| editor

“ We have said that the incorporeal conscious self and the sun are one1. When these two become separated, the sun is seen as if it were the moon; 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He (the sun) , who shines, honoured this world (the body of the worshipper, by entering into it) , in the form of man (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 lie honoured him during a hundred years, therefore there are (the poets of the first Mandala of the Rigveda, called) the Satarkin, (having honour for a hundred years.) Therefore people call him who is really Prana (breath) , the Satarkin poets. ”

“ 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 (devatis) , 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. ”

“ 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 mahavrata day, which completes the number of the days in the Gavamayana sacrifice) , and by means of the day of life (he obtains) the syllable of life.
9. Now there is a chariot of the god (prana) destroying all desires (for the worlds of Indra, the moon, the earth, all of which lie below the place of Hiranyagarbha) . ”

“ He who knows one sacrifice above another, one day above another, one deity above the others, he is clever. Now this great uktha (the nishke-valya-sastra) is the sacrifice above another, the day above another, the deity above others 1.
2. This uktha is fivefold. With regard to its being performed as a Stoma (chorus) , it is Trivrit, Pahkadasa, Saptadasa, Ekavimsa, and Pankavimsa. With regard to its being performed as a Siman (song) , it is Gayatra, Rathantara, Brihat, Bhadra, and Ragana. With regard to metre, it is Gayatri, Ushnih, Brihati, Trishtubh, and Dvipadi. ”

“ The mute consonants represent the earth, the sibilants the sky, the vowels heaven. The mute consonants represent Agni (fire) , the sibilants air, the vowels the sun. The mute consonants represent the Rig-veda, the sibilants the Yagur-veda, the vowels the Sama-veda. The mute consonants represent the eye, the sibilants the ear, the vowels the mind. 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. ”

“ That in which the poets rejoiced (the revealed nature of prana, breath) , in it the gods exist all joined together. Having driven away evil by means of that Brahman (which is hidden in prana) , the enlightened man goes to the Svarga world (becomes one with Hiranyagarbha, the universal spirit) . ”

“ 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 Virag is food, and food is strength.
8. Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath.
SECOND KHANDA 1. Next follows the right wing. It is this world (the earth) , it is this Agni, it is speech, it is the Rathantara, it is Vasishtha, it is a hundred. ”

“ They discovered (and meditated) in speech (called Anushtubh) -at that time (when they worshipped the uktha) -the Prana (breath) connected with Indra.
6. He (who takes the recited verses as Anushtubhs) is able to become celebrated and of good report.
7. No! he says; rather is such a man liable to die before his time. For that self (consisting of Anushtubhs) is incomplete. For if a man confines himself to speech, not to breath, then driven by his mind, he does not succeed with speech.
8. Let him work towards the Brihati, for the Brihati (breath) is the complete self. ”

“ The person of the body, the person of the metres, the person of the Veda, and the Great person. What we call the person of the body is this corporeal self. Its essence is the incorporeal conscious self. ”

“ If a man says No to everything, then his reputation 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. ”

“ Trishtubh is the man, Anushtubh 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 Pragapati 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. ”

“ 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 Hotri priest who knows this, recites this hymn .
3. In the second verse of (the Pragatha) , indra nediya ed ihi, pra su tira sakibhir ye ta ukthinah (Rv. VIII, 53, 5, 6) , there occurs the word ukthinah, reciters of hymns. Verily, this day (the mahavrata) is an uktha (hymn) , and as endowed with an uktha, the form of this day is perfect. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And here they ask: 'What is the beginning of this day?' Let him say: 'Mind and speech.'
2. All desires dwell in the one (mind) , the other yields all desires.
3. All desires dwell in the mind, for with the mind he conceives all desires.
4. All desires come to him who knows this.
5. Speech yields all desires, for with speech he declares all his desires.
6. Speech yields all desires to him who knows this.
7. Here they say: 'Let him not begin this day with a Rik, a Yagus, or a Saman verse (divine speech) , for it is said, he should not start with a .Rik, a Yagus, or a Saman.'
8. ”

“ X, I 20, 1 a, b) , serve for the gaining of both kinds of food, of what has feet (animal food) , and what has no feet (vegetable food) .
7. They come to be of eighteen syllables each. Of those which are ten, nine are the pranas (opening of the body) , 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.
EIGHTH KHANDA 1. He extends (these verses) by (interpolating) the sound. Verily, breath (prana) is sound. Therefore every breath when it sounds, sounds loud, as it were. ”

“ 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 Hiranyagarbha) , and is seen as immortal (in the sun) by all beings, yea, by all beings. ”

“ He saw this person only (himself) as the widely spread Brahman. 'I saw it,' thus he said; (13) Therefore he was Idam-dra (seeing this) .
11. Being Idamdra by name, they call him Indra mysteriously. For the Devas love mystery, yea, they love mystery. (14)
FIFTH ADHYAYA FIRST KHANDA 1. Let the women who are with child move away!
2. Verily, from the beginning he (the self) is in man as a germ, which is called seed.
3. This (seed) , which is strength gathered from all the limbs of the body, he (the man) bears as self in his self (body) . ”