PRASŇA-UPANISHAD.

FIRST QUESTION.

Adoration to the Highest Self! Harih, Om!

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1. Sukesas1 Bharadvâga 2, and Saivya Satyakâma, and Sauryâyanin Gârgya, and Kausalya Âsvalâyana, and Bhargava Vaidarbhi, and Kabandhin Kâtyâyana, these were devoted to Brahman, firm in Brahman, seeking for the Highest Brahman. They thought that the venerable Pippalâda could tell them all that, and they therefore took fuel in their hands (like pupils), and approached him.

2. That Rishi said to them: 'Stay here a year longer, with penance, abstinence, and faith; then you may ask questions according to your pleasure, and if we know them, we shall tell you all.'

3. Then Kabandhin Kâtyâyana approached him and asked: 'Sir, from whence may these creatures be born?'

1 Sukesas seems better than Sukesan, and he is so called in the sixth Prasña, in MS. Mill 74.

2 Bhâradvâga, Saivya, Gârgya, Âsvalâyana, Bhârgava, and Kâtyâyana are, according to Sankara, names of gotras or families.

3 Suryasyapatyam Sauryah, tadapatyam Sauryâyanih. Dîrghah sulopas ka khândasa iti sa eva Sauryâyanî.

4 Kausalyo nâmatah, kosalâyâm bhavo vâ.

Vaidarbhi is explained as vidarbheh prabhavah, or Vidarbheshu prabhavah. Vidarbha, a country, south of the Vindhya mountains, with Kundina as its capital. Vaidarbha, a king of the Vidarbhas, is mentioned in the Ait. Brâhm. VII, 34. Vaidarbhi is a patronymic of Vidarbha. See B. R. s. v.

6 After the year was over.

4. He replied: 'Pragâpati (the lord of creatures) was desirous of creatures (pragâh). He performed penance1, and having performed penance, he produces a pair, matter (rayi) and spirit (prâna), thinking that they together should. produce creatures for him in many ways.

All

52. The sun is spirit, matter is the moon. this, what has body and what has no body, is matter, and therefore body indeed is matter.

6. Now Âditya, the sun, when he rises, goes toward the East, and thus receives the Eastern spirits into his rays. And when he illuminates the South, the West, the North, the Zenith, the Nadir, the intermediate quarters, and everything, he thus receives all spirits into his rays.

7. Thus he rises, as Vaisvânara, (belonging to all men,) assuming all forms, as spirit, as fire. This has been said in the following verse:

83. (They knew) him who assumes all forms, the golden, who knows all things, who ascends highest, alone in his splendour, and warms us; the thousandrayed, who abides in a hundred places, the spirit of all creatures, the Sun, rises.

9. The year indeed is Pragâpati, and there are two paths thereof, the Southern and the Northern. Now those who here believe in sacrifices and pious gifts as work done, gain the moon only as their

1 Or he meditated; see Upanishads, vol. i, p. 238, n. 3.

Sankara explains, or rather obscures, this by saying that the sun is breath, or the eater, or Agni, while matter is the food, namely, Soma.

Cf. Maitr. Up. VI, 8.

Harinam is explained as rasmimantam, or as harati sarveshâm prâninâm âyûmshi bhaumân vâ rasân iti harinah. I prefer to take it in the sense of yellow, or golden.

(future) world, and return again. Therefore the Rishis who desire offspring, go to the South, and that path of the Fathers is matter (rayi).

10. But those who have sought the Self by penance, abstinence, faith, and knowledge, gain by the Northern path Âditya, the sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From thence they do not return, for it is the end. Thus says the Sloka1:

11. Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons), and with twelve shapes (the twelve months), the giver of rain in the highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in the lower half, in the chariot 2 with seven wheels and six spokes.

12. The month is Pragâpati; its dark half is matter, its bright half spirit. Therefore some Rishis perform sacrifice in the bright half, others in the other half.

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13. Day and Night are Pragâpati; its day is spirit, its night matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to unite in love by night is right.

14. Food is Pragâpati. Hence proceeds seed, and from it these creatures are born.

15. Those therefore who observe this rule of Pragâpati (as laid down in § 13), produce a pair, and to them belongs this Brahma-world here. But

1 Rig-veda I, 164, 12.

2

Saptakakre, i. e. rathe.

We ought to read upare vikakshanam.
The seven wheels are explained as the

rays or horses of the sun; or as half-years, seasons, months, half

months, days, nights, and muhûrtas.

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* Taken as one, as a Nychthemeron.

In the moon, reached by the path of the Fathers.

those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and truth,

16. To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked, nothing false, and no guile.'

SECOND QUESTION.

1. Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked him: Sir, How many gods' keep what has thus been created, how many manifest this, and who is the best of them?'

2. He replied: 'The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their power), contend and say: We (each of us) support this body and keep it 3.

3. Then Prâna (breath, spirit, life), as the best, said to them: Be not deceived, I alone, dividing myself fivefold, support this body and keep it.

4. They were incredulous; so he, from pride, did as if he were going out from above. Thereupon,

1 Devâh, powers, organs, senses.

• Their respective power.

This is Sankara's explanation, in which bâna is taken to mean the same as sarîra, body. But there seems to be no authority for such a meaning, and Ânandagiri tries in vain to find an etymological excuse for it. Bâna or Vâna generally means an arrow, or, particularly in Brâhmana writings, a harp with many strings. I do not see how an arrow could be used as an appropriate simile here, but a harp might, if we take avash/abhya in the sense of holding the frame of the instrument, and vidhârayâmah in the sense of stretching and thereby modulating it.

On this dispute of the organs of sense, see Brih. Up. VI, 1, p. 201; Khând. Up. V, 1 (S. B. E., vol. i, p. 72).

as he went out, all the others went out, and as he returned, all the others returned. As bees go out when their queen' goes out, and return when she returns, thus (did) speech, mind, eye, and ear; and, being satisfied, they praise Prâna, saying:

5. He is Agni (fire), he shines as Sûrya (sun), he is Parganya (rain), the powerful (Indra), he is Vâyu (wind), he is the earth, he is matter, he is God-he is what is and what is not, and what is immortal.

6. As spokes in the nave of a wheel, everything is fixed in Prâna, the verses of the Rig-veda, Yagurveda, Sâma-veda, the sacrifice, the Kshatriyas, and the Brahmans.

7. As Pragâpati (lord of creatures) thou movest about in the womb, thou indeed art born again. To thee, the Prâna, these creatures bring offerings, to thee who dwellest with the other prânas (the organs of sense).

8. Thou art the best carrier for the Gods, thou art the first offering 2 to the Fathers. Thou art the true work of the Rishis 3, of the Atharvângiras.

9. O Prâna, thou art Indra by thy light, thou art Rudra, as a protector; thou movest in the sky, thou art the sun, the lord of lights.

10. When thou showerest down rain, then, O Prâna, these creatures of thine are delighted, hoping that there will be food, as much as they desire.

1 In Sanskrit it is madhukararâga, king of the bees.

• When a srâddha is offered to the Pitris.

3

Explained as the eye and the other organs of sense which the chief Prâna supports; but it is probably an old verse, here applied to a special purpose.

4 Another reading is prânate, they breathe.