'Having successively fixed the breath, after it had been restrained, in the palate, thence having crossed the limit (the life), let him join himself afterwards to the limitless (Brahman) in the crown of the head.'

22. And thus it has been said elsewhere: Two Brahmans have to be meditated on, the word and the non-word. By the word alone is the non-word revealed. Now there is the word Om. Moving upward by it (where all words and all what is meant by them ceases), he arrives at absorption in the non-word (Brahman). This is the way, this is the immortal, this is union, and this is bliss. And as the spider, moving upward by the thread, gains free space, thus also he who meditates, moving upward by the syllable Om, gains independence.

Other teachers of the word (as Brahman) think otherwise. They listen to the sound of the ether within the heart while they stop the ears with the thumbs. They compare it to seven noises, like rivers, like a bell, like a brazen vessel, like the wheels of a carriage, like the croaking of frogs, like rain, and as if a man speaks in a cavern. Having passed beyond this variously apprehended sound, and having settled in the supreme, soundless (non-word), unmanifested Brahman, they become undistinguished and undistinguishable, as various flavours of the flowers are lost in the taste of honey. And thus it is said:

'Two Brahmans are to be known, the word-Brahman and the highest Brahman; he who is perfect in the word-Brahman attains the highest Brahman'.'

1 Cf. Mahâbhârata XII, 8540; Sarvadarsana-sangraha, p. 147; Cowell's Translation, p. 271.

23. And thus it has been said elsewhere: The syllable Om is what is called the word. And its end is the silent, the soundless, fearless, sorrowless, joyful, satisfied, firm, unwavering, immortal, immovable, certain (Brahman), called Vishnu. Let him worship these two, that he may obtain what is higher than everything (final deliverance). For thus it is said:

'He who is the high and the highest god', by name Om-kâra, he is soundless and free from all distinctions: therefore let a man dwell on him in the crown of his head.'

24. And thus it has been said elsewhere: The body is the bow, the syllable Om is the arrow, its point is the mind. Having cut through the darkness, which consists of ignorance2, it approaches that which is not covered by darkness. Then having cut through that which was covered (the personal soul), he saw Brahman, flashing like a wheel on fire, bright like the sun, vigorous, beyond all darkness, that which shines forth in yonder sun, in the moon, in the fire, in the lightning. And having seen him, he obtains immortality. And thus it has been said:

'Meditation is directed to the highest Being (Brahman) within, and (before) to the objects (body, Om, mind); thence the indistinct understanding becomes distinct.

And when the works of the mind are dissolved,

1 The commentator takes devâ as devah, though the accent is against it; see Schroeder, Über die Maitrâyanî Samhitâ, p. 9, l. 11. ? Should it not be, 'darkness is the mark?'

• Atamâvish/a, explained as an irregular compound, atama-âvishlam, tama-âvesanarahitam.

• Cf. Bhagavadgîtâ XV, 12.

then that bliss which requires no other witness, that is Brahman (Âtman), the immortal, the brilliant, that is the way, that is the (true) world.'

25. And thus it has been said elsewhere: He who has his senses hidden as in sleep, and who, while in the cavern of his senses (his body), but no longer ruled by them, sees, as in a dream, with the purest intellect, Him who is called Pranava (Om), the leader 1, the bright, the sleepless, free from old age, from death, and sorrow, he is himself also called Pranava, and becomes a leader, bright, sleepless, free from old age, from death, and sorrow. And thus it is said:

'Because in this manner he joins the Prâna (breath), the Om, and this Universe in its manifold forms, or because they join themselves (to him), therefore this (process of meditation) is called Yoga (joining).

The oneness of breath, mind, and senses, and then the surrendering of all conceptions, that is called Yoga.'

26. And thus it has also been said elsewhere: As a sportsman, after drawing out the denizens of the waters with a net, offers them (as a sacrifice) in the fire of his stomach, thus are these Prânas (vital airs), after they have been drawn out with the syllable Om, offered in the faultless fire (Brahman) 2.

Hence he is like a heated vessel (full of clarified butter); for as the clarified butter in the heated vessel lights up, when touched with grass and sticks, thus does this being which is called Not-breath (Âtman) light up, when touched by the Prânas (the

1 Cf. VI, 4.

2 Cf. Svetâsvatara-upanishad III, 10.

vital airs). And that which flares up, that is the manifest form of Brahman, that is the highest place of Vishnu2, that is the essence of Rudra. And this, dividing his Self in endless ways, fills all these worlds. And thus it is said:

'As the sparks from the fire, and as the rays from the sun, thus do his Prânas and the rest in proper order again and again proceed from him here on earth'.'

27. And thus it has also been said elsewhere: This is the heat of the highest, the immortal, the incorporeal Brahman, viz. the warmth of the body. And this body is the clarified butter (poured on it, by which the heat of Brahman, otherwise invisible, is lighted up). Then, being manifest, it is placed in the ether (of the heart). Then by concentration they thus remove that ether which is within the heart, so that its light appears, as it were1. Therefore the worshipper becomes identified with that light without much delay. As a ball of iron, if placed in the earth, becomes earth without much delay, and as, when it has once become a clod of earth, fire and smiths have nothing more to do with that ball of iron, thus does thought (without delay) disappear, together with its support". And thus it is said:

As the fire which exists invisibly in a heated vessel becomes visible when the heated vessel is touched with sticks dipped in butter, thus the Âtman in the body appears only when the Prânas are diffused in it. Or, as the clarified butter, heated together with the vessel, lights up grass that comes in contact with it, so does this Atman (called Not-breath), by heating its two bodies which are pervaded by the reflections of the thinker, light up everything brought in contact with it, viz. the world.

2 See Kathi Up. III, 9. See VI, 31; Brih. Up. II, 1, IO. The light was always there, but it seems then only to appear. The commentator explains this differently. He says that the

'The shrine which consists of the ether in the heart, the blissful, the highest retreat, that is our own, that is our goal, and that is the heat and brightness of the fire and the sun.'

28. And thus it has been said elsewhere: After having left behind the body, the organs of sense, and the objects of sense (as no longer belonging to us), and having seized the bow whose stick is fortitude and whose string is asceticism, having struck down also with the arrow, which consists in freedom from egotism, the first guardian of the door of Brahman— (for if man looks at the world egotistically, then, taking the diadem of passion, the earrings of greed and envy, and the staff of sloth, sleep, and sin, and having seized the bow whose string is anger, and whose stick is lust, he destroys with the arrow which consists of wishes, all beings)-having therefore killed that guardian, he crosses by means of the boat Om to the other side of the ether within the heart, and when the ether becomes revealed (as Brahman), he enters slowly, as a miner seeking minerals in a mine, into the Hall of Brahman. After that let him, by means of the doctrine of his teacher, break through the shrine of Brahman, which consists of the four nets (of food, breath, mind, knowledge, till he reaches the last shrine, that of blessedness and identity with Brahman). Thenceforth pure,

similes are intended to show how, as soon as the impediment is removed, the worshipper obtains his true form, i.e. becomes Brahman. Afterwards he explains kittam, thought, by the individual thinker, and declares that he vanishes together with the thought, which forms the âsraya, the place, or the upâdhi, the outward form. Or again, he says that the kitta, the mind, vanishes with its outward sign, viz. the thoughts and imaginations.