which various smaller ropes are attached for fastening animals. ↩︎
Here conceived as the air breathed, not as the deity. Comm. ↩︎
The purusha, as described before in the second chapter, is the Prajāpati or universal spirit with whom the worshipper is to identify himself by meditation. The manifestations of his power consist in creating the earth, fire, the sky, the air, heaven, the sun. ↩︎
Having described how Prāṇa, the breath, and his companions or servants created the world, he now discusses the question of the material cause of the world out of which it was created. Water, which is said to be the material of the world, is explained by the commentator to mean here the five elements. ↩︎
Cause and effect are not entirely separated, therefore water, as the elementary cause, and earth, fire, &c., as its effect, are one; likewise the worshipper, as the father, and the earth, fire, &c. as his sons, as described above. Mūla and tūla, root and shoot, are evidently chosen for the sake of the rhyme, to signify cause and effect. ↩︎
Prāṇa is called the giriḥ, because it is swallowed or hidden by the other senses (giraṇāt). Again a mere play of words, intended to show that Brahman under the form of Prāṇa, or life, is to be meditated on. ↩︎
In the first adhyāya various forms of meditating on Uktha, conceived as Prāṇa (life), have been declared. In the second some other forms of meditation, all extremely fanciful, are added. They are of interest, however, as showing the existence of the hymns of the Rig-veda, divided and arranged as we now possess them, at the time when this Āraṇyaka was composed. ↩︎
The identity of the sun and of breath as living in man has been established before. It is the same power in both, conceived either adhidaivatam (mythological) or adhyātmam (physiological). ↩︎
The real ground for the name is that the poets of the first Maṇḍala composed on an average each about a hundred Ṛc, verses. ↩︎
I translate in accordance with the commentator, and probably with the intention of the author. The same etymology is repeated in the commentary on II, 2, 4, 2. It would be more natural to take vasishṭha in the sense of the richest. ↩︎
This is the interpretation of the commentator, and the preposition abhi seems to show that the author too took that view of the etymology of pragātha. ↩︎
It seems, indeed, as if in the technical language of the Brahmans, the poets of the ninth Maṇḍala were sometimes called Pavamānīs, and the hymns of the tenth Maṇḍala Kshudrasūktas and Mahāsūktas (masc.) Cf. Ārsheya-brāhmaṇa, ed. Burnell, p. 42. ↩︎
The poet also is called Sūkta, taddrashṭāpi sūktanāmako 'bhūt. Comm. ↩︎
I translate according to the commentator. ↩︎
Ardha means both half and place. ↩︎
It may also be intended for pāda, foot of a verse. ↩︎
The Prāṇa (breath) is to be meditated on as all hymns, all poets, all words, &c. Comm. ↩︎
All aspirated sonant consonants. Comm. ↩︎
Upanishasasāda, instead of upanishasāda. The mistake is probably due to a correction, sa for sha; the commentator, however, considers it as a Vedic license. Skāro 'dhikaś chāndasaḥ. ↩︎
These are meant for the Nishkevalya hymn recited at the noon-libation of the Mahāvrata. That hymn consists of ten parts, corresponding, as we saw, to ten parts of a bird, viz. its body, neck, head, root of wings, right wing, left wing, tail, belly, chest, and thighs. The verses corresponding to these ten parts, beginning with tad id asa bhuvaneshu jyeshṭham, are given in the first Āraṇyaka, and more fully in the fifth Āraṇyaka by Śaunaka. 219 Though they consist of many metres, yet, when one counts the syllables, they give a thousand Bṛhatī verses, each consisting of thirty-six syllables. ↩︎
Although the Nishkevalya is but one hymn, consisting of eighty tṛcas, yet as these eighty tṛcas were represented as three kinds of food (see Ait. Ār. II, 1, 2, 2-4), the hymn is represented as three hymns, first as eighty Gāyatrī tṛcas, then as eighty Bṛhatī tṛcas, lastly as eighty Ushṇih tṛcas. ↩︎
Vyañjanāni, explained by kādini. ↩︎
Ghosha, explained by aspirated sonant consonants. ↩︎
Ātmā, explained by madhyaśarīram. ↩︎
Sashasahāḥ. Comm. ↩︎
He became Prāṇa, and because Prāṇa causes all to dwell, or covers all (vāsayati), therefore the Ṛshi was called Vasishṭha. Comm. Cf. Ait. Ār. II, 2, 2, 2. ↩︎
At the Subrahmaṇyā ceremony in the Soma sacrifices, the invocations are, Indra ā gaccha, hariva ā gaccha. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. II, 3, 8, 8. ↩︎
Each Bṛhatī has thirty-six syllables. ↩︎
In this adhyāya some more qualities are explained belonging to the Mahāvrata ceremonial and the hymns employed at it, which can be meditated on as referring to Prāṇa, life. ↩︎
Because the world is the result or reward for performing a meditation on the uktha. Comm. ↩︎
The digestive fire is lighted by the air of the breath. Comm. ↩︎
This treats of the gradual development of life in man, particularly of the development of a thinking soul (caitanya). ↩︎
In stones there is not even sap, but only being, sattā. Comm. ↩︎
What he has known yesterday he remembers, and is able to say before men, I know this. And when he has known a thing he remembers it, and goes to the same place to see it again. Comm. ↩︎
Bhūloka. Comm. ↩︎
Should it not be aty enan manyate? ↩︎
The uktha is to be conceived as prāṇa, breath or life, and this prāṇa was shown to be above the other powers (devatās), speech, hearing, seeing, mind. The uktha belongs to the Mahāvrata day, and that is the most important day of the Soma sacrifice. The Soma sacrifice, lastly, is above all other sacrifices. ↩︎
All these are technicalities connected with the singing and reciting of the uktha. The commentator says: The stoma is a collection of single Ṛc verses occurring in the tṛcas which have to be sung. The Trivṛt stoma, as explained in the Sāma-brāhmaṇa, is as follows: There are three Sūktas, each consisting of three verses, the first being upāsmai gāyata, S. V. Uttarārcika I, 1, 1 = Rv. IX, 11. The Udgātṛ first sings the first three verses ↩︎
The Sāmagas sing the Rājana at the Mahāvrata, and in that Sāman there are, as usual, five parts, the Prastāva, Udgītha, pratihāra, Upadrava, and Nidhana. The Prastotṛ, when singing the Prastāva portions, sings them five times. The Udgātṛ and Pratihartṛ sing their portions, the Udgītha and Pratihāra, five times. The Udgātṛ again sings the Upadrava five times. And all the Udgātṛs together sing the Nidhana five times. ↩︎
The Stobha syllables are syllables without any meaning, added when verses have to be sung, in order to have a support for the music. See Ch. Up. I, 13. In singing the five Sāmans, each five times, one thousand of such Stobha syllables are required. ↩︎
There are in the Nishkevalya hymn, which the Hotṛ has to recite, three sets of eighty tṛcas each. The first, consisting of Gāyatrīs, begins with mahân̆̇ indro ya ojasā. The second, consisting of Bṛhatīs, begins with ya cid anyad. The third, consisting of Ushṇihs, begins with ya indra somapātama. These three sets form the food of the bird, as the emblem of the śastra. The hymns 227 which precede these, form the body, head, and wings of the bird. This is one order. Then follow the three sets of eighty tṛcas each; and lastly, the fifth order, consisting of the hymns which form the belly and the legs of the bird. ↩︎
This passage is obscure, and probably corrupt. I have followed the commentator as much as possible. He says: ‘If the Hotṛ priest proceeds with reciting the śastra, looking to the Anushṭubh, which is speech, and not to the thousand of Bṛhatīs which are breath, then, neglecting the Bṛhatī (breath), and driven by his mind to the Anushṭubh (speech), he does not by his speech obtain that śastra. For in speech without breath the Hotṛ cannot, through the mere wish of the mind, say the śastra, the activity of all the senses being dependent on breath.’ The commentator therefore takes vāgabhi for vācam abhi, or for some old locative case formed by abhi. He also would seem to have read prāṇe na. One might attempt another construction, though it is very doubtful. One might translate, ‘For that self, which is speech, is incomplete, because he understands if driven to the mind by breath, not (if driven) by speech.’ ↩︎
Either in the śastra, or in the list of metres, there being some that have more, others that have less syllables. ↩︎
Vāc, speech, taking the form of Anushṭubh, and being joined with the Ṛc, or the Bṛhatī, touches the true, i. e. Prāṇa, breath, which is to be meditated on under the form of the Bṛhatī. Comm. ↩︎
Cf. Ait. Ār. II, 2, 3, 4. ↩︎
Because the Anushṭubh is made out of the Bṛhatī, the Bṛhatī being breath, therefore the Anushṭubh is called its body. ↩︎
A gāthā is likewise in verse, for instance, prātaḥ prātar anṛtaṃ te vadanti. ↩︎
A kumbyā is a metrical precept, such as, brahmacāryasyāpośānaṃ karma kuru, divi ma svāpsīḥ, &c. ↩︎
Such as arthavādas, explanatory passages, also gossip, such as is common in the king’s palace, laughing at people, &c. ↩︎
As diametrically opposed to the flowers and fruits which represent the true. Comm. ↩︎
Then that man is left empty here on earth for that enjoyment. Comm. ↩︎
He who always says No, keeps everything to himself. ↩︎
The commentator explains visrasā by ‘merging his manhood in the identity with all,’ and doing this while still alive. Visras is the gradual loosening of the body, the decay of old age, but here it has the meaning of vairāgya rather, the shaking off of all that ties the Self to this body or this life. ↩︎
The fourteen worlds in the egg of Brahman. Comm. Some hold that he who enters on this path, and becomes deity, does not 232 arrive at final liberation. Others, however, show that this identification with the uktha, and through it with the prāṇa (breath) and Hiraṇyagarbha, is provisional only, and intended to prepare the mind of the worshipper for the reception of the highest knowledge of Brahman. ↩︎
The last line on page 246 should, I think, be the penultimate line of page 247. ↩︎
The body consists of six elements, and is hence called shāṭkauśika. Of these, three having a white appearance (fat, bone, and marrow), come from the sun and from man; three having a. red appearance, come from fire and from the woman. ↩︎
It is well therefore to shake off this body, and by meditating on the uktha to obtain identity with Hiraṇyagarbha. Comm. ↩︎
The worshipper identifies himself by meditation with prāṇa, breath, which comprehends all gods. These gods (Agni and the rest) appear in the forms of speech, &c. Comm. ↩︎
The prāṇa, breath, and their identity with it through meditation or worship. Comm. ↩︎
Sarvāhammānī hiraṇyagarbha iti śruteḥ. Comm. ↩︎
Cf. 11, 2, 4, 4. ↩︎
The commentator remarks that the worship and meditation on the uktha as prāṇa, as here taught, is different from the prāṇavidyā, the knowledge of prāṇa, taught in the Chāndogya, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, &c., where prāṇa or life is represented as the object of meditation, without any reference to the uktha or other portions of the Mahāvrata ceremony. He enjoins that the meditation on 235 the uktha as prāṇa should be continued till the desired result, the identification of the worshipper with prāṇa, is realised, and that it should afterwards be repeated until death, because otherwise the impression might vanish, and the reward of becoming a god, and going to the gods, be lost. Nor is the worship to be confined to the time of the sacrifice, the Mahāvrata, only, but it has to be repeated mentally during life. There are neither certain postures required for it, nor certain times and places. At the time of death, however, he who has become perfect in this meditation on uktha, as the emblem of prāṇa, will have his reward. Up to a certain point his fate will be the same as that of other people. The activity of the senses will be absorbed in the mind, the activity of the mind in breath, breath in the activity of life, life with breath in the five elements, fire, &c., and these five elements will be absorbed up to their seed in the Paramātman or Highest Self. This ends the old birth. But then the subtile body, having been absorbed in the Highest Self, rises again in the lotus of the heart, and passing out by the channel of the head, reaches a ray of the sun, whether by day or by night, and goes at the northern or southern course of the sun to the road of Arcis or light. That Arcis, light, and other powers carry him on, and led by these he reaches the Brahma-loka, where he creates to himself every kind of enjoyment, according to his wish. He may create for himself a material body and enjoy all sorts of pleasures, as if in a state of waking, or he may, without such a body, enjoy all pleasures in mind only, as if in a dream. And as he creates these various bodies according to his wish, he creates also living souls in each, endowed with the internal organs of mind, and moves about in them, as he pleases. In fact this world is the same for the devotee (yogin) and for the Highest Self, except that creative power belongs truly to the latter only. At last the devotee gains the highest knowledge, that of the Highest Self in himself, and then, at the dissolution of the Brahma-loka, he obtains complete freedom with Brahman. ↩︎
Before the creation. Comm. ↩︎
Blinking, mishat, i. e. living; cf. Rv. X, 190, 2, viśvasya mishato vaśī, the lord of all living. Sāyaṇa seems to take mishat as a 3rd pers. sing. ↩︎
The names of the four worlds are peculiar. Ambhas means water, and is the name given to the highest world, the waters above the heaven, and heaven itself. Marīcis are rays, here used as a name of the sky, antariksha. Mara means dying, and the earth is called so, because all creatures living there must die. Ap is water, here explained as the waters under the earth. The usual division of the world is threefold, earth, sky, and heaven. Here it is fourfold, the fourth division being the water round the earth, or, as the commentator says, under the earth. Ambhas was probably intended for the highest heaven (dyaus), and was then explained both as what is above the heaven and as heaven itself, the support. If we translate, like Śaṅkara and Colebrooke, I the water is the region above the heaven which heaven upholds,’ we should lose heaven altogether, yet heaven, as the third with sky and earth, is essential in the Indian view of the world. ↩︎
Purusha; an embodied being, Colebrooke; a being of human shape, Röer; purushākāram virāṭpiṇḍam, Sāyaṇa. ↩︎
According to the commentator, from the five elements, beginning with water. That person is meant for the Virāj. ↩︎
Tap, as the commentator observes, does not mean here and in similar passages to perform austerities (tapas), such as the Kṛcchra, the Cāndrāyaṇa, &c., but to conceive and to will and to create by mere will. I have translated it by brooding, though this expresses a part only of the meaning expressed by tap. ↩︎
Literally, was opened. ↩︎
Three things are always distinguished here—the place of each sense, the instrument of the sense, and the presiding deity of the sense. ↩︎
Prāṇa, i. e. ghrāṇendriya, must be distinguished from the prāṇa, the up-breathing, one of the five prāṇas, and likewise from the prāṇa as the principle of life. ↩︎
The Apāna, down-breathing, is generally one of the five vital airs 239 which are supposed to keep the body alive. in our place, however, apāna is deglutition and digestion, as we shall see in II, 4, 3, 10. ↩︎
They fell back into that universal being from whence they had sprung, the first created person, the Virāj. Or they fell into the world, the last cause of which is ignorance. ↩︎
To eat food is explained to mean to perceive the objects which correspond to the senses, presided over by the various deities. ↩︎
Here purusha is different from the first purusha, the universal person. it can only be intended for intelligent man. ↩︎
Sukṛta, well done, virtue; or, if taken for svakṛta, self-made. ↩︎
The water, as mentioned before, or the five elements. ↩︎
Mūrti, for mūrtti, form, Colebrooke; a being of organised form, Röer; vrīhiyavādirūpā mūshakādirūpā ca mūrtiḥ, i.e. vegetable food for men, animal food for cats, &c. ↩︎
Offered food, i.e. objects for the Devatās and the senses in the body. ↩︎
Atyajighāṃsat, atiśayena hantuṃ gantum aicchat. Sāyaṇa. ↩︎
An attempt to derive vāyu from vī, to get. ↩︎
Or, by which of the two ways shall I get in, the one way being from the top of the foot (cf. Ait. Ār. II, 1, 4, 1), the other from the skull? Comm. ↩︎
Passages like this must always have required an oral interpretation, but it is by no means certain that the explanation given in the commentaries represents really the old traditional interpretation. Sāyaṇa explains the three dwelling-places as the right eye, in a state of waking; as the throat, in a state of dreaming; as the heart, in a state of profound sleep. Śaṅkara explains them as the right eye, the inner mind, and the ether in the heart. Sāyaṇa allows another interpretation of the three dwelling-places being the body of the father, the body of the mother, and one’s own body. The three dreams or sleeps he explains by waking, dreaming, and profound sleep, and he remarks that waking too is called a dream as compared with the true awakening, which is the knowledge of Brahman. In the last sentence the speaker, when repeating three times ‘this dwelling-place,’ is supposed to point to his right eye, the throat, and the heart. This interpretation is supported by a passage in the Brahma-upanishad, Netre jāgaritaṃ vidyāt kaṇṭhe svapnaṃ samādiśet, sushuptaṃ hṛdayasya tu. ↩︎
In this passage, which is very obscure, Śaṅkara fails us, either because, as Ānandajñāna says, he thought the text was too easy to require any explanation, or because the writers of the MSS. left out 243 the passage. Ānandajñāna explains: ‘He looked through all creatures, he identified himself with them, and thought he was a man, blind, happy, &c.; or, as it is elsewhere expressed, he developed forms and names. And how did this mistake arise? Because he did not see the other, the true Self;’ or literally, ‘Did he see the other Self?’ which is only a figure of speech to convey the meaning that he did not see it. The particle iti is then to be taken in a causal sense, (i. e. he did so, because what else could he have wished to proclaim?) But he allows another explanation, viz. ‘He considered all beings, whether they existed by themselves or not, and after having considered, he arrived at the conclusion, What shall I call different from the true Self?’ The real difficulties, however, are not removed by these explanations. First of all, we expect vāvadisham before iti, and secondly, unless anyam refers to ātmānam, we expect anyad. My own translation is literal, but I am not certain that it conveys the true meaning. One might understand it as implying that the Self looked about through all things, in order to find out, ‘What does wish to proclaim here another Self?’ And when he saw there was nothing which did not come from himself, then he recognised that the Purusha, the person he had sent forth, or, as we should say, the person he had created, was the developed Brahman, was the Ātman, was himself. Sāyaṇa explains vāvadishat by vadishyāmi, but before iti the third person cannot well refer to the subject of vyaikshat. ↩︎
Some MSS. begin this adhyāya with the sentence apakrāmantu garbhiṇyaḥ, may the women who are with child walk away! It is counted as a paragraph. ↩︎
By nourishing the mother, and by performing certain ceremonies both before and after the birth of a child. ↩︎
I read ko yam instead of ko 'yam. ↩︎
Or, Which of the two, the real or the phenomenal, the nirupādhika or sopādhika? ↩︎
Hiraṇyagarbha. Comm. ↩︎
Virāj. Comm. ↩︎
Serpents, &c., says the commentary. ↩︎
Cf. Ch. Up. VI, 3, 1, where the svedaga, born from heat or perspiration, are not mentioned. ↩︎
We have no words to distinguish between prajñā, state of knowing, and prajñāna, act of knowing. Both are names of the Highest Brahman, which is the beginning and end (pratishṭhā) of everything that exists or seems to exist. ↩︎
This seventh adhyāya contains a propitiatory prayer (śāntikaro mantraḥ). It is frequently left out in the MSS. which contain the Aitareya-upanishad with Śaṅkara’s commentary, and Dr. Roer has omitted it in his edition. Sāyaṇa explains it in his commentary on the Aitareya-āranyaka; and in one MS. of Śaṅkara’s commentary on the Aitareya-upanishad, which is in my possession, the seventh adhyāya is added with the commentary of Mādhavāmātya, the Ājñāpālaka of Vīrabukka-mahārāja. ↩︎
The two depend on each other. ↩︎
Ant, explained by the commentator as ānayanasamartha. ↩︎
Cf. Ch. Up. IV, 2, 5. ↩︎
I repeat it day and night so that I may not forget it. ↩︎
This last portion of the Upanishad is found in the MS. discovered by Dr. Bühler in Kashmir, and described by him in the journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, p. 36. I have collated it, so far as it was possible to read it, many lines being either broken off altogether, or almost entirely obliterated. ↩︎
Saṃhitā is the sacred text in which all letters are closely joined. The joining together of two letters is called their saṃhitā; the first letter of a joined group the pūrvarūpa (n.), the second the uttararūpa. For instance, in agnim īḷe the m is pūrvarūpa, the ī uttararūpa, and mī their saṃhitā or union. ↩︎
As in worshipping the Śālagrāma stone, we really worship Vishnu, so we ought to perceive the earth, the heaven, and the air when we pronounce the first and the second letters of a group, and that group itself. ↩︎
Mene has here been taken as 3rd pers. sing. perf. passive. The commentator, however, explains it as an active verb, niścitavān. ↩︎
Because it is included in the ether, not the ether in the air. Comm. ↩︎
Both views are tenable, for it is not the actual air and ether which are meditated on, but their names, as declared and explained in this peculiar act of worship. We should read ākāśaśceti, a reading confirmed both by the commentary and by the Kashmir MS. ↩︎
The man among heroes. Comm. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads manasaivāgre. ↩︎
Both views are admissible. Comm. ↩︎
Prāṇasaṃhitah, Kashmir MS. ↩︎
If i is followed by a, the i is changed to y, and both are united as ya. Here a is the cause which changes i into y. Thus Parjanya, the god of rain, is the cause which unites earth and heaven into rain. Comm. ↩︎
When it rains incessantly, heaven and earth seem to be one in rain. ↩︎
Āndam, aṇḍasadṛśam. Comm. ↩︎
The one half from the feet to the lower jaw, the other half from the upper jaw to the skull. Comm. ↩︎
Cf. Rig-veda-prātiśākhya, ed. Max Müller, p. iii, and Nachträge, p. ii. ↩︎
Nirbhuja(n) is the recitation of the Veda without intervals, therefore the same as Saṃhitā. Pratṛṇṇa is the recitation of each word by itself (pada-pāṭha); Ubhayamantarena, the between the two, is the intertwining of Saṃhitā and Pada-pāṭha, the so-called Krama-pāṭha. By reciting the Saṃhitā inattentively, one may use forms which belong to the Pada-text; and by reciting the Pada inattentively, one may use forms which belong to the Saṃhitā-text. But in reciting the Krama both the Saṃhitā and Pada forms are used together, and therefore mistakes are less likely to happen. ↩︎
From earth and sky. Cf. Ch. Up. II, 22, 3. ↩︎
From the sky and from heaven. ↩︎
Nirbhuja may mean without arms, as if the arms of the words were taken away, or with two arms stretched out, the two words forming, as it were, two arms to one body. ↩︎
Pratṛṇṇa means cut asunder, every word being separated from the others. ↩︎
The words were first each separate, before they were united according to the laws of Sandhi. ↩︎
He may curse him, if he is exceeding rich; or he may wish him the curse of excessive wealth; or he may curse him, if something great depends on it. ↩︎
The commentator explains anuvyāhāra, not as imprecations, but as referring to those who leach or use the imprecations, such imprecations being necessary to guard against the loss of the benefits accruing from the meditation and worship here described; such teachers say what follows. ↩︎
Breath, the union of mind and speech, as explained before. This is the opinion of Sthavira Śākalya, cf. III, 2, 1, 1. ↩︎
If he should tell him that he did not meditate on breath properly. ↩︎
As spoken of before, III, 1, 1, 1. ↩︎
In agnim īḷe, īḷe by itself has no accent, but as joined by sandhi with agnim, its first syllable becomes svarita, its second pracita. In tava it, the vowel i is a short mora or mātrā; but if joined with va, it vanishes, and becomes long e, tavet. Comm. ↩︎
Prātībodhīputra, the son of Prātībodhī, she being probably one out of several wives of Hrasva. Another instance of this metronymic nomenclature occurred in Kṛshṇa Devakīputra, Ch. Up. III, 7, 6. The Kashmir MS. reads Prācībodhī, but Pratibodha is a recognised name in Gaṇa Vidādi, and the right reading is probably Prātibodhī. The same MS. leaves out putra āha. ↩︎
So that the ē in tavet should neither be one letter e, nor two letters a + i, but something between the two, enabling us to hear a + i in the pronunciation of ē. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads Tārkshya, a name used before as the title of a hymn (Ait. Ār. I, 5, 2, 8). Here Tārakshya seems preferable, see Pāṇ. IV, 1, 105. ↩︎
See Ait. Ār. I, 4, 2, 1-4. ↩︎
These two, the Bṛhat and Rathantara, are required for the Pṛshṭhastotra in the Agnishṭoma, and they are to remind the worshipper that speech and breath are required for all actions. ↩︎
Everything can be obtained by speech in this life and in the next. Comm. ↩︎
In the first adhyāya meditations suggested by saṃhitā, pada, and krama have been discussed. Now follow meditations suggested by certain classes of letters. ↩︎
Ait. Ār. III, 1, 4. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads etasmin prāṇe. The self here is meant for the body, and yet it seems to be different from śarīra. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. writes antastha without visarga, while it is otherwise most careful in writing all sibilants. ↩︎
Śākalya, as we saw, told his disciples that there were three classes only, not four. Comm. The Kashmir MS. reads trayaṃ tv eva na ityetat proktam. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS, reads sapta viṃśatiś ca śatāni. ↩︎
There are in the Mahāvrata eighty tristichs of Bṛhatīs, and as each Bṛhatī is decreed to consist of thirty-six syllables, ten would give 360 syllables, and three times ten, 1080. Comm. ↩︎
Instead of Bādhya, the commentary and the Kashmir MS. read Bādhva. ↩︎
Hiraṇyagarbha, with whom he who knows the Veda becomes identified. Comm. ↩︎
Ait. Ār. III, 2, 3, 8. ↩︎
This separation of the self of the sun and the conscious self within us is taken as a sign of approaching death, and therefore a number of premonitory symptoms are considered in this place. ↩︎
ἥλιος μηνοειδής Xen. Hist. gr. 4, 3, 10. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads jīvayishyati. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads jihmaśirasaṃ vāśarīram ātmānam. ↩︎
A white pupil in a black eye-ball. Comm. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads baṭirakāṇi sampatantīva. ↩︎
See Ch. Up. III, 13, 8. The Kashmir MS. and the commentary give the words rathasyevopabdis, which are left out in the printed text. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads mayūragrīvā ameghe. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads svapnaḥ. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads āskandati. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads avagirati. ↩︎
The commentator separates the last dream, so as to bring their number to ten. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads sa yataś śruto. ↩︎
After having inserted the preceding chapter on omina and the concluding paragraph on the highest knowledge, he now returns to the meditation on the letters. ↩︎
The Kashmir MS. reads udara evam, &c. ↩︎
Vādanam, what makes the instrument speak, hastena. Comm. ↩︎
Here the order is inverted in the text. ↩︎
One of the sons of Harita, who was dark. Comm. ↩︎
Brāhmaṇa, in the sense of Upanishad, this secret doctrine or explanation. It forms an appendix, like the svishṭakṛt at the end of a sacrifice. ‘Iva,’ which the commentator explains as restrictive or useless, may mean, something like a Brāhmaṇa. ↩︎
The letters n and sh refer most likely to the rules of ṇatva and shatva, i. e. the changing of n and s into ṇ and sh. ↩︎
If we know whenever n and s should be changed to ṇ and sh in the Saṃhitā. ↩︎
The Kāvasheyas said that, after they had arrived at the highest knowledge of Brahman (through the various forms of meditation and worship that lead to it and that have been described in the Upanishad) no further meditation and no further sacrifice could be 266 required. Instead of the morning and evening stoma they offer breath in speech, whenever they speak, or speech in breath, when they are silent or asleep. When speech begins, breathing ceases; when breathing begins, speech ceases. ↩︎
The strict prohibition uttered at the end of the third Āraṇyaka, not to divulge a knowledge of the Saṃhitā-upanishad (Ait. Ār. III, 1-2), as here explained, is peculiar. It would have seemed self-evident that, like the rest of the śruti or sacred literature, the Āraṇyaka too, and every portion of it, could have been learnt from the mouth of a teacher only, and according to rule (niyamena), i. e. by a pupil performing all the duties of a student (brahmacārin ), so that no one except a regular pupil (antevāsin) could possibly gain access to it. Nor can there be any doubt that we ought to take the words asaṃvatsaravāsin and apravaktṛ as limitations, and to translate, ‘Let no one tell these Saṃhitās to any pupil who has not at least been a year with his master, and who does not mean to become a teacher in turn.’
That this is the right view is confirmed by similar injunctions given at the end of the fifth Āraṇyaka. Here we have first some rules as to who is qualified to recite the Mahāvrata. No one is permitted to do so, who has not passed through the Dīkshā, the initiation for the Agnishṭoma. If the Mahāvrata is performed as a Sattra, the sacrificer is a Hotri priest, and he naturally has passed through that ceremony. But if the Mahāvrata is performed as an Ekāha or Ahīna ceremony, anybody might be the sacrificer, and therefore it was necessary to say that no one who is adīkshita, uninitiated, should recite it for another person; nor should he do so, 267 when the Mahāvrata is performed without (or with) an altar, or if it does not last one year. In saying, however, that one should not recite the Mahāvrata for another person, parents and teachers are not to be understood as included, because what is done for them, is done for ourselves.
After these restrictions as to the recitation of the Mahāvrata, follow other restrictions as to the teaching of it, and here we read, as at the end of the Upanishad:
4. 'Let no one teach this day, the Mahāvrata, to one who is not a regular pupil (antevāsin), and has been so for one year, certainly not to one who has not been so for one year; nor to one who is not a brahmacārin and does not study the same Veda , certainly not to one who does not study the same Veda; nor to one who does not come to him.
5. 'Let the teaching not be more than saying it once or twice, twice only.
6. 'One man should tell it to one man, so says Jātukarṇya.
7. 'Not to a child, nor to a man in his third stage of life.
8. 'The teacher and pupil should not stand, nor walk, nor lie down, nor sit on a couch; but they should both sit on the ground.
9. 'The pupil should not lean backward while learning, nor lean forward. He should not be covered with too much clothing, nor assume the postures of a devotee, but without using any of the apparel of a devotee, simply elevate his knees. Nor should he learn, when he has eaten flesh, when he has seen blood, or a corpse, or when he has done an unlawful thing ; when he has anointed his eyes, oiled or rubbed his body, when he has been shaved or bathed, put colour on, or ornamented himself with flower-wreaths, when he has been writing or effacing his writing .
10. 'Nor should he finish the reading in one day, so says Jātukarṇya, while according to Gālava, he should finish it in one day. Āgniveśyāyana holds that he should finish all before the Trikāśītis ↩︎