* PRASÑA-UPANISHAD - FOURTH QUESTION

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads

p. 279

PRASÑA-UPANISHAD -
FOURTH QUESTION

1. Then Sauryâyanin Gârgya asked: 'Sir, What are they that sleep in this man, and what are they that are awake in him? What power (deva) is it that sees dreams? Whose is the happiness? On what do all these depend?'

2. He replied: 'O Gârgya, As all the rays of the sun, when it sets, are gathered up in that disc of light, and as they, when the sun rises again and again, come forth, so is all this (all the senses) gathered up in the highest faculty (deva) 1, the mind. Therefore at that time that man does not hear, see, smell, taste, touch, he does not speak, he does not take, does not enjoy, does not evacuate, does not move about. He sleeps, that is what people say.

3. The fires of the prânas are, as it were 2, awake in that town (the body). The Apâna is the Gârhapatya fire, the Vyâna the Anvâhâryapakana fire; and because it is taken out of the Gârhapatya fire, which is fire for taking out 3, therefore the Prâna is the Âhavanîya fire 4.

Now the Apâna is identified with the Gârhapatya fire, no reason being given except afterwards, when it is said that the Prâna is the Âhavanîya fire, being taken out of the Gârhapatya, here called p. 280 pranayana, in the same manner as the prâna proceeds in sleep from the apâna. The Vyâna is identified with the Dakshinâgni, the Southern fire, because it issues from the heart through an aperture on the right.

p. 280

4. Because it carries equally these two oblations, the out-breathing and the in-breathing, the Samâna is he (the Hotri priest) 1. The mind is the sacrificer, the Udâna is the reward of the sacrifice, and it leads the sacrificer every day (in deep sleep) to Brahman.

5. There that god 2 (the mind) enjoys in sleep greatness. What has been seen, he 2 sees again; what has been heard, he hears again; what has been enjoyed in different countries and quarters, he enjoys again; what has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, enjoyed and not enjoyed, he sees it all; he, being all, sees.

6. And when he is overpowered by light 3, then that god sees no dreams, and at that time that happiness arises in his body.

7. And, O friend, as birds go to a tree to roost, thus all this rests in the Highest Âtman,--

8. The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtile elements, the air and its subtile elements, the ether and its subtile elements; the eye and what can be

p. 281

seen, the ear and what can be heard, the nose and what can be smelled, the taste and what can be tasted, the skin and what can be touched, the voice and what can be spoken, the hands and what can be grasped, the feet and what can be walked, the mind and what can be perceived, intellect (buddhi) and what can be conceived, personality and what can be personified, thought and what can be thought, light and what can be lighted up, the Prâna and what is to be supported by it.

9. For he it is who sees, hears, smells, tastes, perceives, conceives, acts, he whose essence is knowledge 1, the person, and he dwells in the highest, indestructible Self,--

10. He who knows that indestructible being, obtains (what is) the highest and indestructible, he without a shadow, without a body, without colour, bright--,yes, O friend, he who knows it, becomes all-knowing, becomes all. On this there is this Sloka:

11. He, O friend, who knows that indestructible being wherein the true knower, the vital spirits (prânas), together with all the powers (deva), and the elements rest, he, being all-knowing, has penetrated all.'

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Footnotes

279:1 See note to verse 5.

279:2 We ought to read agnaya iva.

279:3 Pranayana, pranîyate 'smâd iti pranayano gârhapatyo 'gnih.

279:4 The comparison between the prânas and the fires or altars is not very clear. As to the fires or altars, there is the Gârhapatya, placed in the South-west, the household fire, which is always kept burning, from which the fire is taken to the other altars. The Anvâhâryapakana, commonly called the Dakshina fire, placed in the South, used chiefly for oblations to the forefathers. The Âhavanîya fire, placed in the East, and used for sacrifices to the gods.

280:1 The name of the Hotri priest must be supplied. He is supposed to carry two oblations equally to the Âhavanîya, and in the same way the Vyâna, combines the two breathings, the in and out breathings.

280:2 The gîvâtman under the guise of manas. The Sanskrit word is deva, god, used in the sense of an invisible power, but as a masculine. The commentator uses manodevah, p. 212, l. 5. I generally translate deva, if used in this sense, by faculty, but the context required a masculine. See verse 2.

280:3 In the state of profound sleep or sushupti.

281:1 Buddhi and the rest are the instruments of knowledge, but there is the knower, the person, in the Highest Self.

Vol. XV THE UPANISHADS - PART II - Prasña Upanishad


(SEBO1)Translated by F. Max Müller - 1879
God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads
This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1923