1. Sixty Upanisads of the Veda -Part- 2

SIXTY UPANIṢADS OF THE VEDA

PAUL DEUSSEN

Sixty Upanisads of the Veda

Translated from German by

V. M. BEDEKAR and G. B. PALSULE

PART TWO

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SIXTY

UPANIṢADS

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VEDA

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PART TWO

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE UPANIṢADS

[ Pages in Antique occur in PART I ]

Aitareya 7

Amṛtabindu 691

Āṛseya 919

Āruṇeya 741

Āśrama 763

Atharvaśikhā 779

Atharvaśiras 769

Ātma 655

Ātma(pra)bodha 807

Bāṣkala 903

Brahmā 725

Brahmabindu 687

Brahmavidyā 667

Bṛhadāraṇyaka 389

Chāgaleya 909

Chāndogya 61

Cūlikā 677

Dhyānabindu 699

Garbha 639

Gāruḍa 663

Haṁsa 717

Īśā 545

Jābāla 757

Kaivalya 791

Kālañniruddra 789

Kaṇthaśruti 745

Kāthaka 269

Kauṣītaki 21

Kena 207

Kṣurikā 671

Mahā 799

Mahānārāyaṇa 247

Maitrāyaṇa 327

Māṇḍūkya 605

Mṛtyulāṅgala 917

Muṇḍaka 569

Nādabindu 683

Nārāyaṇa 803

Nīlarudra 783

Nṛsiṁha-pūrvatāpanīya 809

Nṛsiṁha-uttaratāpanīya 835

Paiṅgala 915

Paramahaṁsa 753

Piṇḍa 653

Prāṇāgnihotra 645

Praṇava 925

Praśna 589

Puruṣasūkta 893

Rāma-pūrvatāpanīya 863

Rāma-uttaratāpanīya 879

Śaunaka 943

Śivasamkalpa 901

Śvetāśvatara 301

Saṁnyāsa 733

Sarvopanisatsāra 657

Tadveva 897

Taittirīya 217

Tejobindu 705

Yogaśikhā 709

Yogatattva 713

THE ĪŚA UPANIṢAD

OF THE ŚUKLA YAJURVEDA

INTRODUCTION

This valuable small Upaniṣad, which according to its place in the Veda, is named Vājasaneyiśāmhitā-Upaniṣad or more usually, according to the words of the commencement, it is named as Īśa or Īśāvāsya-Upaniṣad; mostly in the Indian collection (of the Upaniṣads), the series of the Upaniṣads customarily begins with this Upaniṣad. Historically considered, in spite of its position in one Samhitā, it is wrong (to place it as the first) as it belongs to a pretty late stage of development; but in fact, it is not unsuitable (to place it in the beginning), so far as it affords an excellent glimpse into the basic doctrines of the Vedānta philosophy. According to its period, it is related with the latest parts of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, according to all appearances, it is connected in verses 9-11 with the Kena 3b in its verse 3, it is reminiscent of Chānd. 8 8.5, it appears in many points more developed than the Kāṭhaka-Upaniṣad, with which it in its verse 8 concurs in respect of an important idea (cf. Kāṭh. 5-13); but on the other hand, it may appear to be older than the Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad, to which it supplies a precious supplementation from the ethical side, without participating in its heretical tendencies. The grounds in support of this will be given further on.—The basic thought consists in a description of one who knows the Ātman (verses) 1-2, 6-7, 11, 14) in contrast to those who persist in or maintain the standpoint of individual knowledge (verses 3, 9-10 12-13). This constrast or juxtaposition is repeatedly broken by a description of the nature of the Ātman, which is full of contradictions and is concluded (verses 15-18) with a glimpse into eschatology.

1-2 Ethical conduct of one who knows the Ātman.

3 The delusion caused by nescience.

4-5 Description of the Ātman.

6-7 The blessed state of one who knows the Ātman.

8 Once again the Ātman.

9-11 Condemnation of Avidyā and Vidyā.

12-13 Combating of becoming (of originating and decaying)

15-18 (=Bṛh. 5-15) A view of the beyond.

ĪŚA UPANIṢAD

[Verses 1-2. The ethical conduct of one who knows the Ātman.—

After the assumption of plurality had been already rejected in Brh. 4.4.12

(Kāṭh 4.10.11) in the severest terms, our Upaniṣad, basing itself on it,

asks, in its commencing words, for sinking the whole plurality of the world

in the depths of divine unity (literally, to clothe oneself all around or to

cover oneself with God.) In renouncing the pluralistic world, there lies the

true enjoyment (as it was already developed in the Brh. 5.12, in the words

vi-ram), not in aspiring after another's goods. He who abides by this (evam

tvayi), should continually carry on his work and wish for himself the full

duration of life; no work clings to him. This thought is a great step far

beyond the views prevailing in the Brh. 3.5.4,4,22. There a practical carrying

out of world renunciation is demanded. Our passage concedes the enjoy-

ment of life, when only there is the intention or a way of thinking of

renouncing. It is the same step which was carried out by Jesus further than

John the Baptist (Ev. Matth. 11.18-19) and in another respect, by the

Stoics further than the Cynics.]

1. Sink this universe in God

and everything that lives on the earth!

He, who renounces, truly enjoys;

Do not hanker after other's goods.

2. A man should wish to live a hundred years,

carrying on his work!

Therefore it stands (endures) if you do so, not otherwise;

the taint of work does not cling to you.

[Verse 3. The delusion of the man who does not know. He who sees the

self (ātman) in the body—of him, on that account, as it is expressed in the

harshest terms, his soul (as the true Ātman) is murdered, (i.e. denied); he

belongs to the demoniacal world, because he is a demoniacal man, as we

should supplement from the Chānd. 8.8.6 (from which perhaps the thought

stems).]

3. Indeed, demoniacal is this world,

enveloped by blinding darkness!

There in go all after death,

those who have murdered their souls,

(ātmahano janāḥ)

548

Sixty Upaniṣads

[The nature of Ātman, full of contradictions; it is the coincidentia oppositorium (coinciding opposites), as has been already taught in the Atharvaveda 10.8.11 (see Gesch. d. Phil. I. 320), and as is stated in many more passages more closely in the Kāṭhaka-Upanisad, with which perhaps, our passage is connected; The Ātman is unmoved and yet it is the quickest of all, it is far and yet it is the nearest of all (of Kāṭh. 2.21), it is inside and at the same time outside of all (cf. Kaṭh. 5.9-11); it is one and at the same time all-encompassing, even like the primaeval waters which Mātariśvan i.e. "Prajāpati as the wind" lays in it; this last idea, indeed, traces itself back to the Taitt. Saṃh. 5.6.4.2 and 7.1.5.1) (cf. the translation of this passage in Gesch. d. Phil. I. 195).]

4. That one,—without movement and still quick as thought—

advancing forward, not overtaken by gods

standing still, it out-distances all runners,

in it, the wind-god already puts or places the waters.

5. It is resting and yet restless,

it is far and still so near!

it is inside all

and still outside all it is.

[Verses 6-7 : Joy of the one who knows the Ātman. He who knows himself as all beings and all beings as himself,—he never becomes afraid of and hides himself from the beings; the illusion of individual existence that with sorrows bound up with it have ceased for him. Though the expression vijugupsate may also be traced back to the idea in the Bṛh. 4.4.15, Kaṭh. 4, 5-12 but in none of these passages it has been as sharply and finely expressed as in ours.]

6. He who recognizes all beings here

in his own self

and himself in all that lives,—

—he never feels alarmed before any one.

7. In whom, all the beings have become

the own self of him who knows,

there, (in him), which illusion or delusion

which sorrow would befall him,

who sees realizes the unity!

[Verse 8 : Once again the nature of the Ātman or Brahman (therefore masc. and neuter used pellmell) is described mostly in negative definitions reminiscent of Bṛh. 3.8.8. The final line (in which the metre

Īśa Upaniṣad

through the interpolated yathātathyatao' is broken up with complete irregularity) formulates a thought further which meets us less developed in words in Kaṭh. 5.13 (Śvet. 6.13) : eko bahūnām yo vidadhāti kāmān.]

8. It stretched itself around, bodiless and sinewless

pure, sole, unvulnerable, free from evil—

Viewing in advance, only the self through itself (svayambhū)

all-encompassing,

he has sketched (or planned) everything according to the kind of direction or policy for a perennial period.

[Verses 9 : 11 : Condemnation of Avidyā and Vidyā. This verse (and along with it indeed the inserted verse in Bṛh. 4.4.10) are connected probably with Kena 3b and find, in every case, from the context there, their right elucidation. Avidyā is the empirical knowledge of plurality, Vidyā, the attempt to attain to God, whom one juxtaposes it as an object to be known (and to be adored). After the sharp severe remarks with which this attempt, in Taitt. 2.7, Kena 11, had been repudiated, it is indeed psychologically to be understood (anticipated), if our passage explains this supposed knowledge as evil, as the nescience (avidyā).]

9. Into blinding darkness they enter

who pay homage to the nescience;

into the still more blinding darkness enter those,

who are satisfied with the knowledge.

10. Different it is to which knowledge1 leads,

and different it is to which ignorance or nescience leads !

Thus the teaching has been transmitted to us—

the doctrine by the ancient masters.

11. He who knows the knowledge and ignorance

—both (as inadequate)

—he transcends, through both2 the death

and attains immortality.

1. The expression anyad vidyayā is boldly elliptical : “different (from what) (is attained) through knowledge. The elucidation lies in Kena 3b : anyad eva tad viditāt.

2. Particularly through the fact that he sees through knowledge and ignorance as being inadequate. No weight can be placed on (—or importance can be attached to—) the juxtaposition that he through the one transcends death and through the other attains immortality because ‘to transcend death’ and ‘to attain immortality’ is one and the same. The particular remark holds good for verse 14.

16. O Pūṣan, the sole seer, O Yama,

O sun-god, O Prajāpatī's son!

disperse your rays, amalgamate your splendour;

—indeed I see it,

your lovable form; and

that one there, the man there,

I am he himself!

17. Now, O breath, become the wind,

become the indestructible one and

this body should end in ashes!

Om!

O spirit, remember! remember the work!

O spirit, remember! remember the work.

O Agni, lead us on an even way

You, O God, who know the paths,

lead us to success!

Keep far away from us the crooked path of sin!

And we will proffer you the highest adoration.

E

THE UPANIṢADS OF

THE ATHARVAVEDA

Ta. Pure Vedānta-Upaniṣads

MUṆḌAKA UPANIṢAD

PRASNA UPANIṢAD

MĀṆḌŪKYA UPANIṢAD

GARBHA UPANIṢAD

PRĀNĀGNIHOTRA UPANIṢAD

PINḌA UPANIṢAD

ĀTMA UPANIṢAD

SARVA-UPANIṢAT-SĀRA

GARUḌA UPANIṢAD

THE UPANIṢADS OF THE ATHARVAVEDA

1. INTRODUCTION

While the Upaniṣads of the first three Vedas, excluding some exceptions, are the dogmatic text-books of actual Vedic schools, being connected with the Brāhmaṇas and serving as supplements to them and have been, therefore, named according to their names, the conditions are essentially different in the case of the numerous Upaniṣads reckoned as belonging to the Atharvaveda. According to the statement of Colebrooke (Miscellaneous I. 93) the first fifteen of the fiftytwo Upaniṣads enumerated by him are supposed to be ascribed as being the best mss., of the Śākhā of the Śaunakyas, the remaining ones to the Paippalādis and others. Nārāyaṇa also occasionally mentions in his commentary on the Atharva-veda-upaniṣads that, one Upaniṣad ‘ekādaśī Śaunaktīye’ (the edition of the Bibliotheca Indica, p. 260, 5), ‘aṣṭādaśī Śaunakagrantha-vistare’ (p. 78, 10), ‘aṣṭāviṁśi grantha-saṁghe śākhā Śaunaka-vartitā’ (p. 299,5), ‘aṣṭamī Paippalāda-abhidhā’ (p. 60, 6), ‘the thirty-seventh Taittirīyake’ (p. 394, 13), ‘the forty-sixth Ātharva-Paippnale’ (ed. Pun. p. 183, 5); but the contradiction of this statement with that of Colebrooke indicates that we shall have to recognize in them hardly anything more than the later summaries of the Upaniṣadic-groups under the famous names of the ancient past; especially the Atharva-veda-upaniṣads (with a few and suspect exceptions like the Māṇḍūkya and Jābāla) are no more named, like the earlier ones after the Vedic Śākhās but with the names which are taken from the contents or from other circumstance. According to all appearances, the Atharva-veda-upaniṣads, so far as they are not wholly individual products, represent the expression of views of many neo-Vedāntic, mystic, sectarian ascetic communities and proclaim their contrast against the old Vedic Śākhās through the fact that they employ the Upaniṣadic form transmitted by them in order to present on their behalf an Upaniṣad, as it were, as its symbolic book; and when all these Upaniṣads were joined to the Atharvaveda the reason for it lay mostly not in an inner connection with the same but only in the fact that this fourth Veda, originally half apocryphal, was not preserved or protected like the three other Vedas through a competent surveillance by their Śākhas in the face of alien intruders. Thus most of these newly originated Upaniṣads have become, in general, the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, so that later, after their original carriers had, in many cases, been forgotten, a beginning was made to assemble them and this collection was attached to the existing nucleus of the real or genuine and relatively older Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, beginning with Muṇḍaka and Praśna. While the great number of the Upaniṣads went on increasing up to the time when they were assembled into a collection (–Weber enumerated in 1876, all in all 235 names–) and

23 Atharvaśikhā, 24 Maitrāyaṇī,1 25 Kauṣītaki, 26 Bṛhajjābāla,

27 Nṛsiṃhatāpanīya, 28 Kālagni-rudra, 29 Maitreya,2 30 Subālā, 31 Kṣurikā,

32 Mantrikā3, 33 Sarvasāra4, 34 Nirālamba, 35 Śukarahasya, 36 Vajrasūci,

37 Tejobindu, 38 Nādabindu, 39 Dhyānabindu, 40 Brahmavidyā, 41 Yoga-tattva, 42 Ātmabodha, 43 Nārada-parivrājaka, 44 Triśikhibrahmana, 45 Sītā,

46 Yogacūdāmaṇi, 47 Nirvāṇa, 48 Maṇḍala-brāhmaṇa, 49 Dakṣiṇāmūrti,

50 Śarabha, 51 Skanda, 52 Tripād-vibhūtimāhā-nārāyaṇa, 53 Advayatāraka,

54 Rāmarahasya5, 55 Rāmatāpanīya, 56 Vāsudeva, 57 Mudgala, 58 Śāṇḍilya,

59 Paiṅgala, 60 Bhikṣuka6, 61 Mahā, 62 Śāṛīraka, 63 Yogasikhā,

64 Turīyātitāvadhūta7, 65 Samnyāsa8, 66 Paramahaṃsa-parivrājaka,

67 Akṣamālikā, 68 Avyakta, 69 Ekākṣara, 70 Annapūrṇā, 71 Sūrya, 72 Akṣi,

73 Adhyātma, 74 Kuṇḍikā9, 75 Sāvitrī, 76 Ātma, 77 Pāsupatabrahmā,

78 Parabrahma10 79 Avadhūta, 80 Tripurātapini, 81 Devi, 82 Tripurā, 83 Kaṭha-(rudra)10, 84 Bhāvanā, 85 Rudrahrdaya, 86 Yogakuṇḍalī, 87 Bhasmajābāla,

88 Rudrākṣa-jābāla, 89 Ganapati, 90 Darśana, 91 Tārasāra, 92 Mahā-vākya, 93 Pañcabrahma, 94 Prāṇāgnihotra, 95 Gopālatāpini, 96 Kṛṣṇa,

97 Yājñavalkya11, 98 Varāha, 99 Śātyāyana, 100 Hayagrīva, 101 Dattā-treya, 102 Gāruḍa, 103 Kalisantarana, 104 Jābāli, 105 Saubhāgyalakṣmī,

106 Sarasvatī-rahasya, 107 Bahvrca, 108 Muktikā.

That the Muktikā recommends the Māṇḍūkya as the first among the 108 Upaniṣads is understandable from its dogmatic (doctrinal) point of view, if we take into consideration along with it the fact that the Kārikā of Gauḍapāda is included in the collection; both offer an excellent survey or summary of the Vedānta-doctrine. The further recommendation of the first ten Upaniṣads, which follows, is fully understandable. They are the Upaniṣads of the three old Vedas besides the most important Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda (Muṇḍaka, Praśna, Māṇḍūkya); however, the only exclusion of Śvetāśvatara, Maitrāyaṇī, and particularly of Kauṣītaki is striking.

These ten first Upaniṣads enumerated by the Muktikā have been printed in India in all editions, in the serial order given by it. On the other hand, it is unintelligible when the passage in the Muktikā in its enumeration delibeıately

1. It is the same as Maitr. 1-6,8. Instead of 4.4-6, there is the verse 6.34 (see supra Maitrāyaṇa-Upaniṣad 6.34). The Adhyāya 5 is counted at the end as the Adhyāya 4.

2. The beginning is just like that of Maitrāyaṇa-Up.—the further peculiarity.

3. It is another recension of the Cūlikā.

4. It is essentially Sarvopaniṣatsāra.

5. The first Adhyāya is Hanumadukta-Rāmopaniṣad.

6. It is, in its chief points, identical with Āśrama, Chap. 4.

7. It is an imitation of 19. Paramahaṃsa.

8. It is Kaṭhaśruti 1-2 with supplement.

9. It is Samnyāsa 2-5 in another recension.

10. It is Kaṭhaśruti 3-5, further expanded.

11. It is once again Jābāla-Up. 5-6 in metrical form.

gives a privileged position to the thirty-two Upaniṣads (after the first ten Upaniṣads).

Among these, there are found works of doubtful origin, whereas many Upaniṣads recognized as the Atharva-Upaniṣads follow only later in the enumeration.

Apart from the precedence given to the ten chief Upaniṣads, no principle is anywhere discernible in the serial order.

These 108 Upaniṣads are available in printed form since 1883, in Telugu characters in a volume of 124+902 pages which is without any commentary and which is unfortunately incorrect in many places so that one cannot succeed in getting through its passages and before undertaking a thorough working over it, the new prospective printed edition of the 108 Upaniṣads undertaken in Bombay is awaited.

1 Many, otherwise known, Upaniṣads, appear in this collection entirely or partially, under other names (vide supra, the footnotes on the list of the Upaniṣads enumerated in the Muktikā), many of them in a completely changed order; several small Upaniṣads occurring in the remaining collection are expanded in the Telugu recension through supplements or additions which are tenfold or twentyfold in their extent, as we will note them on the appropriate occasion.

Thus there appears before us in this case a peculiar Upaniṣad-tradition according to the South Indian tradition, which, anyway, merits a very careful and closer investigation.

Indeed, as regards its credibility, it creates no favourable opinion, as of the 108 Upaniṣads, 10 are ascribed to the Rgveda, 19 to the Śukla (white) Yajurveda, 32 to the Krṣṇa (black) Yajurveda, 16 to the Sāmaveda and 31 to the Atharvaveda.

This ascription appears to have been done arbitrarily without any semblance of justifiability.

That this collection is only a selection out of still larger available material, can be concluded from the verse 44 of the Muktikā : Sarvopaniṣadām madhye sāram aṣṭottaram śatam.

But even among these 108 Upaniṣads, there are many which have not been included in any of the collections appearing soon thereafter and which therefore, have not found general recognition.

3. The Collection of the Oupanekhat

In the year 1656 the Sultan Muhammed Dara Schakoh got together in Delhi learned Indian pundits from Banaras and got translated into Persian by them a collection of fifty Upaniṣads under the title Oupanekhat (in Persian); and this was translated by Anquetil Duperon into Latin

1. This edition was finally available to me (March 1896), while the printing of the present work was under way.

Śvetāśvatara is placed before Brahma, Kaivalya and Jābāla and the passage in the book has confused Brahmabindu with Brahma, both being contrary to the serial order in the Muktikā.

The Māṇḍūkya unfortunately appears there without Gauḍapāda's Kārikā and Mahānārāyaṇa is smuggled under Nārāyaṇa.

Certain orthographical peculiarities appear to signify (wholly or partly) dependence on the Telugu printed edition.

Atharvaveda Upaniṣads

( 2 volumes, Argentorati 1801-1802), so literally that the Persian sentence-construction was retained in it; following this Persian-Latin translation and also drawing upon the Indian original, A. Weber offered for the first time, in the Indische Studien Vol. I, II and IX, this Upaniṣadic material in a remodelled worked-out form. In the preface of the Persian translation, it is said (by Anquetil I. 4) "...and the prophets of that time when they had made that book (the Upaniṣads) separate (had separated from the four Vedas), wrote commentaries, expositions and complete explanations on it and they are reading it always, knowing it to be the best book on religion."1 These words presuppose that the collection of the Upaniṣads must be older than the commentaries on the same; this assumption holds true in the case of Nārāyaṇa, who, as we shall see, had already before him a collection of the Atharva-Upaniṣads; but it does not hold true in the case of Śaṅkara who, in his introductory remarks (at the beginning of his commentaries) is accustomed to refer to the foregoing ritualistic parts, so that most of the Upaniṣads had been preserved in their contextual connection with the corresponding Brāhmaṇas. In any case, however, the cited words of the Persian translator prove that they (the translators) have not themselves introduced the arrangement of the collection of fifty Upaniṣads but that it was already ready (an accomplished thing) before them, it being even considered as originating in a period going far back. This collection contains the fifty Upaniṣads in the following order :

1 Tschehandouk (Chāndosya); 2 Brehdarang (Bṛhādāraṇyaka); 3 Mitri (Māitrāyaṇīya); 4 Mandata (Muṇḍaka); 5 Eischavasich (Īśa); 6 Sarb (Sarvopaniṣad) 7 Narain (Nārāyaṇa); 8 Tidiw (Tadeva=Vāj. Saṃh. 32. 1-2 translated in Gesch. d. Phil. I 291); 9 Athrbsar (Atharvaśiras); 10 Hensnad (Haṁsaṁnāda); 11 Sarbsar (Sarvasāra=Ait. Ār. 2. including the Aitareya-Up.) 12 Kok'h enk (Kauṣītaki); 13 Sataster (Śvetāśvatara); 14 Porsch (Praśna); 15 Dehian band. (Dhyānabindu); 16 Maha oupanekhat (Mahā.); 17 Ārma pra boudeh (Āṭmaprabodha); 18 Kioul (Kaivalya); 19 Schat roundri (Śatarudrīyaṃ=Vāj. Saṃh. abridged as Nila-rudra-Up.); 20 Djog Sank'ha (Yogaśikhā); 21 Djogtat (Yogatattva); 22 Shiw Sanklap (Śiva saṃkalpa=Vāj. Saṃh. 34. 1-6 translated in Gesch. d. Phil. I, 335); 23 Abrat Sak'ha (Atharvaśikhā); 24 Atma (Ātma); 25 Brahm badia (Brahmavidyā); 26 Anbrat bandeh (Amṛtabindu, more correctly Brahma-bindu); 27 Tidj bandeh (Tejobindu); 28 Karbheh (Garbha); 29 Djabal (Jābāla); 30 Maha narain (Mahānārāyaṇa); 31 Mandouk (Māṇḍūkya) 32 Pank2 (Kṣurikā); 34 Pram hens (Paramahaṁsa); 35 Arank (Āruṇika); 36 Kin (Kena); 37 Kiouni (Kāṭhaka); 38 Anandbli

1. This is a translation of the Latin Original quoted by Deussen.

2. not Sākalya, as Weber had conjectured, but Paiṅgala, under which title it is found as No. 59 in the Muktikā collection.

560

Sixty Upaniṣads

(Ānandavalli=Taitt.2); 39 Bharkbli (Bhrguvalli=Taitt. 3 ); 40 Bark'he Soukt (Puruṣasūktam=Rgveda 10.90 besides Uttaranārāyaṇam, Vāj. Saṃh. 31. 17-22; translated in Gesch. d. Phil. I. 156 ff; 290 ff.); 41 Djounka (Cūlikā); 42 Mrat lankoul (mṛtyu-lāṅgala); 43 Anbratnad (Amṛtanāda, better known as Amṛtabindu); 44 Baschkl (Vāṣkala ?); 45 Tschhakli (Chāgaleya ?); 46 Tark (Tāraka=Tārasāra 2, Telugu printed edition p. 745 and Rāmatāratāpanīya 2); 47 Ark'hi (Āṛseya ?); 48 Pranou (Pranava ?); 49 Schawank (Saunaka ?); 50 Nersing'heb atma (Nṛsiṃha).)

In this collection, four constituent parts can be distinguished as follows :

1. Twelve numbers are made up by the eleven Upaniṣads of the three old Vedas, which have been totally included with the exception of Taitt. 1, while Taitt. 2 and 3 are reckoned as two Upaniṣads.

2. Mixed with these, there are twentysix Upaniṣads which have been also recognized by other chief collections. No principle is discernible in their order and arrangement. Among the most important works which are found missing in them, can be mentioned the Kārikā of Gauḍapāda, the first part of the Nṛsiṃhatāpanīya and (except a small work like 46. Tark) the Rāmatāpanīya Upaniṣad.

3. This collection includes four pieces or passages from the Vājasaneyi saṃhitā 16, 31, 32, 34 (Nos. 19, 40, 8, 22) of which the Ṣatarudrīyam (Vāj. Saṃh. 16) appears among other collections of the Atharva-Upaniṣads, in an abridged form as Nilarudra-Upaniṣad, while the three remaining have not been included, as far as our knowledge goes, in any collection, presumably because they were presupposed as being well-known passages in the Vāj. Saṃh. They belong to the previous period in the history of the Upaniṣads and have been accordingly included in the form of their translations and elucidations in the Gesch. d. Phil. I (150 ff, 288 ff, 291 ff, 385).

4. Finally, the Oupanekhat contains eight works which are not included in the older Vedas and which accordingly have not been included in the chief collections. It may be that they were not known or if they were known, they may have been looked down upon as apocryphal. Among them is Ātmaprabodha, a short supplement to the Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad; Mṛtyulāṅgala, Paiṅgala, Ark'hi, Pranau and Schawank appear to be very late and secondary products. Baschkl and Tschhakli, which appear to belong to the Ṛgveda and Yajurveda, produce an impression that they are

5. The Bāskala (=mantra) Upaniṣad, Chāgaleya Upaniṣad, the Āṛseya Upaniṣad, and the Śaunaka Upaniṣad have since been reconstructed and edited from the single manuscripts of these Upaniṣads found in the Adyar Library, Madras. Vide these in the printed edition (pp. 358-376) of 'the Eighteen Principal Upaniṣads vol. I' edited by V.P. Limaye and R.D. Vadekar (Vaidika Samsodhana Maṇḍala, Poona) 1958.

—Translator

Atharvaveda Upaniṣads

ancient. One cannot make a definite judgment about them as long as they are not available; from the circumstance that they have not been mentioned anywhere, in any way, they appear to be suspect.1

About the age of the Oupanekhat-collection, it is difficult to form a judgment, as long as the history of the Upaniṣad-tradition is wanting. From the circumstance that this collection, in contrast to the collections to be described in the sequel, not only included all old Upaniṣads but also other important texts in the Samihitā,—as there may have been the danger that they could have otherwise fallen into oblivion—, we may conclude that the collection may have been compiled in a relatively late period.

4. The Collection of Colebrooke

With this name we will describe the collection of 52 Upaniṣads which Colebrooke (Misc. ess. 1-93-98) first made known and which, according to the way in which Colebrooke and Weber speak about it, must have found a very general dissemination and recognition, so that they can be regarded as canonical in the case of the Atharva-Upaniṣads more than any other works. This collection contains "the fiftytwo Upaniṣads" (Colebrooke), in the following 'solemn order' (Weber) with which the Cod. Bodl. by Aufrecht 394b also exactly agrees (the deviations are, indeed, due only to oversight) :

1 Muṇḍaka, 2 Praśna, 3 Brahmavidyā, 4 Ṣurikā, 5 Cūlikā, 6 Atharva-śiras, 7 Atharvaśikhā, 8 Garbha, 9 Mahā, 10 Brahma, 11 Prāṇagnihotra, 12-15 Māṇḍūkya, (with Gauḍapāda's Kārikā), 16 Nilarudra, 17 Nādabindu, 18 Brahmabindu, 19 Amṛtabindu, 20 Dhyānabindu, 21 Tejo-bindu, 22 Yogaśikhā, 23 Yogatatva, 24 Saṃnyāsa, 25 Āruṇya, 26 Kaṇṭhaśruti, 27 Piṇḍa, 28 Ātma, 29-34 Nṛsimhatāpantīya; 35-36 Kāṭhaka, 37 Kena, 38 Nārāyaṇa, 39-40 Bṛhannārāyaṇa, 41 Sarvopaniṣatsāra, 42 Haṃsa, 43 Paramahaṃsa, 44 Ānandavallī, 45 Bhrguvallī, 46 Gāruḍa, 47 Kālāgnirudra, 48-49 Rāmatāpanīya, 50 Kaivalya, 51 Jābāla, 52 Āśrama (cf. also Berl. HS. 2.88).

Most striking and therefore requiring elucidation is the circumstance that in this collection beginning with the Muṇḍaka and the Praśna and therefore, to all appearances, in a collection compiled originally of the Atharva-Upaniṣads, in a later order of the series and also in the middle of the series, among less significant, small works, four great and important Upaniṣads of the older Vedas have been included, namely : 35-36 Kāṭhaka, 37 Kena 39-40 Bṛhannarāyaṇa and 44-45 Taittirīya-Up. 2-3.—If this collection is supposed to be a general one (like the Oupanekhat), why are the remaining

1. Colebrooke (Misc. ess. I. 93 note) says "...in two copies, which I also obtained at Banares, the arrangement differs and several Upaniṣads are inserted, the genuineness of which is questionable; while others are admitted, which belong exclusively to the Yajurveda". These words of Colebrooke perhaps refer to the Sanskrit original.

Upaniṣads of the older Veda not found in it—above all the Chāndogya and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka ? If the collection was supposed to include only the Atharva-Upaniṣads, as the beginning with the Muṇḍaka unmistakably signifies, why then are the Kena, Kāṭhaka, and the Taittirīya texts inserted, by the way and as it appears, as it were in a supplement ?

This problem admits of different solutions. According to us, the most probable hypothesis is that this collection originated in a period and in a region in which the study of the three old Vedas—and that also of the Śākhās of the Aitareyins, Tāṇḍins, and Vājasaneyins,—besides their Upaniṣads (Ait. Chānd. Bṛh Īśa) thrived in its prime, whereas the parallel Śākhās were no longer studied and cultivated. Now, in order to at least snatch these Upaniṣads out of oblivion, an effort was made to incorporate them in an already existing collection which extended from Muṇḍaka to Nṛsiṃha-tāpanīya, together with a supplement of ten later Atharva-Upaniṣads. The Kauṣītaki, the Śvetāśvatara, the Maitrāyaṇīya were passed over; it may have been due to their having been forgotten or otherwise to the misgivings that they raised, so that the striking later arrangement or collection therefore liked to include these three connectedly in the Muktikā-collection.

5. The Collection of Nārāyaṇa

If the Upaniṣad-collection of Colebrooke, through the special kind of its compilation, allows us to have a glimpse—though indeed only uncertain—into its history of origin, there is another collection which, if one will succeed in the task, will be certainly found serviceable for perhaps throwing some light on the further following history of the Upaniṣad-tradition. It is the collection to which the well-known Upaniṣad-commentator Nārāyaṇa continuously refers in the beginning of his commentaries (Dīpikās) on the several individual Upaniṣads and which was originally, evidently the same as Colebrooke's, though towards the end there is discernible a noticeable deviation from it. Regarding the personal details of Nārāyaṇa, we only know that he calls himself the son of Ratnākara (ed. Bibl. Ind. p. 393, 14) and that he lived later not only than Śaṅkarācārya (about 800 A.C.) but also later than Śaṅkarānanda, as he makes a mention of these (ed. Pun. p. 100, 3, —the Bibl. Ind. has indeed a different reading in the corresponding passage, p. 196, 10). In his (unpublished) commentaries on the Muṇḍaka, the Māṇḍūkya, the Kaṭha, the Praśna, the Kena and the Taittirīya, Nārāyaṇa (according to Jacob, Eleven Atharva Upaniṣads p. 2) is very dependent on Śaṅkarācārya, which he acknowledges at the conclusion of every commentary, by calling himself Śaṅkara-ukti-upajīvin. In contrast to this, at the conclusion of his Dīpikās on the remaining Atharva-upaniṣads, he almost continually calls himself Śruti-mātra-upajīvin by which, it appears, he wished to emphasise the independent character of his work. We will attempt to reconstruct the list of Nārāyaṇa out of his occasional utterances, so far as it is possible to do it with the material available to us. The numbers signify, when not otherwise stated, the pages and the lines of the edition in the Bibliotheca Indica.

Atharvaveda Upaniṣads

1. Muṇḍaka — Nārāyaṇa is accustomed to count the Upaniṣads from it.

2. Praśna — on account of the back-reference to the same p. 197-7.

3. Brahmavidyā — on this ground and on account of the probable back-reference to the same p. 203.9.

4. Kṣurikā —on the same ground as well as on account of the possible back-reference to the same p. 203.9.

5. Cūlikā — because on page 219.5 it is designated as pañcami.

6. Atharavaśiras — See page 229.4 : ‘Śira ūrdhvam śikhā ucitā’.

7. Atharvaśikhā — p. 229.5 saptamī muṇḍāt.

8. Garbha — p. 60.6. aṣṭamī muṇḍāt.

9. Mahā — ed. Jacob p. 91.6 navamī.

10. Brahma, p. 239, 5, daśamī.

11. Prāṇāgnihotra : p. 260.5 : ekādaśi śaunakīye.

12-15. Māṇḍūkya with Gauḍapāda's Kārikā. Although the commentary of Nārāyaṇa on this is not available, nevertheless he (like Colebrooke) must have regarded this as Nos. 12–15, as it appears certain from the words on p. 272.6 : ‘asparśayogam uktvā’ which words can only refer to Gauḍapāda 4.2.

16. Nīlarudra, p. 272.4. Ṣoḍaśī.

17. Nādabiṇḍu ? — We could follow only this position from the analogy with Colebrooke.

18. Brahmabindu, p. 78.10 : aṣṭādaśi Śaunaka-granthavistare.

19. Amṛtabindu ? from the analogy.

20. Dhyānabiṇḍu, p. 102.2. viṃśī.

21. Tejobindu, p. 114.9 ekaviṃśam.

22. Yogaśikhā, p. 118.6. dvāviṃśatititamā (according to the reading in the Poona edition).

23. Yogatattva, p. 122.6 trayoviṃśitī.

24. Saṃnyāsāsa, on account of the probable back-reference in Yogatattva verse 11 on page 128.4 and still more probable back-reference in Saṃnyāsa 4, on page 185.1.

25. Āruṇeya, p. 184.9 : pañcaviṃśitī.

26. Kaṇṭhaśruti, on account of the probable back-reference to the same on page 295.6.

27. Piṇḍa, p. 295.4 : saptaviṃśati-pūraṇi.

28. Ātma, p. 299.5 : aṣṭāviṃśitī.

29-30. Ṇṛsiṃha; the commentary of Nārāyaṇa is available to us, but from the words nārasimhe nirṇītam on p. 305.3, it follows that this work must have been previously there and in another passage, there is no place for the six Upaniṣads of which it consists. Probably, Nārāyaṇa enumerated them according to the main parts only as two, as we may conclude from his analogous method in the Varadātapiṇī (see below, 51-52).

31. Kāṭhaka ? } We could conjecture this position from the analogy

32. Kena ? with that in Colebrooke's collection.

33. Nārāyaṇa

ed. Jacob p. 49.15 : trayastrimśattamī.

34. Mahānārāyaṇa (=Bṛhannārāyaṇa

see among the Upaniṣads of the Black Yajurveda) ed. Jacob. p. 13. Catustrimśe.

In the numbers from 1-34, the agreement with Colebrooke 1-40 is so preponderating that in the few cases in which it is not demonstrable, we can assume it as very probable. Among the following numbers 35-45 (Colebrooke 41-52) the specified Upaniṣads are the same in both (the collections) (in case of two, it is not demonstrable), but their serial order is different.

35-36. Rāmatāpantya, p. 304.6 : pañcatrimśattame; p. 359.9 Ṣattrimśam.

(In Colebrooke 48-49).

37. Sarvopanisatsāra, p. 394.13 : saptatrimśe caturdale (Colebrooke 41).

38. Haṃsa, p. 405.9 : aṣṭatrimśattamīṃ (Colebrooke 42).

39-42. Here there appears a great confusion in numbers. No. 39 cannot be ascertained and Col. Jacob also, whom I asked about it, knows no answer.—Paramahaṃsa is designated on p. 417.6 as catvārimśattamī

but in the following lines, according to all appearances, it is connected with the Haṃsa.—Jābāla, according to p. 437.9, should be ekatvārimśattamī and refers itself back in the next line, to the Paramahaṃsa.—Kaivalya is similarly designated on p. 465.5 as ekatvāriṃśattamī and is connected, in the immediately following words, with Jābāla.—Also Taittirīya has been commented upon by Nārāyaṇa and as (see Jacob. Eleven Ath. Up. p. 2) Śikṣā—Brahma-vallī-Bhṛguvallī, has been consequently reckoned as one. Its position or place in Nārāyaṇa is not known. But as it follows after Kaivalya as No. 42 in the government collection at Poona (according to Jacob's friendly communication), this is also conjecturally its place in Nārāyaṇa. After this, in the given data, many mistakes are found, and Nārāyaṇa's serial order is probably : 38. Haṃsa (Colebrooke 42); 39. Paramahaṃsa (Colebrooke 43); 40. Jābāla (Colebrooke 51);

41. Kaivalya (Colebrooke 50); 42. Taittirīya (Colebrooke 44-45).—

42. Indefinite; possibly Āśrama, because this place alone remains for it; in Jacob's edition, no commentary is included at the end, as in Colebrooke in which the position 52 is given to it.

43. Garuḍa, p. 480.8 : Catuścatvāriṃśattamī. (Colebrooke 46).

44. Kālagnirudra; ed. Jacob p. 17.9 : pañcacaṭvāriṃśattamī (Colebrooke 47).

While Nos. 1-34 evidently agree with Colebrooke's 1-40 in the names and in the serial order, and Nos. 35-45 agree with Colebrooke's 41-52 in the names but in serial order, there follow in Nārāyaṇa's further enumeration a series of texts which concern Kṛṣṇa and Gaṇeśa, which, however, find no place in Colebrooke's collection.

46-47. Gopālatāpanīya ed. Poona p. 183.5 : Ṣaḍbhiś catvāriṃśatāṃ ca pūrṇī Ātharvapāippale; p. 205.15 : Saptacatvāriṃśattamī Gopālottara-tāpanī.

48. Kṛṣṇa ed. Jacob. p. 3.7 : aṣṭacatvāriṃśattamī.

Atharvaveda Upaniṣads

Ātman—an attempt the first beginnings of which are already met with in the Upaniṣads of the three old Vedas.

With this premiss, therefore, that they deal with only an unfolding or if one wishes to say—with an expansion of one and general Vedānta-doctrine, we shall indeed proceed with this aim, when we arrange the Upaniṣads in the following five categories, each according to the point of view predominantly represented by it; in every one of these categories, there is a relatively old and again a very late product, because, as has already been remarked, these directions, in general, run, not chronologically one after another, but parallel along with one another; thus the circumstance is not excluded that according to the changing taste of the times, now the one, now the other attempt appeared forth more than the other in the foreground and found its expression in the corresponding Upaniṣads.

Accordingly, among the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, we distinguish as follows :

1. Such, as essentially remain true to the old Vedānta-doctrine without considerably accentuating their further development into Yoga, Sāṁnyāsa and Vaiṣṇavite or Śaivite symbolism, as it is in the old Upaniṣads;

2. others, which, presupposing the Vedānta-standpoint deal, overwhelmingly or exclusively, with the comprehension of the Ātman through the Yoga by means of the morae (the component parts) of the Om syllable;

3. again such others in which as a rule, though partially, the life of the Sāṁnyāsin (anchorite) is recommended and described as a practically consistent conclusion of the Upaniṣad-teaching;

4. moreover, such others which interpret Śiva (Iśāna, Maheśvara, Mahādeva etc.) worshipped by the people, as a personification of the Ātman;

5. again, such as, equally reformulate Viṣṇu (Nārāyaṇa, Nṛsiṁha etc.) in the sense of the Vedānta-doctrine, as they consider his different avatāras as human incarnations of the Ātman.

Accordingly, the generally recognized Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda have been grouped, according to the tendency predominant in them, below approximately, as follows :

1. Purely Vedāntic Upaniṣads

Muṇḍaka, Praśna, Māṇḍūkya (with the Kārikā), Garbha, Prāṇāgnihotra, Piṇḍa, Ātma, Sarvopaniṣatsāra, Garuḍa.

2. Yoga-Upaniṣads

Brahmavidyā, Kṣurikā, Cūlikā, Nādabindu, Brahmabindu, Amṛtabindu, Dhyānabindu, Tejobindu, Yogaśikhā, Yogattatva; Haṁsa.

3. Sannyāsa-Upaniṣads

Braḥma, Saṃnyāsa, Āruṇeya, Kaṇṭhaśruti; Paraṃhaṃsa, Jābāla, Āśrama.

4. Śiva-Upaniṣads

Atharvaśiras, Atharvaśikhā, Nīlarudra; Kāḷāgnirudra; Kaivalya.

5. Viṣṇu-Upaniṣads

Mahā, Nārāyaṇa, Ātmabodha; Nṛsiṃhapūrvatāpanīya, Nṛsiṃhottaratāpanīya; Rāmapūrvatāpanīya, Rāmottaratāpanīya.

THE MUNḌAKA UPANIṢAD

OF THE ATHARVAVEDA

570

Sixty Upaniṣads

with which it delivers the old Vedānta-doctrine and on account of the

beauty of the verses in which it gives expression to it. It pre-supposes first

and above all the Chāndogya, and very probably also the Bṛhadāraṇyaka

and the Taittirīya, as well as the Kāṭhaka with which it has many passages

in common; these passages occur in these Upaniṣads in the proper context,

whereas they stand very abrupt in the Muṇḍaka. According to the language

and other trends it may be placed next to the Bṛhannārāyaṇa and the

Śvetāśvatara. With the later Upaniṣads, it has, in common, the poetic

fervour, the deficiency of an ordered sequence of thoughts and the irregul-

arity in metre; it is, however, less rich in original ideas and for that reason,

is again free from theistic and heretical tendencies than they (the later

Upaniṣads). Muṇḍaka has many important passages in common with the

Śvetāśvatara on the one hand and with the Bṛhadāraṇyaka on the other; a

comparison of the same (see footnotes in the sequel) makes it probable

that the Śvetāśvatara has been used by the Muṇḍaka and the Muṇḍaka

again by the Bṛhannārāyaṇa. Considered as a whole, however, all the three

certainly belong to the same period.

A well-ordered arrangement of the Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, without straining

at interpretation, cannot indeed be given and one can, only in general, say

that of the three sections of which the Muṇḍaka consists, (of which every

section again is divided again into two subsections), the first deals with the

preparatory stages for the knowledge of Brahman, the second the doctrine

of Brahman, and the third the way to the Brahman. But repeatedly comes

the theme of the third section in the second, that of the second again in the

third and both these again crop up in the first.]

FIRST MUṆḌAKAM

First Half

[First, the genealogy of this science of knowledge is given. It has reached

through the following teachers :

Brahman

Atharvan1

Aṅgir1

Satyavāha Bhāradvāja

Aṅgiras

up to Śaunaka who is called mahāśāla (of great wealth) like the interrogator

in Chānd. 5.11.1, and who puts to Aṅgiras 'a question which undoubtedly

rests on Chānd. 6.1.2, and besides perhaps, on Bṛh. 2.4.5 (concluding part)

and 7-9 : "What is that with the knowledge of which this whole world

becomes known?"—Aṅgiras begins his reply with saying that he distinguishes

1. Aṅgir, which occurs only here, is indeed etymologically derived

from Aṅgiras and Atharvāya must be nothing else than old mistake for

Atharvaṇe.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad

the lower and the higher knowledge (vidyā)—this distinction first occurs here—; by this, however, is not meant the saguṇa and nirguṇa vidyā, as in the later Vedānta; on the contrary, the lower knowledge includes the ritualistic knowledge as it is laid down in the four Vedas and in the six Vedāṅgas (auxiliary branches of Vedic knowledge) which are found enumerated here for the first time; the higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Brahman, or as it is called of the Akṣaram (the Imperishable). This name, as also the characterization of the same through negative attribute, indeed, rests on Brh. 3.8.8, while the following similes describing, here and in the continuation of the text 2.1.1, the arising forth of the world out of Brahman through (its) expansion, may have been taken from the Brh. 2.1.20. Towards the end, follows in the verse 8, a step-by-step or gradual series of the principles, regarding which verse 9 asserts that all of them (as they are again summarised without any order) have risen forth out of the all-knowing Ātman. Their sequence, with Śaṅkara's, is indeed not elucidating as to remain consistent (in verse 8, it is prāṇa while in verse 9 it is brahman =Hiraṇyagarbha).

Yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarvavid ( =Braḥmam)

annam (=avyākṛtam)

prāṇaḥ (=Hiraṇyagarbha)

manaḥ

Satyam (the elements), lokāḥ, Karmāṇi

If we compare this series with that placed together in Kāṭhaka (see above at the end of the introductory notes to the Kāṭhaka) it appears that in essentials it is the same only with the difference that, through the blending of mahān ātmā and buddhi with prāṇa, it has come a step nearer to the Sāṅkhya doctrine. Still, as the elucidations in Śaṅkara's commentary are uncertain, we would not like to use this observation to draw any further conclusion. Cf. also the footnotes on 2.1.2-3.]

1. Brahmā arose as the first of gods,

as the creator of this universe and its protector.

He taught his eldest son Atharva(n)

the knowledge of Brahman, the basic foundations of all knowledge.

2. What Brahmā formerly imparted to Atharvan

that Brahman-knowledge, Atharvan imparted to Aṅgir,

This latter (Aṅgir) to Satyavāha Bhāradvāja,

and he (Bhāradvāja) imparted to Aṅgiras the highest and the deepest knowledge.1

1. The Sanskrit original is ‘parāvarā’ (parā +avarā (vidyā). Deussen translates ‘avarā’=deepest. According to Śaṅkara parāvarā means the ‘highest and the most inferior’ knowledge · avarā (vidyā) is, according

3. It once happened that Śaunaka, a man of great wealth1,

approached Aṅgiras in the proper way and inquired of

him: ‘O venerable one, what is that by the knowledge of

which this whole world becomes known?’

4. And he said to him: ‘One should know two sciences (or

kinds of knowledge), that is what those who know

Brahman say, namely: the higher and the lower.

5. The lower is the Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, Atharva-

veda, the science of (properly) pronouncing the letters (of

the Vedic Text) (Śikṣā), the lore of cult, grammar, voca-

bulary2, prosody, astronomy.

But the higher knowledge is that through which that

imperishable one (akṣaram) is known;

6. that which is invisible, ungraspable, devoid of pedigree

(agotra),

which is colourless, devoid of eyes and ears,

devoid of hands and feet,

which is eternal, all-penetrating, omnipresent,

which is hardly knowable,3

that is unchangeable,

which is viewed by the wise as the womb (source) of

beings.

7. Just as a spider spins out and holds (the threads of the

web)

just as the plants sprout forth out of the earth,

just as hair grow on the head and body of a man who lives,

similarly everything that is here arises out of the imperish-

able one.

to him, avidyā (ignorance), i.e. the knowledge of the phenomenal world

which, as compared with parā (the highest knowledge of Brahman), is most

inferior. -Translator

1. The Sanskrit original is mahāśāla which according to Śaṅkara means

mahāgṛhastha i.e. a possessor of a large house, a great householder.

-Translator

2. The Sanskrit original is nirukti which means ‘etymological

interpretation’. -Translator

3. The Sanskrit word in the original is ‘Suṣukṣma’ which literally

means “very subtle” (such as cannot be perceived by the senses)—Translator

8. Through tapas (penance) the Brahman expands itself, out of it is produced food

out of food (arise) the breath, the mind, truth, the world and, in works1, eternity (Amṛtam).

9. The universal knower (sarvajña) the omniscient one (know-

ing all particular things= Sarvavid)

whose Tapas (penance) is (consists of) knowledge,

Out of it arise all these:

Brahman, name, form and food also.

Second Half

[This sub-section breaks the context (2.1.1 is connected with 1.1.7) and

introduces the doctrine of the Upaniṣads differently than the previous sub-

section. There in the previous section, there was a purely intellectual motive,

actuated by which, Śaunaka puts to Aṅgiras the question regarding that,

with the knowledge of which, everything becomes known;—here it is the

feeling of disgust towards the metempsychosis (transmigration of the soul)

which does not cease (even) through the holiness (—produced by—) works;

it is this disgust that drives the pupil with fuel in hand to approach ·the

(proper) master. The isolated parts of this subsection are not quite con-

sistent; first, the sacrificial cult is enthusiastically praised and recommended

(1-6), and is then suddenly condemned in the severest words (7-10); Verse

8, on account of the mention of Śreyas in the preceding verse, appears to

have been taken over from the context of Kaṭha 2.5; in verse 9, the same

idea is still further spun out, Verses 10-11 describing Piṭryāṇa and Devayāna,

rest on Chānd. 5.10.1 (tapah-śraddhe), whereas the passage (Muṇḍaka)

3.1.6 (Satyena) is reminiscent of the parallel passage in Brh. 6.2.15. — The

whole subsection produces the impression that it must have been afterwards

interpolated in the original composition.]

1. This is the truth:

The works, which the wise saw in the sacred songs,

are, in a manifold way, disseminated in the triad (of the

Vedas)

You, who desire realisation,2 practise them continually;

path leads you to the world of the requital of works.

1. The Sanskrit original is karmasu ca amṛtam which according to

Śaṅkara means “The actions performed during life according to one’s class

and station, produce their fruits which are unceasing (amṛta), like the

actions which produce them. —Translator

2. i.e. requital; satyam is the same as ṛtam (Kaṭh. 3.1)

Mundaka Upaniṣad

575

speaking to him with sweet words and flattering him:

"There beckons to you the holy Brahman-world

of the pious."

7. Tottering and unsteady are these sacrificial rites1

the eighteen ones in which, the inferior ritual finds expres-sion2

the fools, who greet it (the ritual) as the better one (śreyah)

(Kāṭh. 2. 1),

—they again sink into old age and death.

8. Meandering3 in the depth of ignorance,

imagining themselves as the wise and the learned,

the fools knock about aimlessly hither and thither

like the blind men, whom, one who himself is blind, leads.

9. Meandering in manifold ways in ignorance,

the fools imagine themselves as having attained the goal of

their desires,

before setting about to do useful work, they (on account

of passion)4 do not deliberate,

consequently falling into misery, when the reward is

consumed.5

10. Regarding the sacrifice and other works as the highest,

the infatuated ones know not anything better.

1. The Sanskrit original of 'sacrificial rites' is 'plavāḥ yajñarūpāḥ

'which means' the boats or the rafts in the form of sacrifice. Śaṅkara

explains 'plava' as 'perishable'. —Translator

2. According to Śaṅkara, the sixteen priests, the performer of the sacri-fice and his wife are the eighteen ones. The expression yeṣu karma uktam

appears, however, to point to Vedic scriptural works. Can they be thought

of as the twelve divisions of the Veda i.e. the Saṁhitā, Brāhmaṇam, Sūtrām

of each of the four Vedas besides the previously mentioned above (Muṇd.

1.1.5) six Vedāṅgas ?

3. Excepting the words jaṅghanyamānāḥ, the verse is=Kāṭh 2.5.

4. In the Sanskrit original there is here the word rāgāt (i.e. through

passionate attachment) —Translator

5. The Sanskrit original here is kṣiṇalokāḥ which means "(whose stay

in) the heavenly worlds attained through works whose fruits have been con-sumed has come to an end." —Translator

Having enjoyed themselves in the heaven obtained by works,

they sink back again into this world still deeper down.

11. Those, however, who practise in the forest the life of austerities and faith,1

calm, full of knowledge, living only on alms,

they pass unpolluted (virajāḥ) through the portal of the sun,

to that place where there is the eternal spirit, the changeless Ātman.

12. The wise, critically pondering over the worlds brought about by their words,

they turn away (from disgust)2; the uneffected (Brahmam) is not effected through works.3

In order to attain knowledge, he should seek and visit,

with fuelsticks in hands,

The master who is proficient in scriptures and who is steady in Brahman.

13. He, who has approached in the proper way,

who is calm in heart and restful,

to him the wise one then imparts the science (knowledge) of Brahman,

just as it is, the knowledge of the imperishable,

of the intelligent spirit, of the truth.

1. Just as the Pitryāṇa is previously described, here the Devayāṇa is also described, certainly not after the manner of Brh. 6.2.15; but according to Chānd. 5.10.1, which passage (ye ca ime aranye śraddhā tapa iti upāsate) has not been quite rightly understood already here (as also in the parallel passage in Brh, 6.2.15). Whether our author sees also in the Devayāṇa only the fruit of lower knowledge and not of the highest knowledge cannot be ascertained according to his presentation. cf. Muṇḍ. 3.1 (our introductory remarks).

2. The Sanskrit original is ‘nirvedam āyān’ which means ‘coming to the state of disgust’. —Translator

3. The uneffected world of Brahman. cf. akṛto brahmalokaḥ (Chānd. 8.13). The Sanskrit original is nāsti akṛtaḥ kṛtena : It according to Śaṅkara means : “There is nothing that is not fruit of action; the fruit of action is perishable. The wise man realizes this and has no use for the actions done (Kim Kṛtena).—Translator

SECOND MUNDAKAM

First Half

[This subsection depicts the Brahman and its unfoldment into the phenomena of the world in a simile of great poetic beauty. The metre is very freely handled and dissolves itself in the several passages so much into rhythmical prose that we are compelled to give up the reproduction or counting of the number of syllables. The contents, at every step, remind us of the earlier Upaniṣad passages, without however, making it possible to pinpoint the borrowing with certainty. At the most, there is employed the description of the Akṣaram which Yājñavalkya depicts (Br̥h. 3.8) in his dialogue with Gārgī. Echoes of the Puruṣa-hymn in the R̥gveda (10.90) are found and, as the footnotes thereon will show, echoes of many other passages are found. Only the concluding verse comes round to the thought that he, who knows this Brahman in his heart, would therethrough, untie or dissolve 'the knots of nescience'. (See the Footnote on Kāṭhaka-Up. 3.15.)]

1. This is the truth:

Just as out of the blazing fire

the sparks, alike in essence, arise a thousandfold

so also, O dear one, out of the imperishable

the manifold beings arise forth

and they again enter or merge in the same. (Taitt. 3.1)

2. Heavenly is the spirit (Puruṣa), the formless one (Br̥h. 2.3, 5);

It is outside and inside, (Īśa 5), the unborn one,

devoid of breath (a-prāṇa), devoid of desire (Br̥h. 3.8.8),

the pure one,

Still higher beyond than the highest Imperishable.1

3. Out of it originates the breath, the mind and all the senses,

out of it arises ether, wind and fire

and the waters and the earth which bears everything.2

1. Puruṣa and Akṣara (the Ur-subject and the Ur-object) which were previously treated as a unity are here, however, distinguished from one another just as above (1.1.8-9) the sarvajña and Brahman.

2. The genealogy is similar to the above one in 1.1.8-9.

Puruṣa-Akṣaram

Prāṇa

manas

sense organs and elements.

[Contd.

578

Sixty Upaniṣads

4. Its head is fire, its eyes the moon and the sun

the directions are its ears

Its voice is the revealed Vedas

The wind is its breath, its heart is the world

out of its feet (arises) the earth (Ṛgveda 10.90.14),

it is the inner self in all beings (Kāṭh. 5.9-12)

5. Out1 of it originates the fire, the fuel of which is the sun

(Chānd. 5.4.1)

out of Soma arises rain (Chānd. 5.5.2), plants out of

earth,

The male sprinkles the fluid in the female mate (Chānd.

5.8.2)

many descendants are born from the spirit (puruṣa).

6. Out of it arise the hymns (Ṛc), songs (chants, Sāma),

the sacrificial maxims (Yajus) (Ṛgveda 10.90.9)

out of it the consecration, the sacrifice, customs (kratavaḥ)

and the sacrificial gifts

out of it arise the duration of the year and the sacrificer

(Brh. 3.8.9) and the worlds

where light of Soma and the light of the sun are radiant.2

7. Out of it many gods have originated as also the blessed

ones3 (sādhyāḥ)

out of it originate men, cattle and birds (Ṛgveda 10.90.8)

"Inbreath and outbreath, rice and barley" (Atharvaveda,

(11.4.13) faith,

self-mortification (austerities), truth, the practice of

Brahman (Brahmacarya) and prescribed rules, (these

have also originated out of it).

Cf. above the similar genealogy in our introductory remarks on Muṇḍaka

I first half, and in the concluding part of our introductory remarks on the

Kāṭhaka. Cf. also the sequence of the Sāṅkhya principles.

1. This is a short résumé of the doctrine of the five fires according to

the Chānd. 5-10.

2. According to Śaṅkara : ‘Somo yatra pavate punāti lokān yeṣu sūryas

tapati’ i.e. where the Soma purifies the worlds and the sun shines’ -

Translator). That indicates the worlds of the Piṭryāṇa and the Devayāna

(Chānd. 5.10).

3. ‘Gods and the blessed ones (sādhyāḥ)’ rest on an inexact (vague

reminiscence of the Ṛgveda 10.90.7.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad

8. Seven1 organs (prāṇāḥ) have originated out of it,

with seven fuelsticks, seven flames, and sacrificial offerings

and also these seven worlds

in which they move about out of their cavities,

where seven respectively lay hidden.

9. Out2 of it arise the seas and all the mountains,

out of it, the rivers flow in all forms

out of it have arisen the plants and nutrition-juice,

through which it continues to stay in the beings as their

inner self.

10. Indeed, Puruṣa (the Spirit) is this universe (Ṛgveda

10.90.2),

he is the work3, tapas (austerities), Brahman, the immortal

one;—

he, who knows this (puruṣa) concealed in the cavity of the

heart)

bursts asunder, O dear one, the knot of ignorance.

1-2. The activity of the seven senses (eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth) appear

as sacrifice; the impressions or impacts (of the external world) on the

senses are the fuel, the reaction of the senses against that impact is the

flame; the sacrificial gifts are the perceptions of the senses, seeing, hearing,

smelling, the sum of individual perceptions forms the world of concerned

organs. All sense-organs are regulated by the Manas (mind) which has its

seat in the heart. — We have already met with verses 8-9, with some

ver­iants, in the Mahānār. 10.2-3. As the ideas in both the verses are

entirely different, their occurrence in both the passages cannot be accidental;

here a borrowing must have taken place. What is original between the two

can be doubted. The whole subsection of the Mahānār. 10, as has been

demonstrated by us, while dealing with that part, consists of borrowings.

On the other hand, like so many passages in Muṇḍaka 2.1, the ninth verse

in the same traces itself back to the speech of Yajñavalkya in Bṛh. 3.8. 8-9

and is a poetical reproduction of the same; it is not, however, a quotation

borrowed from elsewhere. The verses 8-9 do not therefore, stem out of a

common source—common for the Muṇḍaka and Mahānār., but they originally

belong to the Muṇḍaka. The probable important result of this fact is that

the Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad must have been already used during the composi­tion of the Taitt. Ār. 10.

3. The metrically surplus word Karma is missing in the quotation of

the passage by Śaṅkara in his commentary on the Brahmasūtra (excepting

two mss.). (See Die Sūtras des Vedānta p. 705, 11).

SECOND HALF

[This subsection continues further to glorify the highest supreme Being, when it refers, for a while, to the same dwelling in the heart and describes the way to reach it by means of meditation on the syllable Om and thus forms a preliminary to the views of the following part. The poet here displays an ecstasy of enthusiasm or inspiration in which the hearer or the reader is hardly able to follow him. The language is concise, abrupt, only suggestive, and hardly intelligible in some passages. Still here the apparent literary decadence is undeniable : most of the ideas can be demonstrated, with more or less certainty, to have been borrowed from the earlier Upaniṣadic literature. Particularly characteristic is the simile of the bow, the arrow and the target (verses 3-4) and the splendid verse 8, although it turns out to be only a happy summary of earlier thoughts.]

1. That which is evident (visible) and yet concealed dwells in the cavity (of the heart)—a great place, in which is fixed (as spokes) that which lives and breathes and shuts the eyes (Rgveda. 10.121.3), know ye what is higher than it, as what is and is not (Śvet. 4.18), transcending knowledge, the highest of creation,

2. that which is blazing forth like a flame that which is the subtlest of the subtle; on it rest the worlds and those who reside in those worlds, the imperishable one, the Brahman it is the breath, speech and mind; it is the truth, the immortal one that, indeed, O dear one, you should hit as the target.

3. Seize as the bow the great weapon of the Upaniṣads, fix the arrow, sharpened through meditation stretch it (the bow) through the mind directed on the existence of Brahman, and hit, O dear one, the imperishable as the target.

4. Om as the bow, the soul as the arrow, Brahman as the target -thus it is characterized; fixing the aim on it, without slackness (Kāṭh. 6.11), one penetrates into it, as the arrow penetrates the target.

5. In it are interwoven the heavens, the earth, and the aerial space (Bṛh. 3.8.7)

as also the mind with all the senses

know it as the Ātman, leave off other speech (Bṛh. 4.4.20)

it is the bridge leading to immortality (Śvet. 6.19)

6. In it are fixed the arteries of the heart (Bṛh. 2.1.19)

like the spokes in the navel (of a chariot wheel),

it stays in the inmost part and is born many times,

Om! thus speak about it and meditate the Ātman,

Hail to you! go to the bank beyond darkness

(Chānd. 7.26.2)

7. The all-knower, aware of all (Muṇḍaka 1.1.9),

the world displays its greatness to you (Chānd. 3.12.6)

in the heavenly city of Brahman (Chand. 8.1.9)

in the space of the heart it stays as the Ātman!

mind is its stuff, it directs the body of the living

(Chānd. 3.14.2),

rooted in food, it remains concealed in the heart

(Kāṭh. 6.17),

there the wise find him and discover

it in the form of bliss (Taitt. 2.5), the immortal and resplendent one!

8. He who sees the highest and the deepest,

for him, the knots of the heart are burst asunder

(Chānd. 7.26.2)

all the doubts are dissolved (Chānd. 3.14.4)

and his works come to an end (Bṛh. 4.4.22)

9. Behind a golden, excellent veil (Bṛh 5.15)

sits enthroned the stainless and partless Brahman;

it is full of splendour, it is the light of lights (Bṛh. 4.4.16)

and he who knows the Ātman knows it.

10. There1 the son does not shine, nor the moon, nor the stars'

splendour

nor do those lightnings flash there

let alone (not to speak of) the earthly fire,

it alone shines, everything else shines after it,

the whole world shines by its splendour.

1. Here also, as in Śvet. 6.14, we must conclude that the verse is

582

Sixty Upaniṣads

11. Brahman1 is the immortal one in the east,

Brahman in the west, Brahman in the south and the

north;

Brahman extends itself below and above,

Brahman is this magnificent great universe.

THIRD MUNDAKAM

[The first and the second halves : This last munḍakam describes in its

both parts, with manifold borrowings from the Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka

and other Upaniṣads, the doctrine of deliverance; in this description there

are stated different viewpoints which this theme offers for consideration

(e.g. contd between the released and non-released, the way to deliverance,

description of the supremacy of Brahman and of the blessed state of the

delivered souls); these different viewpoints are not stated in an orderly

manner but are thrown together pellmell. Worse than this defect in

arrangement and orderliness which is not compensated or outweighed

through the beauty of the verses in any way, is the unprincipledness which

predominates in the eschatological ideas of our Upaniṣad. The basic view

is that man attains Brahman through knowledge, why he becomes Brahman,

as it is expressed more beautifully than elsewhere, in the celebrated passage

3.2.9 : sa yo ha vai tat paramam brahma eva bhavati, which has been rightly

placed in the forefront as a motto by Anquetil Duperon in his translation

of the Oupnekhat; he translated it concisely and appropriate to the purpose:

'quisquis Deum intelligit, Deus fit' ('Whoever knows God, becomes god);

but repeatedly this presentation of the intellectual theory of deliverance is

interrupted or broken by the ideas occurring in the Taittirīya 2 with the

effect that the deliverance has become a trans-intellectual (mystic) com-

munion (3.1.8 jñānaprasādena; 3.2.7-karmāṇi vijñānamayaś ca ātmā).—

So also the doctrine of the five fires which gives the highest place to the

Devayāna and the theory of Yājñavalkya according to which deliverance

consists in a direct entry into or communion with Brahman (see regarding

the contradiction in these views, our introductory remarks above at the

beginning of Bṛh. 6.1) have been recited by our Upaniṣad side by side and

confused with one another barring the consideration that the contradiction

was removed through the later kramamukti-theory (Svet 1.11; Syst. des

Vedānta p. 430, 472) or that it distinctly came into awareness. Also here

again is exhibited the basic character of our Upaniṣad : considerable

beauty in isolated passages but deficiency in systematic clarity, on account

of the dependance on older, contradictory ideas.]

1. The whole verse is modelled on Chānd. 7.25.1

Mundaka Upaniṣad

First Half

1. "Two1 pretty-winged, closely bound friends—

they hug one and the same tree;

one of them eats the sweet berry,

the other, not eating, only looks on."

2. On2 such tree, the spirit (Puruṣa), sunken down,

caught up in delusion, grieves in his powerlessness;

when he, however, honours3 and sees the omnipotence of

the other, and his majesty,

then his sorrow escapes away from him.

3. When4 the seer sees him, shining like a golden ornament

—the creator, the lord, the spirit (puruṣa), the cradle (source) of Brahman,

then the wise man of knowledge shakes off the good

and the evil (Chānd. 8.13)

— the stainless one enters into the highest unity.

4. He shines in all beings as their life

the wise one, the knower,—no one talks him down (ativādī)5

he plays with the Ātman, occupied6 with it,

rejoices in himself

thus, he is the excellent among the knowers of Brahman.

1-2. For verses 1 and 2, cf. the parallel passages in Śvet. 4.6-7. It is

difficult to determine on which side the priority lies. The context is not

decisive. The predilection for old Vedic citations emerging from the verses

as well as the theistic inclinations are traits from which, otherwise, our

Upaniṣad is free, (Iṣa however, occurs only in the following interpretative

verse), whereas on the other hand, both these are directly characteristic of

the Śvetaśvatara-Upaniṣad throughout.

3. The Sanskrit original is juṣṭam (iśam), which according to Śaṅkara

means : ‘the lord adored by the Yogins’—Translator

4. Quoted with changes in the concluding part, (indeed out of our

Upaniṣad) in Maitr. 6.18.

5. ‘ativādī’ according to Śaṅkara means ‘one who surpasses all in

talking or debate. As the wise man of knowledge sees Ātman everywhere,

there is none else left with whom he can talk or whom he can think of

surpassing in debate. —Translator

6. The words ātmakrīdā, ātmaratiḥ kriyāvān have their source undoubtedly in Chānd. 7.35.2,

in which kriyāvān sums up somewhat strikingly ātmamithuna, ātmānandaḥ.

Ativādin occurring afterwards must be understood in the sense of Chānd.

7.15.4.

584

Sixty Upaniṣads

5. Through1 truth, tapas (austerities), is the Ātman comprehended,

as also through perfect knowledge, constant practice of as scriptural studies as a young student (brahmacaryeṇa)

(Chānd. 2.23.1)

in the body, it (the ātman), consisting of light shines with lustre,

the ascetics whose sins or guilt is extinguished see (comprehend it).

6. He2 gains truth, not untruth;

through the truth, the Devayāna3 opens itself;

the wise, whose desires are fully accomplished, traversing on it (the Devayāna)

they attain to that place where there is the highest stronghold of truth.

7. It is great, heavenly, of inconceivable form,

finer (more subtle) than the fine (subtle),

it shines with splendour;

far away in distance, it is, however, here near enough;

concealed here in the hearts of those, who contemplate.

8. The eye, does not reach up to it, nor the speech,

no other sense-divinities, nor work nor (self-mortification)

nor austerities;

When the knowledge is unruffled (serene),

when the heart is pure (Chānd.7.26.2),

then one sees it, meditating on it—the undivided one.

9. Secret it is, it can be known only through the heart,

in it the fivefold prāṇa has entered,

The mind (cittam) of all beings is interwoven with the prāṇas.

When it (the mind) is pure, then the Ātman unfolds itself

1. Cf. Bṛh. 4.4.22Mādhy : brahmacaryeṇa tapasā.

2. He i.e., the ativādin (Chānd. 7.16) who has been mentioned above (verse 4).

3. This is in accordance with Bṛh. 6.2.15, not with Chānd. 5.10.1.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad

10. Whatever1 world, which one pure in heart, imagines, and all wishes which one may entertain, one attains that world and also these desires; that is why, he who desires happiness should adore the knower of the Ātman!

Second Half

1. Because he knows that highest abode of Brahman (Chānd. 8.1.1) enclosed in which the lights of the world shine (Chānd. 8.1.3)— Indeed, he having been free from desires, adores the Puruṣa (spirit) and transcends this world of birth (and death).

2. He who, still, entertains desires and indulges in them, he is, on account of his desires, born in various places (Brh. 4.4.6) but he, whose desires are stilled (Brh. 4.4.6) whose self is already disciplined and prepared for getting knowledge (Chānd. 8.13) —for him all desires disappear here below.

3. Not2 through teaching is this Ātman attained nor through reason and much erudition in scriptures. Only by him whom it chooses, is it comprehended; the Ātman reveals to him its nature.

4. This Ātman cannot be attained by one, who is powerless, nor by one who is indolent (Kāṭh. 6.11); nor by one who practises penance which is not genuine3

5. The whole verse, together with the reflections which it contains, depends on Chānd. 8.2. The verse 3.2.2 breathes a different spirit.

6. Verses 3-4 interrupt the context. Verse 3=Kāṭh. 2.2; verse 4 seeks to develop the thought further; still its importance lacks justification. Herein lies, indeed, a certain characteristic of the borrowing.

7. According to Śaṅkara, tapas=jñānam, and liṅgam=sāmyāsah. In this way, everything can be interpreted out of anything. Probably, aliṅgam tapas is the penance which swerves from the right character, particularly the characteristic of knowledge. Paulus (1.Kor. 13.3) demands another characteristic of genuine penances.

However, he who as a man of knowledge, strives through these means, —into the abode of Brahman his Ātman enters.

5. The wise, however, satisfied with their knowledge of the self, having found it with their self disciplined and prepared (kṛtātmānaḥ) (Chānd. 8.13) dispassionate and serene, —they, with their self well disciplined, enter from here into the omnipresent allness (sarvam).

6. Those who have definitely grasped the doctrine of the Vedānta, —the recluses, completely devoted to renunciation and of pure character1 —all these get into the world of Brahman on the end of their life becoming perfectly immortal and released.

7. The fifteen parts dissolve into wherefrom they had arisen, and all gods (senses) each into its respective deity,2 but work and the Ātman of the nature of knowledge (vijñāna) —all get into communion in the highest eternal.

8. Just as the rivers flow and disappear in the sea, giving up their name and form, so also, the wise man, released from name and form, enters into the divine highest spirit (puruṣa).

9. Truly, he who knows that highest Brahman becomes the Brahman. Nobody is born in his family, who has not known the Brahman. He goes beyond sorrow (Chānd. 7.1.3), goes beyond the evil, and freed from the knots of the heart (Chānd. 7.26.2), he becomes immortal:

10. The expression Śuddhasattva (cf. 3.1.8.9.10; Chānd. 7.26.2) harks back, as so many expressions in the Muṇḍaka to Chānd. 7 and therefore, indicates that verse originally here, has been however, borrowed by the Mahānār. 10.22 from here.

11. The eye goes back to the sun etc. About the fifteen parts see our introductory remarks at the beginning of Praśna 6.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad

10. Regarding this, there is the following verse:

Those, during excellent work, proficient in scriptures

and truly devoted to Brahman,

sacrificing themselves, in all faith, into one sole Ṛṣi1

to such these, the knowledge of Brahman should be

imparted

if they have already properly fulfilled the vow2 concerning

the head (śirovratam).

11. This is the truth, The wise

Aṅgiras has proclaimed it formerly.

Nobody, who has not fulfilled the vow,

should read or recite it.

Salutations to the highest wise men

Salutations to the highest wise men!

1. As ‘the one Ṛṣi’ according to Praśna 2.11 is the Prāṇa, so what is

intended here is the Prāṇāgnihotram (see above our Introductory remarks

at the beginning of Chānd, 5.11).

2. About the Śirovrata, see our introduction at the beginning of the

Muṇḍaka above.

THE PRAŚNA UPANIṢAD OF THE ATHARVAVEDA

The Praśnopaniṣad connected with the Atharvaveda, and as it appears, connected with the Pippalāda-recension of the same, deals in six questions (praśna), which are put by six explorers of Brahman to the wise Pippalāda, with six main points of the Vedānta-doctrine :

1. Origin of matter and of the life of Prajāpati.

2. Superiority of Prāṇa over the rest of the life forces.

3. The Prāṇa and its ramification in man.

4. About dream-sleep and deep sleep.

5. Meditation over the syllable Om.

6. The sixteen parts of man.

The frame of the narration appears to be an imitation of Śatap. Br. 10.6.1ff, of Chānd. 5.11.1ff with the only difference that there in those passages, as it appears, much more fitting, the six Brāhmaṇas inquire of Aśvapati about one and the same common theme; while in the Praśna Upaniṣad everybody asks something different; consequently the joint quest of Pippalāda is not properly motivated, especially in the case of the last interrogator who states for his question quite a peculiar motive.

First Praśna

[The question, from where the beings originate, serves only as an occasion to divide nature, as the product of Prajāpati, into two parts : rayi (matter) and prāṇa (life). Under the first part the dark side of the world is grouped (viz. the moon, the winter, the dark half of the month, the night), while under the latter part the bright side of the world is grouped (viz. the sun, the summer, the bright half of the month, and the day). From rayi originates the Pitṛyāṇa, from prāṇa the Devayāna, in the description of which the author is akin to Chānd. 5.3-10 (not to Brh. 6.2). In conclusion, it is signified that procreation (prajāpatīvatam) belongs to the dark side whereas chastity (Brahma-caryam) corresponds to the bright side, leading to the deliverance of the Devayāna.]

1. Sukeśan Bhāradvāja, Śaibya Satyakāma, Sauryāyanin Gārgya, Kausalya Āśvalāyana, Bhārgava Vaidarbhi, and Kavandhin Kātyāyana—all these who regarded the Brahman as the highest and were deeply devoted to the Brahman, explored into the highest Brahman and saying (among themselves): “He, indeed, will explain all this”, approached the exalted Pippalāda, with the fuelsticks in their hands.

2. The wise man said to them:

"Youmust live with mea year still from henceforth (cf. Chând. 8.9.3; 8.10.4; 8.11.3) practising penance, the life of studentship (chastity), and with faith (cf. Brh. 4.4.22), and afterwards you may put questions, if you like; provided we will know (the answers to them), we will explain to you."

3. Thereupon (after the expiration of the year) Kavandhin Kâtyâyana approached him (Pippalâda) and asked:

"Exalted one, out of what, indeed, do these things originate?"

4. And he (Pippalâda) replied to him: "Prajâpati desired progeny; he practised tapas; after he had practised tapas, he created a pair namely Rayi (matter, in its real meaning wealth—) and Prâna (life); then he (Prajâpati) said: "Both these will create for me manifold progeny."

5. Indeed, the sun is Prâna and the moon Rayi; indeed Rayi is all this, what has form or what is formless; therefore, the form itself is Rayi.

6. Now when the sun rises and enters the easterly direction, it then encloses in its rays the eastern vital breaths (materialized in nature); and when it enters the southern, western, northern, the upper, the nether and the central directions, it then encloses, in its rays all the vital breaths, because it makes everything radiant.

7. This (solar) fire, disseminated in all (vaiśvânara) and omniformed (vaiśvarûpa) rises forth, as the Prâna. Regarding it is the following verse:

8. [I praise] The omniformed, golden, knower of beings (jñavedas) which there as the highest stronghold (parâyana), shines as the one only light. With a thousand rays, changing themselves hundredfold, the sun, there, rises as the vital breath of beings.

9. Indeed, Prajâpati is the year; in the year there are two movements of the sun, the one towards the south, and the other towards the north. Now those, who practise worship with the words: "Sacrifice and pious works are what we have done" (cf. Chând. 5.10.3), attain only to the moon as their abode.

Praśna Upaniṣad

591

These again return back. Those wise men who desire progeny go

the southern way. And (pitryāṇa) is Rayi.

10. But by the Northern way, after they have aspired after the

Ātman through penance, the practice of studenthhood (brahma-

carya=chastity), faith and knowledge conquer, or attain to the

abode of the sun. This is the focal point of the Prāṇas. This is

the immortal one, the fearless one, this is the highest stronghold

or refuge. They never return from it. This is the exclusive descrip-

tion (of the way of the fathers and the way of the gods viś-à-viś

one another). Regarding it, there is the following verse (Ṛgveda

1.164.12):

11. The father, fivefooted and of twelve-fold form,1

–he is physically, it is said, in the yonder side of

heavens;

Still he, shining far and wide, is inserted

in the lower parts, with six spokes, seven wheels.2

12. Indeed, Prajāpati is the month.

Its dark half is Rayi, its bright half Prāṇa. Therefore,

these wise men (who adore the Prāṇa) offer the sacrifice in the

bright half, others in the other (half).

13. Indeed, Prajāpati is day and night. What is his night, is

Prāṇa, what is his night, is the Rayi. Indeed, they, who unite

themselves in sexual pleasure during the day spill the Prāṇa

(the life-force), and this is the practice of Brahmacarya (chastity)

(applicable in the case of the Gṛhastha—a householder—) that

one unites himself in sexual pleasure only in the night.

14. Indeed, prajāpati is food. From it is produced the semen

out of which these beings originate.

15. Now those, who practise this observance of Prajāpati

(Prajāpativratam), practise procreation (mithunam utpādayante),

just as it is said of Prajāpati, above, that he procreates a pair—

mithunam utpādayate).

1. According to Śaṅkara, the five feet are the five seasons of the year

(Hemanta and Śiśira, the two wintry seasons being counted as one), and

the twelve forms are the twelve months. —Translator

2. This verse which, indeed, originally refers to the parallelism between

the starry heavens and the sacrificial fire (cf. Gesch. d. Phil. I. 111) is here

very arbitrarily interpreted as referring to the Dvayāna and Pitryāṇa.

Praśna Upaniṣad

The form in which you stay in speech,

in the ears and in the eyes,

That your form which is extended to Manas (mind)—

Make that form auspicious for us,

do not depart from us !

This universe is under the power of Prāṇa,

whatever in the third heaven is;

Protect us, as the mother protects her children,

bestow on us prosperity and wisdom!

Third Praśna

[According to the verse occurring appended at the end of this subsection (3.12), one must know five things in order to attain immortality : (1) the origin of Prāṇa (2) its extension (āyati, already understood by the Upaniṣad as ‘āyāti=entrance into the body) (3) its continuance in the body (4) its cosmic and (5) its psychical quintuplication. These five questions besides a sixth which concerns the departure of Prāṇa form the six themes of the section which as such already presuppose the knowledge of the contents and which therefore, do not appear very suitable for Āśvalāyana Kausalya in whose mouth the questions are placed.

(1) The origin of the Prāṇa:- It is here no more the highest principle itself in concrete form but as the highest principle which arises out of the Ātman (as Praśna 6.4, Muṇḍ. 2.1.3) and is related to it like the silhoutte, the image (chāyā) of the object.

(2) The reason for its entrance into the body :- The answer lies in the words manokṛtena which has been interpreted by Saṅkara in the sense of the Vedānta: “On account of the actions done through his will”; grammatically, it would be more right to understand it as mano’kṛtena “without the aid of the will”.

(3) Continuance in the body :-As five ramifications of the Prāṇa are enumerated Apāna, Prāṇa, Samāna, Vyāna, Udāna; among these, however, are understood, not as is generally done and as also it occurs in the fourth Praśna, not the vital breaths (the Prāṇas in the strict sense which stand beside the Manas and the Indriyas), but the vital powers (the Prāṇas in the wider sense, Manas and the Indriyas being included in them) as is mostly understood in the Brāhmaṇa-period (Gesch. d. Phil. I. 296). The customary nine Prāṇas of the Brāhmaṇa period, (corresponding to the nine openings in the body) are, in our passage, so distributed that the Apāna concerns the organs of evacuation and procreation, and Prāṇa (which has been thus identified with the Prāṇa in the wider sense) concerns the seven openings in the head (eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils). Besides, there are the Samāna as the nutritional power (which assimilates food : annam samam nayati) and

Praśna Upaniṣad

3. Out of the Ātman originates the Prāṇa; as the shadow cast by a man (arises out of him), so also it (the Prāṇa) extends out of the same (Ātman). Without the interference of the will, it comes into this body.–

4. And just as a king charges his officers to administer these or those villages, so also that Prāṇa appoints the remaining Prāṇas, each one of them separately (to do their task).

5. In respect of evacuation and reproduction, it orders the Apāna. It, the Prāṇa, has its own seat or abode in the eyes, the ears together with the mouth and the nose. In the middle (or the centre) there is the Samāna [so-called] because it is the samāna which contributes to the equal (samam) distribution of (or assimilates) the food which has been offered into the body (Chānd. 5.19 ff); out of it originate those 'seven sacrificial flames' (Muṇd. 2.1.8).

6. In the heart, however, dwells the Ātman; in that place itself, there are those hundred and one arteries (Chānd. 8.6.6); to every one of these arteries, belong respectively a hundred (ramifications): and to every one of these auxiliary ramifications, there are seventytwo thousand sub-ramifications, (Bṛh. 2.1.19); in them the Vyāna functions.

7. But through the one artery running upward, the Udāna leads a man to a holy world for his pious actions, to an evil world for his evil actions, to the world of men for both kinds of actions.

8. As the sun, that Prāṇa now ascends upward in the external world, as it is that (Sun) which renders assistance to the Prāṇa in the eyes; and the divinity which dwells in the earth, renders assistance through the fact that it supports the Apāna in man, that the space between them (the sun and the earth) is what is samāna; the wind is the Vyāna.

9. The fervour (tejas) (i.e. the vital force), is, however, the Udāna. Therefore, when the fervour (of the vital force) abates, then the man departs, to be born once again, together with the Indriyas (Chānd. 6.8.6) which have merged into the manas (mind),

10. and with the thought, with which one is preoccupied (in the hour of death), into the Prāṇa; and the Prāṇa bound up

with the fervour of the vital force through the Udāna leads it together with the Ātman over into that world imagined by him (in the hour of death) (cf. Chānd. 3.14.1, Bhagavadgītā 8.6).

11. He who having this knowledge, knows the Prāṇa—the line of his descendants or posterity does not become extinct and he becomes immortal. Regarding this, there is the following verse:

12. He who knows the origin, the dissemination, the abode, and the fivefold distribution in the world, and has himself the knowledge of Prāṇa, —he attains immortality, he attains immortality.

Fourth Praśna

[This important subsection deals with four questions of which the first two concern dream-sleep and the latter two concern deep sleep. As the four questions are so framed that they already characteristically presuppose the knowledge of their answers—because they fall asunder from one another during the progress of the discourse—, the discourse (of Pippalāda) as an answer may have been the original nucleus and the questions may have been contrived only afterwards. The first germ of the whole, however, is, perhaps the one in a verse inserted at the end, which extols the imperishable (akṣara) unity, in which all subjective organs as well as the objective beings or things corresponding to them have been grounded.

The contents analysed according to the four questions are as follows :

(1) What is that which goes to sleep (in the dream-sleep) in man and that which wakes up ? — Answer : Just as the rays enter into (or merge into) the setting sun, so also, the ten Indriyas (senses) (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch; — speech, seizing (with the hands), procreation, evacuation walking1) enter into the Manas (the mind) which remains awake in dream-sleep. Besides the Manas (mind),2 there remain awake in the body—the city of Brahman, the Prāṇas as the live (ever awake) fires or—with the change of simile which is more familiar to the Indian mind,—as the sacrificial fires in which Apāna, Vyāna and Prāṇa have been equated with Gārhapatya, Anvāhāryapacana and Āhavanīya. Samāna is so called because it leads the outbreath and inbreath (—in 3.5 however, it leads the food into unity with the body—) into unity (samam nayati); udāna leads the Manas

1. This is (next to the Brh. 2.4.11), indeed, the oldest passage in which the ten Indriyas (senses and organs) have been systematically enumerated.

2. Manas and Indriyas are placed here, as in the Vedānta-doctrine vis-à-vis the five Prāṇas, whereas the prāṇas had been included under the Indriyas in the foregoing Praśna.

etc. into Brahman, not only as otherwise said during death, but also in deep sleep.

2. Which god (i.e. which organ) sees the dream-phenomena?— Answer :

The Manas (mind), because it builds (these dreams) out of the things perceived earlier and those not perceived.

3. Who experiences the joy (in deep sleep)?—Answer : It originates through the fact that Manas, overpowered by the Tejas (which is equated with Udāna, see above 3.9), sees no dream-phenomena any more. It is not mentioned as to who experiences the joy but it can be gathered from what follows.

4. Which is that unity into which all the organs (Indriyas, manas, Prāṇas) are grounded ?— Answer : The highest Ātman (4.7) or the spirit consisting of knowledge (vijñānātman), and resting on the highest, imperishable Ātman (4.9). On it rest (a) the five fine subtle elements (prthivīmātrāḥ etc.) on which the five elements are founded; (b) The ten Indriyas (which have been once again, enumerated) and the objects of sense corresponding to them; (c) Manas, Buddhi, Ahaṅkāra, Cittam, Tejas, Prāṇa and the functions belonging to them.

Manas, Buddhi, the Śvet. 5.8, not the Chānd. 7.25.1) are reminiscent of the Sāṅkhya-system Cittam which is among these, is peculiar; to the Tejas (above it is equated; with Udāna) is attributed the function of illuminating (cf. Bṛh. 4.4.1-2); according to which the organs as tejomātrāḥ enter into the heart at the time of death and then the apex of the heart pradyotate; tena pradyotanena eṣa ātma niṣkrāmati); the function of Prāṇa is, as above described in Praśna 2, is vidhāraṇam.

The promise, held out in the concluding part 4.10—, is carried out in the wording of the verse which is quoted in 4.11.1

1. Then Sauryāṇin Gāṅgya asked him: “Exalted Sir! Who are they, that sleep in this man, and who remain awake in him ?

Which is that god that sees the dreams ? Whose pleasure is that [of the deep sleep] ? In whom are they all established ?”

2. And he said to them:

“Just as, O Gāṛgya, the l̇ght-particles of the sun, when it sets, all become one in that disk of lustre and proceed again and again out of it when the sun rises, similarly all this also becomes one in the Manas as the highest Godhead; therefore it is that then man does not hear, does not see, does not smell, does not taste, does not touch, does not speak, does not take, does not procreate, does not pass stools, does not go here and there, but, as they say, sleeps.

It

is

the

Prāṇa

fires

which

are

then

awake

in

this

city;

the

Apāna

is

the

Gārhapatya

fire,

the

Vyāna

the

Anvāhāryapacana

fire;

and

the

Āhavanīya

fire,

because

it

is

carried

forward

from

the

Gārhapatya

fire,

is

called

Prāṇa

from

that

carrying

forward

(pranayanam).

Further,

Samāna

is

so

called

because

it

carries

equally

(samam

nayati)

the

two

sacrificial

offerings

of

the

out-breath

and

the

in-breath.

But

the

Manas

is

the

sacrificer,

and

the

fruit

of

the

sacrifice

is

the

Udāna;

it

leads

the

sacrificer

into

the

Brahman

day

by

day.

Then

that

God

[the

Manas]

enjoys

greatness

in

that

it

once

more

sees

what

was

seen

here

and

there,

once

more

hears

the

things

heard

here

and

there,

again

and

again

experiences

what

was

experienced

in

the

place

and

in

the

region;

seen

and

unseen,

heard

and

unheard,

experienced

and

unexperienced,

he

sees

all,

as

all

he

sees

it

(Bṛāh.

4.3.20).

But

when

it

is

overpowered

by

lustre,

then

that

god

sees

no

dreams

and

then

that

pleasure

reigns

in

this

body.

But,

O

dear,

just

as

the

birds

betake

themselves

to

the

tree

which

is

their

residence

(cf.

Chānd.

6,8,2),

similarly

all

these

take

their

resort

in

the

highest

Atman.

The

earth

and

the

earth-stuff,

the

water

and

the

water-stuff,

the

lustre

and

the

lustre-stuff,

the

wind

and

the

wind-stuff,

the

ether

and

the

ether-stuff;

the

eye

and

what

is

to

be

seen,

the

ear

and

what

is

to

be

heard,

the

nose

and

what

is

to

be

smelt,

the

tongue

and

what

is

to

be

tasted,

the

skin

and

what

is

to

be

touched;

the

speech

and

what

is

to

be

spoken,

the

hands

and

what

is

to

be

taken,

the

organ

of

procreation

and

what

is

to

be

procreated,

the

organ

of

excretion

and

what

is

to

be

excreted,

the

feet

and

the

place

to

be

gone;

the

Manas

and

what

is

to

be

conceived,

the

Buddhi

and

what

is

to

be

decided,

the

Ahaṇkāra

(I-maker)

and

what

can

be

conceived

as

I,

the

thought

power

and

what

can

be

thought

over,

the

lustre

and

what

can

be

illumined,

the

Prāṇa

and

what

is

to

be

supported.

Then

this

seer

toucher,

hearer,

smeller,

taster,

conceiver,

decider,

doer,

the

spirit

forming

the

conscious

Self

[the

individual

soul],

he

is

established

in

the

highest

imperishable

Self.

600

Sixty Upaniṣads

10. And into that highest Imperishable he enters, who O

dear, knowing this shadowless, bodyless, bloodless, bright, this

Imperishable, becomes omniscient and becomes all. There-

upon is this stanza:

Where the conscious Self with all the gods,

The vital breaths and the elements abide,

Knowing, O dear, this Imperishable,

One becomes omniscient, one becomes all.

Fifth Praśna

[The meditation of the Brahman on account of its utter imperceptibility

requires an outward symbol; as such serves, the later the time the more,

the old sacrificial exclamation Om, and after its importance had been

already elevated as the essence of all the Vedas, (i.e. as the Brahman) in

Kāṭh. 2,15-17, our passage takes a further step on the way so much trodden

by the later Upaniṣads, in that it analyses the sound Om in its three moras

(a+u+m) and promises for a meditation on one of these an immediate

return to a privileged human existence (a conception which is incompatible

with the doctrine of Pitryāṇa and Devayāṇa as it is described in the Chānd.

5.3.ff., Brh. 6,2 and as it is also recognized above, Praśna. 1); two moras

lead, when meditated upon, to the moon and back to an earthly existence,

corresponding to the Pitryāṇa, three moras into the Brahman, i.e. on the

Devayāṇa, from which there is no return.]

1. Then Śaivya, Satyakāma asked him: “O exalted sir, he who

among, men meditates upon the sound Om upto his departure,

which world does he win thereby ?” And he said to him:

2. “Verily O Satyakāma, the sound Om is the higher and the

lower Brahman.1 Therefore the knower when he takes his support

on it reaches the one or the other.

3. If he meditates on one element of it, then, enlightened by

the same, he attains [after the death] quickly to the life. The

Ṛg hymns lead him to the human world; there he acquires

asceticism, Brahman-conduct and faith (cf. above 1,2) and enjoys

greatness.

1. Here not to be understood in the later sense of this term nirguṇam

and saguṇam brahma but to be understood as corresponding to the

knowledge section and work section of the Veda, or to the higher and lower

science in the Muṇd. 1,1,4-6.

Praśna Upaniṣad

4. When he reaches two elements in his meditation, then

[after the death] he is carried above in the air to the world of

Soma [to the moon] by the Yajus formulae. And after enjoying

greatness in the world of Soma he again returns.

5. When on the other hand he meditates on the highest spirit

through all the three elements of the sound Om, then after he

has entered the light, the sun, he is freed from the sin as a snake

from his slough (cf. Brh. 4,4,7); he is carried above to the

Brahman-world by the Sāman songs; then he sees him who is

higher than this complex of life, [i.e. than the individual soul1],

the spirit living in the city [of the body]. On these there are

these two verses:

6. Three elements, when one dies, employed,

Closely connected, and not unemployed,

So that for the outer, inner and middle practices

There is a full sufficiency, - then firm stands the spirit.

7. Through Ṛcs here, through Yajus' into the aerial region,

Through Sāmans there, what the wise proclaim,

The knower supported on Om reaches to him,

Who is that quiet, ageless, immortal, fearless Highest.

[After one had accustomed oneself to regard Prajāpati as the "year

having twentyfour parts [divided in twentyfour fortnights] (Gesch. d. Phil.

I, 208), it was natural to find him again in the fifteen-day fortnights also

and to interpret the waning and waxing of the moon as that of Prajāpati

himself, whose fifteen parts disappear gradually and originate again, while

the sixteenth part, as containing his essence, remained constant (cf. parti-

cularly Brh. 1,5,14). Hence the more frequent description of Prajāpati as

having sixteen parts (Vāj. Saṃh. 8,36) or even as having seventeen parts,

since the life-principle was further distinguished from all parts.

Taking Prajāpati as the model, they further attributed sixteen parts to

man also, of which fifteen decay but are replenished through food, while the

sixteenth part vanishes with the life itself (cf. particularly the account in

the Chānd. 6,7). By the way, how little one knew originally as to what

these sixteen parts should be is clear from the fact that according to Śatap.

Sixth Praśna

1. So according to Śaṅkara to Brahmasūtra 1,3,13 System des

Vedānta, p. 214. The commentator of the Praśna Upaniṣad agrees fully

with 'someone' mentioned in the commentary, loc. cit. Can he therefore

be Śaṅkara ?

602

Sixty Upaniṣads

Br. 10,4,1,17) it is the sixteen syllables of the words loman, tvac, asṛj, medas,

māṃsam, snāvan, asthi, majjā (hair, skin, blood, fat, flesh, sinew, bone,

marrow) which are meant thereby.—The question of our section aims at

these sixteen parts of man.

In the answer is shown, (a) how the sixteen parts proceed out of the

Puruṣa (i.e. here out of the Spirit, the Ātman); (b) how they return in him.

(a) The Puruṣa creates 1) the Prāṇa, as the most important thing, on

whose departure and stay depend his own departure and stay; out of it

2. Śraddhā, the faith, with which we are already acquainted in the Five-Fire

Teaching as the most primitive germ of man (Chānd. 5,4,2. Bṛh. 6,2,9);

3-7) the five elements, whereby the nominative vāyur, āpas are to be

explained as being due to the utilisation of a verse, with which we partly

come across in Muṇḍ. 2,1,3 also; 8) indriyam, the ten sense organs looked

upon as a unity; 9) manas, 10) annam, food, 11) vṛyam, the strength

depending on it; 12) mantrāḥ, the hymns and the formulae,

14. karman, the deed based on them, 15) lokāḥ, the worlds whose acquisition

is conditioned by the deed; 16) nāman, as the individual distinctness.

(b) The return of these organs into the Puruṣa results like that of the

rivers into the ocean which is taught in similar words in prose as in a verse

in the Muṇḍ. 3,2,8.

The whole section seems to have been composed out of the reminis-

cences of other passages.]

1. Then Sukeśan Bhāradvāja asked him:

"O exalted Sir, Hiraṇyanābha Kausālya, the prince, came

to me and put me this question: 'Do you know that Puruṣa

with sixteen parts ? To him, the prince, I said: 'I do not know

him; for if I had known him, how would not have I told you

about him? [According to Chānd. 5,3.5 and similar passage,

where however the father speaks to the son.] He indeed dries up

to the very root who tells untruth. Therefore, I cannot tell un-

truth'.—Then silently he mounted his.car and went away. Now I

ask you: Where is that Puruṣa ?

2. Then he [Pippalāda] said to him: "Here in the body itself,

O dear, is this Puruṣa in whom those sixteen parts originate.

3. This one [Puruṣa] thought to himself: With whose depar-

ture I myself shall be departed, and with whose staying I shall

stay ?

4. Then he created the Prāṇa; from the Prāṇa the faith, the

ether, the wind, the light, the water, the earth, the sense organs;

the Manas, the food; from food the strength, the Tapas, the Mantras, the work, the worlds and in the worlds the name also.

5. Just as these flowing rivers take their course to the ocean and on reaching the ocean they disappear in it, as their names and forms merge together and it is called only the ocean, similarly the same happens in the case of this all-seer, in that those sixteen parts take their course to the Puruṣa and when they reach the Puruṣa they disappear; their names and forms merge together, and it is called only the Puruṣa, who, however, continues to be without parts and immortal. On this there is this verse:

6. As spokes in the nave of a wheel,

The parts have their roots firm in him,

Him whom one must know, I know,

The Puruṣa, so that the death may not unnerv you too.

7. And to all of them he said: “This much I know about the highest Brahman, there is nothing beyond.”

8. Then they worshipped him and said: “You are our father,

you who lead us over from ignorance to the other bank.”

Salutation to the great sages.

Salutation to the great sages.

THE MĀṆḌŪKYA UPANIṢAD

OF THE ATHARVAVEDA

With the Kārikā of Gauḍapāda on it

INTRODUCTION

The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, in prose, bears the name of a half-lost school

of the Ṛgveda, but it is assigned to the Atharvaveda and is, as is shown

not only by the numerous citations but the systematic compactness of its

manner of representation, considerably later than the prose Upaniṣads of

the three older Vedas. Its brevity and precision is in marked contrast with

the verbosity of the older Upaniṣads. Many points of contact with the

Maitrāyaṇa-Upaniṣad offer themselves and will require a close investigation

to decide which side the priority lies. On the other hand, as opposed to

the most of the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

makes a more archaic impression, particularly in so far as it distinguishes

only three, and not three and a half moras in the word Om.

The fundamental doctrine of the Māṇḍūkya-Up. is that the whole

world is pressed in the syllable Om. It adduces the following

proof for this thesis : The world is Brahman, Brahman is the Ātman,

the Ātman, however, is the sound Om, inasmuch as to its moras

correspond the four quarters or feet i.e. the four states of the Ātman.

These four states are : 1) the waking, Vaiśvānara (so called because its

impressions are common to all; perhaps, according to Śaṅkara, to be traced

to the Chānd. 5.11-18), in which the Ātman perceives outward; 2) the dream

state, Taijasa (the luminous, because in it the Ātman is its own light, svena

bhāsā, svena jyotiṣā pravapiti, Brh. 4,3,9), in which the Ātman perceives

inward; 3) the deep sleep, Prajñā (because in it the Ātman, according to

the Brh. 4,3,21, becomes one with the Prajña Ātman, i.e. Brahman, for the

time being; 4) the "Fourth" Caturtha (Turīya, Turya), in which the extinc-

tion of the world-expanse is not effected unconsciously as in the third state,

but with consciousness. To the first state corresponds the a of Om

(a+u+m), to the second the u, to the third the m, to the fourth the moraless

(amātra) part of the word as is shown by an etymological play.

Astonishingly, Śaṅkara has not made use of the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

in his commentary on the Brahmaśūtras; on the other hand it has not

only exercised great influence on several Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda but

also, more than any other Upaniṣad, it has been useful, as a basis, for

clever constructions of the Vedāntasāra, although with a modified inter-

pretation of its basic concepts.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

Its greatest importance however lies therein, viz. that it gave rise to one of the most remarkable monuments of Indian Philosophy, viz. the Kārikā of Gauḍapāda, a work whose appreciation has already been proclaimed by the fact that its four parts (the first of which includes the Māṇḍūkya-Upaniṣad) are usually regarded as four Upaniṣads. We cannot believe that the author of this kārikā, who represents the pure Advaita stand point in the bluntest way was the same Gauḍapāda who in his commentary to the Sāṁkhyakārikā glorifies the teaching of Kapila as the means to the salvation. And if later authors like Vācaspatiśra and Vijñānabhikṣu have commented on the most diverse systems, it is still a different thing, for the Māṇḍūkyakārikā, in its last three parts is a completely independent, work, and its author proclaims, obviously from deepest conviction, a standpoint which must make it impossible for him to get on, even temporarily, with the interpretation of the doctrine of duality which he fights so resolutely. On the other hand, it is quite likely that our Gauḍapāda was the teacher of Govinda who himself was the teacher of Śaṅkara; both, Gauḍapāda and Śaṅkara, hold the same views in all the essentials, and many ideas and imagery, in which Śaṅkara indulges, are already seen to occur in Gauḍapāda (reconciliation of the scriptures, polemic against the causality, the objectless perception etc.; serpent and rope, universal space and jar-space, dream, Māyā, mirage etc.); indeed, it can be said, that Śaṅkara developed the doctrines of Gauḍapāda into a system in the same way as Plato did those of Parmenides.

Gauḍapāda and Parmenides - this comparison will automatically press itself on every reader of the Indian poem translated for the first time, because the fundamental thought of both the philosophers is the same, indeed even the exposition of this thought often shows remarkable points of contact. All the statements of Parmenides amount to these two : (1) There is no plurality and (2) there is no becoming; and, correspondingly the Indian poem moves about from beginning to end in the two concepts of (1) the advaitam, non-plurality and (2) the ajāti, non-becoming; and even if, as is usual in India, we miss a well-ordered disposition so that the same ideas recur again and again in a wearisome manner, even if we often find only imagery instead of explanation, mere assertions instead of proofs, still every specialist will get the impression that Gauḍapāda's poem, as that of Parmenides is based on deep and genuine metaphysical insight although it may be only intuitive.

Here, we will indicate only the train of thought in its main features of the four parts, because for the rest we refer to our translation which through the exigencies of the metre and of the brevity it required could not everywhere be so literal as it would be desired on the other hand; still we hope that we have nowhere missed any idea. We do not however averywhere find ourselves in agreement with the commentary handed down in the name of Śaṅkara which certainly sometime goes wrong; e.g. when at 4.83, out of the four theses : 1. asti, 2. na asti, 3. asti, na asti, 4. na asti iti na asti 'he is not not' he takes the fourth one as synonymous with na asti, na asti, iti

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

(perhaps he read it so) and refers to the atyantaśūnyavāda, i.e. the Buddhist school of the Mādhyamikas;—and so in many other cases.

I. The first part of the poem is essentially a metrical paraphrase of the Māṇḍūkya-Upaniṣad; peculiar to it is only the critique of the world-creation theories, v. 6-9 : The world is not an unfoldment of the power (vibhūti) of God, not a dream-like illusion (svapnamāyā) produced by Him; it is originated neither through the desire (icchā) of God nor through the power of Time (kāla), it has not come into existence for the enjoyment (bhoga) or sport (krīḍā), because āptakāmasya kā spṛhā ? “What can he wish, one who has everything ?” — rather it is God's own essence (svabhāva) and is so little differentiated from Him, as the rays from the sun, which are all one and the same, viz. nothing but light.

In contrast with this first section the other three are entirely independent and have no immediate connection with the Upaniṣad beyond whose thought they go widely : they have therefore characteristic titles also as Vaitathyam, Advaitam and Alātaśānti.

II. Vaitathyam ‘falseness’ of the empirical reality and of the theories adhering to it.

1. Verses 1-18. The plurality in the waking state also depends on delusion as the one in dream; and as the dream is sublated by the awakening, so is the waking again sublated by the dream (verses 6-7); in both kalpāyati ātmanā ātmānām ātmadevaḥ svamāyayā, verse 12. At the end follows, in verses 17-18, the celebrated illustration of the rope which appears as a snake in darkness; similarly the Ātman appears as the world in the darkness of ignorance.

2. Verses 19-29. Every attempt to conceive the Ātman among empirical forms fails; everybody conceives of him according to what he knows of the world, as is illustrated by a long series of examples.

3. Verses 30-38. Again follow illustrations and the affirmation that there is no plurality and no becoming. The portrayal of a Muni, who has known this, forms the conclusion.

III. Advaitam, “the non-duality”.

1. Verses 1-16. As against the ‘wretchedness’ of the theologistic God-worship, which brings down God into time and becoming, the poet develops the doctrine of Advaitam, the identity of the Ātman and the Jīva, the highest and the individual soul, on the brilliantly executed analogy of the world-space and the jar-space. This, he believes, is the view of the scriptures also, and where they speak differently, of world-creation etc., it is done only because that suits human mental capacity.

2. Verses 17-30. Polemic against becoming and plurality. Those who accept becoming get themselves entangled in contradiction; no object surely, can deviate from itself, from its own nature, and become something different since prakṛter anyathābhāvo no kathaṃcid bhavisyati is a main point to which the author returns again and again and which occurs verbatim

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

609

also, because Samsāra has never been, and not of salvation, which has always been there (verses 30-31). Also there is no becoming in the imagining subject : the fancies in the waking state are similarly based on error as those in the dream, as amplified here once more, so that neither in the subject nor in the object there is any becoming.

2. Verses 47-52 : But whence the appearance of plurality and becoming ? This question is answered through an illustration which is very highly original and brilliant in its form and which has given the name of alātaśānti to the whole book. Alāta (from lā to grasp, "that which cannot be grasped") is a splinter of wood glowing at one end. By swinging this a fiery line or fiery circle (alātacakram, also Maitr. 6,24; cf. also Mahābh. 7,1825) is produced, without thereby something added to the homogeneous gleam, or something emerging from it. The whole world is comparable to such a circle of gleam; it exists only in the conscience (vijñānam) all objects are the swingings of one and homogeneous conscience.

3. Verses 53-77. The poet returns to the impossibility of becoming, the relationship of basis and result, the affinity of dream and waking in order to explain, by referring to the previous illustration that everything objective and subjective is only cittaspandanam, swingings of the conscience (Verse 72). He again refers to the contradictions of the dualist, whereas according to him in the Vedānta the duality serves only as an educational aid that ceases after the final instruction.

4. Verses 78-100. At the end follows a portrait of the fool, who clings to the plurality, and of the 'awakened' (buddha) who has realized himself as that which all have been from eternity (ādibuddha and ādiśānta, verses 92, 93), as the eternal Identity, as pure objectless Intelligence, free from all worldliness.

consistency, translating (1) Ursache and Wirkung by cause and effect respectively and (2) Grund and Erfolg by basis and result respectively.—

GBP.

MĀṆḌŪKYA UPANIṢAD

PART I

1

1. Om! This syllable is the whole world. Its explanation is as follows:1

The past, the present and the future, all this is the sound Om. And besides, what still lies beyond the three times, that also is the sound Om.

2. All this, verily, is Brahman, but Brahman, is this Ātman (the soul) and this Ātman is fourfold.

3. The Vaiśvānara present in the wakeful state, perceiving outwards, seven-limbed,2 having nineteen mouths3, the enjoyer of the gross, is his first quarter.

4. The Taijasa, present in the state of dream, perceiving inwards, seven-limbed,2 having nineteen mouths,3 the enjoyer of the selected4, is his second quarter.

5. The state, "where he, asleep, no more experiences any desire and sees no vision", (Bṛh. 4, 3, 19) is deep sleep. The Prajña, present in the state of deep sleep, "become one" (Bṛh. 4, 4, 2) "consisting wholly of knowledge, through and through" (Bṛh. 4, 5, 13), "consisting of bliss" (Taitt. 2, 5), the enjoyer of the bliss, having conscience for his mouth, is his third quarter.

6. "He is the lord of all" (Bṛh. 4, 4, 22) he is "the omniscient" (Muṇḍ. 1, 1, 9), he is "the inner guide" (Bṛh. 3, 7), he is the cradle of the universe (cf. Muṇḍ. 1, 1, 6), verily he is creation and the disappearance of creatures.

7. The same expression in Chānd. 1,1.1.

8. Chānd. 5,18, 2 (Śaṅkara).

9. Ten Indriyas, five Prāṇas, Manas, Buddhi, Ahaṅkāra, Cittam (Śaṅkara).

10. Bṛh. 4,2,3.

1. All-pervading, outward-conscious Viśva,

Inward-conscious is Taijasa,

Pure consciousness is Prājña,

One is it, who goes for three.

2. Out of the right eye looks Viśva,

In the Manas within, is Taijasa,

In the heart-space stays Prājña,

Thus threefold in body is his state.

3. Enjoyer of gross is Viśva,

Of choice, Taijasa,

Bliss-enjoyer is Prājña,

Thus threefold is his enjoyment.

4. With gross is satisfied Viśva,

With chosen Taijasa,

With bliss is satisfied Prājña,

Threefold is his satisfaction.

5. Who is in these three states

Enjoyer? What the object enjoyed?

Who knows these two well,

He enjoys and is not stained (Īśā. 2)

6. A source is of all creatures

As beings, that is certain:

The Spirit (Puruṣa) as vital force (prāṇa)

created them,

Separated only as the rays of the sun.

7. Some hold the world-creation

For unfoldment-of-power (vibhūti),

Others again for dream hold

The creation, and for delusion (māyā).

8. Many make the world-creation

At God's wish alone originate.

Others believe, it was Time

That produced all the creatures.

9. For own enjoyment, for a plaything

The God created them, hold others;—

No ! it is God's self-essence!

What can he wish, he who everything has ?

7. That which is neither inward-perceiving nor outward-perceiving, nor both way perceiving, that which does not consist of knowledge through and through, neither conscious nor unconscious,—invisible, unhandleable, ungraspable, uncharacterizable, inconceivable, unnamable established in the certitude of his own self, that which extinguishes the expanse of the universe, calm, auspicious, without the second,–that is the fourth quarter, that is the Ātman which should be known.

8. Capable of eradication

Of all sorrows, the unchangeable,

As oneness permeating all

Is the God, who the Fourth is called.

11. Effect-and-cause-bound

Are Viśva and Taijasa,

Cause-bound is Prajña,

Both apply not to the Fourth.

12. Neither of truth nor of untruth,

Neither of himself nor of other

Is Prajña ever conscious,—

Eternally the Fourth looks at all.

13. In the unawareness of plurality

Are Prajñia and the Fourth alike;

Yet Prajña lies in the germinal sleep,

The Fourth knows no sleep.

14. Dream-and sleep are of the first two,

Of Prajña, the dreamless sleep,

Neither dreaming nor sleeping

One ascribes to the Fourth, who knows him.

15. The dreamer perceives erroneously,

The sleeper perceives not at all;

Both err; where it vanishes,

There the fourth state is attained.

16. In the beginningless universal delusion

Sleeps the soul; when it wakes up,

Then wakes in it the secondless,

Sleepless, dreamless Eternal.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

17. If the expanse of the universe existed,

It has to go some day;

But all plurality is delusion;

Without plurality is the reality.

18. Refutable are the assumptions

Only, if someone sets them up;

Here they are just educational aid;

To him who knows, plurality exists not.

3

8. This Ātman now is, in regard to the sounds (adhyakṣaram,

used in analogy of adhidaivatam, adhyātman) the syllable Om,

specially with reference to its moras; the moras are the three

quarters [of the Ātman], and the quarters are the moras, viz.

the sound a, the sound u, and the sound m.

9. The Vaiśvānara present in the wakeful state is the a-sound,

the first mora, from the reaching (āpti) or from the first existence

(ādimattvam).—He who knows this verily attains all desires and

becomes the first.

10. The Taijasa, present in the state of dream is the a-sound,

the second mora, from the high-holding (utkarṣa) or from the

being-on-both-the-sides (ubhayatvam).—He who knows this,

verily holds high the tradition of knowledge [in his family] and

is equally respected by both the sides [friend and enemy] and

in his family no one is born who does not know the Brahman.

11. The Prājña, present in the state of deep sleep, is the m-

sound, the third mora, from constructing (miti; from the root

mi, minoti), or also from annihilation (apīti; from mi mināti).—

He who knows this verily erects (out of himself) this whole

world and is also its annihilation.

19. Very muchsimilar is Viśva to the a-sound

Through similarity of first existence,

Through moras' agreement

In attainment also they are alike.

20. Taijasa resembles the u-sound

In the high-holding clearly,

Through moras' agreement

21. Very much similar is Prājña to the m-sound

22. Since he, in the three states

23. The a-sound leads to the Viśva, the goal,

24. Moraless is the Fourth, unhandlable, that which exting-

One who knows this has his [individual] self merged in the

24. Quarter by quarter knowthe Om-sound,

25. Meditating, be absorbed in the Holy Call,

26. The Holy Call is the lower,

27. It is the beginning of everything,

28. Know the Holy Call as the God,

Who is enthroned in the heart of all;

The sage, who the Om-sound knows

As all-pervading grieves not.

29. Partless and with unending parts,

Is the blessed cessation of duality;

Who as such the Om-sound knows,

He alone is a Muni, none else.

PART II

named Vaitathyam “The Untruth”.

1. All that we see in dream,

Is untrue, the wise tell us,

For all this is inward,

For it lies locked up within us.

2. And because too short would be the time

To visit far off regions,

And because when we awake,

We are no more in those regions.

3. “There are no cars or no chariots,”

Teach us the scriptures (Bṛh. 4, 3, 10) and the logic;

Thus is the dream’s untruth

Proved and revealed too.

4. Because plurality here is only inward,

It’s so in the state of wakefulness too;

Here, as there, is only imagination,

Locked up within us, here as there.1

5. The state of dream and of wakefulness

Is the same to the wise,

Because plurality is common to both,—

For this well-established reason.

6. What is not before and not after too,

Is not in the meantime also;

Although untrue it is,

Seen not as untrue yet.

1. Read : samṛtatve na bhidyate.

7. The acts of wakefulness are useful,

But no more so when we dream;

Therefore, as they begin and end,

Can depend on delusion alone.

8. Also what in dream new, springs it

From the mind only, and if the gods to him

Appear, he sees them just so,

As he was over them instructed.

9. Dreaming, what he builds in the mind

Within, that is unreal,

Although his mind grasped it outside,

As the thing seen both are untrue.

10. Wakeful, what he builds in the mind

Within, that is unreal,

Although his mind grasped it outside,

Logically untrue are both.

11. If now both kinds of plurality

In dream and waking untrue are,

Who perceives the two pluralities,

Who imagines them in the consciousness ?

12. Through self-delusion the God Ātman

Imagines his self by himself,

Perceiving both the pluralities,

Is the settled conviction of the Vedânta.

13. Transforming, He imagines as different,

What exists only in the consciousness,

As being outside and necessary

The Ātman imagines it within himself.

14. Mind is the chronometre of the inner,

Plurality that of the external,

Their difference lies only herein,

As imagination both are alike

15. Indistinct is the world within,

Distinct the world that lies outside;

Different according to the organ of sense,

As imagination both are alike

16. The soul is imagined first,

Then the peculiarity of objects,

External and internal;

As one knows, so one remembers.

17. As a rope, not perceived distinctly

In dark, is erroneously imagined

As snake, as a streak of water,

So is the Self (Ātman) erroneously imagined.

18. As, when the rope is distinctly perceived,

And the erroneous imagination withdrawn,

Only the rope remains, without a second,

So, when distinctly perceived, the Ātman.

19. When he as Prāṇas, as all

The diverse objects appears to us,

Then it is all mere delusion (māyā),

With which the God deceives himself.

20. To the Prāṇa-knowers he is the Prāṇas (Vaiśeṣikas),

Elements to him, who knows them (Lokāyatikas),

To the Guṇa-knowers he is the Guṇas (Sāṁkhyas,

Tattvas to him, who knows them (Śaivas).

21. To the quarter-knowers he is the quarters (Māṇḍūkya-Up.),

To the materiality-knowers materiality (Vātsyāyana),

To the world-knowers the worlds (Paurāṇikas),

Gods to the God-knowers (followers of the Veda).

22. To the Veda-knowers he is the Vedas,

To the sacrifice-knowers the sacrifice,

To the enjoyer-knowers the enjoyer,

The object of enjoyment, to those who know him so.

23. To the subtle-knowers he is subtle,

Gross to those who know him so,

Concrete to the concrete-knowers,

Formless to those who know him so.

24. He is time to the time-knowers,

For space-knowers he is the space,

To the art-connoisseurs he is the arts,

The spheres to those who know him so.

25. For Manas-knowers he is the Manas,

For Buddhi-knowers he is the Buddhi,

He is the Citta1 for the Citta-knowers,

Right and wrong to him who knows them.

26. Twentyfivefold for those (Sāṃkhyas),

To those as the twentysixth (Pātañjalas),

Thirtyonefold for others (Pāśupatas),

Infinite is he for many (cf. Cūlikā 14).

27. Worlds he is to the world-knower,

Life-stages to him who knows them,

Three genders to the linguisticians.

To the others the higher and the lower (scil. Brahman).

28. For creation-knower the world-creation,

For di:solution-knower the world-dissolution,

The world-sustenance for sustenance-knower,—

So he is all everywhere.

29. Whatever existence one thus attributes

To the Ātman, he holds that view,

He cherishes it and, becoming it,

He surrenders himself to him as demon.

30. He himself is all forms of existence,

From which he appears different,—

Who knows this, will imagine himself,

Unawed, what he really is.

31. As one looks at dream and delusion,

As at mirage in desert,

So he looks at this universe,

Who is versed in the Vedānta.

32. There is no dissolution and no becoming,

No bound one, nor an aspirant,

No seeker of emancipation,

No emancipated, in truth.

33. As unreal forms of existence

And as the one he is thought,

1. For this word of the original, Deussen has used the word ‘Geist’—

Yet who muses on them, is always the one,

And so victorious is the oneness.

34. Not on the Ātman the plurality rests

And also never on its own self,

Not beside him and not through him

It can exist, that is certain.

35. Giving up fear, anger and inclination

The Muni who knows the Veda,

Sees that secondless and changeless,

In which the expanse of the world dissolves.

36. Who thus the essence of the world knows,

He shall hold on to the oneness faithfully,

Certain of all absence of duality,

He goes indifferent along the world.

37. From glorification free, and from songs of praise,

From even the worship of the Manes, indeed,

In everything, whatever exists, at home,

He lives so "just as it comes to him" (Bṛh. 3, 5).

38. Seeing the essence in himself,

Essence in the world outside,

Becoming it, reposing in it,

He holds on to the essence, firmly and faithfully.

PART III

named Advaitam "Absence of duality"

1. Worship the command requires

Of Brahman as born,

Ere it became, was nothing there,

Therefore wretched the worshippers are.

2. What is not wretched, hear now,

The unborn, same everywhere,

And why nothing originates whatsoever,

Although originating everywhere.

3. The Ātman is like the world-space,

The Jīva like the space in pot,

The pots are the bodies -

That is 'origination', the metaphor shows.

4. When the pots are broken,

What becomes of space in pot ?

It is merged in the world-space,—

So the Jīva in the Ātman too.

5. As, when in some pot-space

Dust is found, or smoke,

Not all the spaces share it, though,

So too the Jīvas joys and sorrows.

6. Forms, functions and names

Differ, forsooth, according to their places,

Yet the space, which they occupy,

Is the same by itself,—so the Jīvas too.

7. As the pot-space of the world-space

No product is, and no part also,

So is the Jīva of the Ātman

No product and no part of him also.

8. Just as the sky to the childern

[Although colourless] appears as blue,

Similarly the Ātman to the unexperienced

Appears as soiled with stain.

9. In the matter of dying and being born,

Going away and coming back,

And permeating all the bodies,—

He is alike the space.

10. As dream, surely, all bodies

As delusion, the Ātman projects;

Neither as similar, nor as dissimilar

In degree they let be judged.

11. As soul (Jīva) in the five sheaths,

So teaches the Taittirīyakam (Taitt. Up. 2),

The highest Ātman lies concealed,

He, whom we liken to the space.

12. In the Honey-section (Bṛh. 2.5) is in pairs

The highest Brahman shown,

As in the earth and in the belly,—

He, whom we liken to the space.

If the scripture, through equation,

Declares Jīva and Ātman as one,

Condemning all the plurality,

So it is true in the fullest sense.

And even if before the creation

The scripture holds the two apart (Chānd. 6.3.2),

That applies figuratively, not primarily,

And only to that who is supposed to become.

And if at all the scripture creation teaches,

In pictures of the clay, the ore, and the sparks,

(Chānd. 6, 1, 3. Bṛh. 2.1.20).

That serves only as an educational aid (cf. 1.18),

For "there is no plurality whatsoever" (cf. Bṛh., 4, 4, 19).

There are three grades of students:

Weak, mediocre, excellent;

For their sake, out of compassion

Brahman becomes the object of worship.

The dualists take their stand,

With assurance, on their own doctrines;

Yet they are at variance among themselves,

With us there is no such contradiction whatever.

In truth there is non-duality,

Duality only in the world of division;

They teach duality both ways,

With us there is no such contradiction.

Only as delusion exists the division

Of that, which is one and eternal,

For if the division existed in reality,

What eternal is would mortal become.

Of existence that is unborn

Those teachers assume a becoming,—

The unborn, immortal,

How could it turn into mortal ?

The immortal cannot become mortal,

Nor the mortal immortal,

Nothing can ever be otherwise

Than what its nature is.

22. If an immortal being

Were to turn into a mortal one,

Only fictitious would be its immortality,

What would become of its eternality ?

23. Speaking in earnestness or ostensibly,

The scripture uniformly teaches the same

About creation; certain and well reasoned

Is what it says and not otherwise.

24. "There's no plurality here" says it (Bṛh. 4, 4, 19),

"Manifold through delusion Indra goes about"

(Bṛh. 2, 5, 19),

"As unborn becomes manifold" (Vāj. Saṃh. 31, 19)

Through delusion only he is born.

25. Through the denial of Saṃbhūti (Īśa 12)

Origination is warded off;

"Who could bring him forth ?"

These words (Bṛh. 3, 9, 28) show him as a causeless one.

26. The words: "he is not so, not so" (Bṛh. 4, 2, 4),

Denying all expressible,

Can, as the imperceptibility shows,

Refer to Him and none else.

27. The existent cannot come into being,

It would be so only through delusion;

Who makes it originate, in reality,

He brings into being what already was.

28. Not in reality, nor as a delusion.

Can the non-existent ever originate;

A son of the barren women is born

Not in reality, nor in appearance.

29. As in dream the mind is active,

Appearing as many only through illusion,

So in waking the mind is active,

Appearing as many only through illusion.

30. The mind, though it's one, appears

As many in dream, —that is obvious;

The mind, though it's one, appears

As many when awake, —that too is obvious.

31. In mind alone everything comes to view, This plurality, movable and immovable; And when the mind comes out of itself, Plurality is no more to be seen.

32. As soon as the mind ceases to imagine, When Ātman, the being, dawns on it, Then, as non-mind, it perceives no more, For there remains nothing to be perceived.

33. As the eternal changeless knowledge is not different from the known, The Brahman is over cognized, By the eternal the eternal is known.

34. This procedure consists therein, That forcibly all the movements Of the mind are suppressed,— It is different in deep sleep.

35. The mind is dissolved in deep sleep; Suppressed, it is not dissolved, But becomes one with the Brahman, The fearless, light-of-knowledge.

36. The eternal, sleepless, dreamless one. Without name, without form, “Shining at once” (Chānd. 8, 4. 1), all-knowing No worship whatever applies to it.

37. All lamentation retreats from it, In it no anxiety anymore, Quite content, the ever light is, Firm and fearless meditation.

38. No taking is there, no giving, Where no anxiety remains whatsoever, Then there is, reposing in itself, Eternal knowledge alone, its own like.

39. That is called the Touchless Yoga, Even for the Yogins difficult to see, Because even the Yogins shy at it, Afraid of the fearless one.

40. The suppression of the mind is necessary

For every Yogin to attain

The fearless, the sorrowless,

The awakening, eternal rest.

41. As of a drop, merged in ocean,1

That rested on blade of grass,

So the suppression of the mind

Follows with no difficulty whatsoever.

42. One has to suppress the mind methodically,

Distracted in desire and lust,

Then will it come to rest and disappear,

Its disappearance is like pleasure of love.

43. Knowing that everything is painful,

One turns away from desire and lust,

Knowing that everything is Brahman,

One no more sees what has come into existence.

44. Wake up the mind, if it falls into slumber,

Collect it, when it is distracted;

Know this well, that both are sinful;

Disturb it not, when it's Brahman-like.

45. No pleasure he enjoys any more,

Of no intense desire conscious,

His mind working undisturbedly,

He keenly strives after unity.

46. And when the mind is not vanished

in sleep, nor it distraction seeks,

Then it steps forth as the Brahman,

Still, and from appearance free.

47. Free, calm and quiet, painless,

Inexpressible highest pleasure,

Eternal, conscious of the eternal object,

That is how the wise describe it.

48. No soul is ever born,

No originating of the wide world,

It is the highest holy truth,

That there is no such thing as becoming.

1. Perhaps udadhau is to be read. I cannot decide upon the

PART IV

named Alātaśānti, "The extinction of the firebrand."1

1. One who like the clouds in the space

Knows the pluralities in the One,

The subject and at the same time the object

Is,—him I adore, the Puruṣa.

2. That one called the Touchless Yoga,

Friendly and beneficial to all,

Without contradictions, incontrovertible,

Shown to us (3.39),—adoration to him.

3. "What exists alone comes into being," So many a thinker

says;—

"No! It's what existed not", say others,

Each challenging the other's view.

4. "What exists cannot come into being,"—

"Nor that what existed not";—

Thus disputing, they testify

To the non-becoming, like non-dualists.

5. We are delighted when they thus show:

It's impossible, to come into being;—

That there is no contradiction among us

As in them all, now listen.

6. The becoming of what had not become

Those disputants accept,

Still, the unborn, the immortal,

How could it mortal become ?

7. The immortal cannot become mortal,

Nor the mortal immortal,

Nothing can ever be otherwise

Than what its nature is (=3.21).

1. That probably means : "The refutation of the (apparent) circle of

spark (which appears when a fire brand is swung around)."

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

8. If an immortal being

Were to turn into a mortal one,

Only fictitious would be its immortality,

What would become of its eternality (= 3, 22) ?

9. Permanent, inherent in itself.

Inborn and unmade,

Never giving up its own essence,

Such is, what they call, ‘the Nature’ (Prakṛti).

10. Unborn and undying,

Are individualities (dharma) by nature;

He, to whom they originate and die,

Is ignorant of the individuality.

11. He, to whom the cause becomes the effect,

He makes the cause be born,—

How can, what is eternal, be born ?

How, what is inherent, be divorced ?

12. If the cause itself becomes effect,

Then the effect is already there for ever,

And yet it becomes ! And its becoming

Makes the cause vanish into air.

13. No! Him no practical proof avails,

Who makes the Eternal come into existence;

And one who originates what already is,

He sinks into unending regressus.

14. If the result1 were the source of the basis,1

And the basis the source of the result,

Then both will be beginningless,

Basis and result, how can it be ?

15. If the result were the source of the basis,

And the basis the source of the result,

Then the origination of both, forsooth,

Is like the son begetting the father.

16. Basis and result, if originated,

Do require an order of succession;

1. For Deussen’s translation of phala by Erfolg (here result) and of hetu by Grund (here basis), see our note above, page 608.

For if they originate simultaneously, Like two horns, there goes the bond.

17. That from the result should spring up The basis itself, is unprovable, And if the basis is unprovable, How can it effect the fruit ?

18. If out of the result the basis followed, And out of the basis the result, Which one of the two is earlier, And its following only relative?

19. Thus the impossibility (4,14), the absurdity (4,15) And the confusion in the time sequence (4,16-18), In which the opponents invariably fall, Bear testimony to the non-becoming.

20. The case of seed and plant, Is only seemingly decisive;1 And what only seemingly decisive is, It counts not as a valid proof.

21. The absurdity of the time-sequence (4,15) Only confirms the non-becoming; For what becomes would surely refer Back to something, an earlier one.

22. Not out of itself, nor out of else, Can anything ever come into being; Not as existent, nor as non-existent, Nor as both, it can originate.

23. The relationship between the seed and the plant must either have a beginning or it must be without a beginning; both alternatives, however, are impossible. It has no beginning : for every plant always already presupposes the seed, every seed in its turn the plant. It cannot also be without a beginning : for every plant, every seed originates in time and therefore has a beginning. Or should all the members be temporary, and their relationship alone be beginningless ? That also is impossible : na hi vija-aṅkura-vyatikrekeṇa vija-aṅkura-saṁtatir nāma ekā abhyupagamyate; for the relationship is only a bond between the members and so it already presupposes them and is nothing without them (according to Śaṅkara).

23. Basis and result, if beginningless,

Rule out the becoming from themselves,

For which there is no beginning,

For that there is no beginning.

24. Perception must have a source-object,

Otherwise its variation would be impossible,

Also independent of us should be

Pain and perception,—they think.

25. Perception must have a source-object,

So they cleverly argue with us,—

But that the source has no source,

So the meditation on reality tells us.

26. The mind does not touch the objects,

And also not the appearance of objects,

And when the objects are unreal,

So too their appearance, divorced from mind.

27. Also never, in the three courses of time,

Does an object touch the mind;

A causeless appearance is rarer still;

How could it become the cause ?

28. So there is no such thing as becoming,

Not in the subject, not in the object;

Who makes it take place in both,

He walks in skies only.

29. Since otherwise the eternal would come to be,

So the substance is unchanging;

Nothing can ever be otherwise

Than what its nature is (=3,21. 4,7).

30. If the Saṃsāra were beginningless,

It could not be ending;

If the liberation had beginning,

It could not be unending.

31. What is not before and not after too,

Is not in the meantime also;

Although untrue it is

Seen not as untrue yet (=2,6).

32. The acts of wakefulness are useful,

But no more so when we dream;

Therefore, as they begin and end,

Can depend on delusion alone (=2,7).

33. What we in dream perceive,

Is false, for its only in the body;

How would objects let be seen

In this closed space ?

34. And the time, too, is not sufficient

To go there, so as to see them;

And we don't find ourselves there

On awakening, where we saw them.

35. And what with others one discusses in dream,

It exists not, when one awakes;

And what was grasped in dream,

Awakened, one holds it in hand no more.

36. And also what we dream of the body,

Is untrue and not what it is;

Untrue like this, is everything,

What the mind takes as true in waking.

37. What we, as if wakeful, see in dream,

That has its basis within us;

So too has its basis within us,

What in waking we take as true.

38. Origination is inconceivable;

Everything is eternal, so teaches the scripture;

At no time can emerge

The non-existent (becoming) from the existent.

39. Wakeful we see the non-existent;

The dream image is of the like stuff made:

The non-existent we see in dream;

When we wake up, there is nothing.

40. Non-existence does not bring forth non-existence,

Non-existence does not bring forth existence either;

And existence also does not bring forth existence;

Existence cannot bring forth non-existence.

41. Just as in waking one may by error grasp, Something impossible, as if it really existed, So in dream too, out of error, One sees objects appearing themselves.

42. From perception and tradition They hold on to realism; Becoming is all that they know, Recoiling in horror from what is.

43. Many a one,1 recoiling from existence. Even when not a pure perceptionist Escapes not the defects of becoming; Defects do remain, although insignificant.

44. From perception, from tradition Even delusion is called elephant; From perception, from tradition An object also is called existent.

45. Becoming is appearance, movement appearance, The objective is sheer appearance; Non-becoming, motionless, unobjective, Calm, dualityless, reality is.

46. Thus there is no becoming in the subject, No becoming in the object either; Who has known this once for all, He does not fall back into the contrary.

47. As the swinging of the fire-brand gives the appearance Of lines straight and curved, So swinging of consciousness the appearance Of perception and the perceiver.

48. Just as a fire-brand unswung Does not appear, does not originate (as circle), So consciousness unswung Appears not and originates too not.

49. The followers of the (religious) tradition (samācāra), who passes the existent in the form of the becoming, the truth in the clothing of myth.— The restraint, with which they are censured here, is remarkable.

49. If the fire-brand swings, comes the appearance

Not from outside in any way,

Not from something other than the swing,

It is not an addition to the fire-brand.

50. Nor does it escape from the fire-brand,

For it has no real existence,

The same is the case with perception,

For this too is sheer appearance.

51. If the perception swings, comes the appearance

Not from outside in any way,

Not from something other than the swing,

It is not an addition to the consciousness.

52. Nor does it escape from the consciousnessness,

For it has no real existence,

Because of unreal causal nature

It is unthinkable as real.

53. One object they say can be the cause

Of existence of another object,

But for the spirit there is

No objectness and no otherness.

54. Neither from the mind springs the existence,

Nor from existence springs the mind;

Therefore, the wise accept no becoming

Either of the basis or of the result.

55. He who accepts basis and result,

To him they originate from each other;

One who is freed from this assumption,

For him the two originate no more.

56. He who accepts basis and result,

Far and wide is the Samsāra for him;

One who is freed from this assumption,

He is free from the Samsāra too.

57. The mentally benighted sees becoming everywhere,

Of the eternal he knows nothing;

Everything, in reality, is eternal,

There is no such thing as extinction.

58. The beings, which originate,

They originate not in reality;

Their origination is like delusion,

And delusion is not a reality.

59. Just as, where the seed is mere delusion,

The plant also is equally alike,

Not real, nor destructible,

So it is with all objects here.

60. Since all objects are unreal,

There is neither constancy nor disappearance;

Where all colours fade away,

No differentiation is there.

61. As in the apparent plurality of dream

The mind is entangled erroneously,

So in the apparent plurality of waking

The mind is entangled erroneously.

62. As in dream, the mind non-plural

sees the apparent plurality,

So in waking, the mind, non-plural

Sees the apparent plurality.

63. Roaming about in dream

In the different regions of space,

What one believes to have seen:

Animals, birds, insects.

64. All that nowhere exists

But in the dreamer's mind,

So everything he then sees, is

Just the consciousness of the dreamer.

65. Roaming about in waking

In the different regions of space,

What one believes to have seen:

Animals, birds, insects.

66. All that nowhere exists

But in the mind of the awake,

So everything he then sees, is

Just the consciousness of the awake.

67. The object and its imagination

They presuppose each other;

Everything in itself is transitory,

Only in consciousness they are there.

68. As we merely dream of somebody,

That he is born, and he dies,

So are all these worldly beings,

They are, and are not too.

69. As we see in hallucination,

That somebody lives and then dies,

So are all these worldly beings,

They are, and are not too.

70. As the black magic makes us see,

That somebody lives and then dies,

So are all these worldly beings,

They are, and are not too.

71. No soul is ever born,

No originating of the wide world,

It is the highest holy truth,

That there is no such thing as becoming ( =3,48).

72. What appears twofold as subject-object,

Is just swinging of consciousness (4,47);

The mind is eternally objectless;

"Nothing sticks him" says the script (Bṛh. 4,3,15).

73. As it is artificial, a mere make-belief (3,15),

So it is not there in reality;

What other schools accept,

Exists only for them, not in reality.

74. What they accept as eternal

Falsely, is not eternal in reality;

And becoming, it shows as erroneous

the conclusions of other school.

75. Accommodation of what exists not

Does not prove that there is duality;

If its absence is perceived,

Away goes accommodation, no more purposive.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

76. When one does not accept causes

In all the realms of nature,

Then there is no imagination too;

With the cause goes the effect too.

77. Mind is causeless; the non-becoming,

Free from duality, is ever its own;

Duality is nothing but the appearance of mind

In that Eternal, which is all.

78. Knowing as real the causelessness,

Throwing away the causes of isolation,

One goes to the place that's free from fear,

Free from desire, and free from grief.

79. Accommodating itself to what is not,

The mind remains entangled in such;

Having known the non-existence of objects,

It returns to that unattached one (4,72).

80. He who grasps this and lets not go,

unshakable remains his position then;

Of wise the goal's that eternal one,

Free from duality, the identical being.

81. Free from slumber, free from dream,

The eternal one is luminous by itself

(Br̥h. 4, 3, 14. Kāṭh. 5.15);

"For ever luminous" (Chānd. 8,4,1) is this entity,

Such is its nature itself.

82. Easily He is ever hidden from us,

He unveils His essence with great difficulty,

So long as we continue to apprehend

This object and that,—He, the Holy.

83. "He is" ! "Is not" ! "Is and is not" !

"He is not !" thus deeming Him

Unstable, stable,1 twofold, negative,

The fool hides His nature from himself.

1. One expects: "Stable (He is), unstable (is not)".

84. Because of these four points of view

[ By fool ] pursued, remains ever hidden

The Holy one, untouched by these,-

He who sees Him, has seen everything.

85. He who fully possesses the omni-vision,

The Brahman-abode, free from duality,

Devoid of beginning, middle and end,

For him nothing remains to strive after.

86. That is called real peace of mind,

That the real discipline of priests,

That's the taming of own nature,

He who knows this, attains peace.

87. Perceptible and objective

Is the dual worldliness (Waking);

Perceptible and unobjective,

Is the pure worldliness (Dream).

88. Imperceptible and unobjective,

That is called the super-worldliness;

It subject is at the same time object,

So the wise have always taught.

89. The subject and the three objects (4,87-88)

When known one after another,-

Therefrom follows the omni-vision

In all directions, of the high-minded.

90. One shall first ask: What should be

Avoided, known, attained and ripened ?

The perception passes for knowledge,

And so it is with the other three.

91. All beings are by nature

Boundless and resemble the space ( 3, 3ff ),

And there's no plurality whatever

In them, in no sense ever.

92. All beings are by nature

Awakened from beginning ( ādibuddha ), that's certain;-

Who lets this suffice for himself,

He is ripe for deathlessness.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

93. They all are by nature

Calm from the beginning, full of bliss;

All alike and indivisible,

Perennial, pure identity.

94. Yet this purity is no more,

When they fly into manifold bits;

Sunk into plurality, and divided,

They are therefore called wretched (3,1).

95. But in whom grows into conviction

The eternal identity,

He, in this world, knows the Great,

But the world understands it not.

96. Knowledge of the Eternal is eternal,

And it's concerned with nothing else;

Being unconcerned, it is called

Knowledge the unattached (4,72.79).

97. Yet when the untrained mind

Looks upon the smallest difference as real,

Then there is neither the unattachment

Nor the retreat of obscurity.

98. All souls are by nature

Free from obscurity, free from stain,

Awakened from beginning, liberated from beginning

They awake, so says the master.

99. As the sun shines by himself,

So also the knowledge, without the objects;

All objects are only knowledge,—

Inexpressible to the awakened himself.

100. Knowing to the best of our capacity, we salute

The obscure, wholly deep,

Perennial, pure Identity,

Which is the home of unity.

GARBHA UPANIṢAD1

The Garbha Upaniṣad (i.e. “Esoteric Doctrine over the Embryo”) contains, subjoined to a prefixed verse, all sorts of views on the elements and the parts of human body, and describes particularly the development of the embryo in the mother's body. Accordingly, this text would have rather belonged to a manual on physiology and medicine than to a collection of the Upaniṣads and the designation : ‘Pippalāda's Doctrine of Salvation’ occurring at the end would have very little justification, — had it not been for the idea, contained in its middle part in the course of the description of the development of the embryo, an idea which is based on such passages as Ṛgveda 4,26,1. 4,27,1. 10,177,2 (Geschichte der Philosophie I, 253) and which is interesting on account of its analogies with the Western Philosophy, that the embryo in the mother's body is already in possession of the

1. On the order of sequence. Among the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, which strive to continue the study of the Vedānta without encroaching materially on the territory of the Yoga, the Sāṃnyāsa, Śiva- and Viṣṇu-cults, the most important and most universally accepted by the Vedānta theologists are the three presented so far : Muṇḍaka, Praśna Māṇḍūkya. A fourth, the Brahma Upaniṣad, which could be assigned to this circle according to Weber (Literaturgesch., 2. ed. p. 178) will, in view of its most characteristic third part, find its place better at the beginning of Sāṃnyāsa Upaniṣads as the transitional link from the purely Vedāntic to the Sāṃnyāsa Upaniṣads. So only a gleaning of six Upaniṣads remains for us for this class which partly pursue more closely individual points of the Vedānta doctrine (Garbha, Prānāgnihotra, Piṇḍa), partly undertake a recapitulation of the fundamental concepts of the Vedānta (Ātma, Sarvopanisatsāra), on which may follow a text (Gāruḍa) standing in isolation. In the arrangement of this whole group we adhere to the order of sequence in the list of Nārāyaṇa and Colebrooke because this same is possibly of importance for the age of origination of the individual texts.—Our translation here and in the following is based upon the text of the Calutta edition, supplemented by Jacobb's Eleven Ātharvaṇa Upaniṣads (Bombay 1891). Besides variant readings of the manuscripts made use of by Weber (Ind. Studien I. II. IX), as also those of the Telugu print have been drawn upon.

Those which appeared during the issue of printing and could be still used subsequently are : The “32 Upaniṣads in the Ānandāśrama Series (Pune 1895) as also the new reprint of 108 Upaniṣads (Bombay 1896). The reader comparing the original texts will nowhere be in doubt as to the reading adopted by us. A thorough discussion of the exceedingly numerous and deep-going mutual differences in the individual texts lies beyond the limits of our present task and so must be reserved for future occasions.

640

Sixty Upaniṣads

knowledge (of its previous births, of the difference between good and bad etc.), but all this is forgotten (paśa mādeśis a'nāmnēśis) when it comes out of the mother's womb.—The standpoint of the author is, as the juxtaposed references to Sāṁkhya-Yoga, Maheśvara (Śiva), Nārāyaṇa (Viṣṇu) and Brahman seem to indicate, conciliatory in the highest degree, though we do not have before us here (cf. to Chānd. 8,14, above) formulae for the different creeds.

The text is considerably damaged and full of gaps, and the confusion in the commentary of Nārāyaṇa is only surpassed by the carelessness and ignorance of its editor in the Bibliotheca Indica.1

Om !

1. Consisting of five, connected with each of the five, Supported on six, burdened with six qualities, Having seven constituent elements, three impurities, twice procreated.

Partaking of fourfold food is the body,

Why is it "consisting of five" [ and "connected with each of the five" ] ?

Because it consists of earth, water, fire, wind and ether.

In this body "consisting of five" what is earth, what water, what fire, what wind, what ether ?

In this body "consisting of five" what is hard it is earth, what is liquid it is water, what is warm it is fire, what moves about it is wind, what is hollow it is ether.—Hereby [ it is "connected with each of the five" ] inasmuch as ] the earth serves it for support, the water for assimilation of food [piṇḍīkaraṇam, cf. Chānd. 6,8,3 ], the fire for illumination, the wind for the distribution [of substances], the ether for giving room. - In another way2 [ it is " connected with

1. To page 64, 13 stoścubiścu āvartate he cites in the note from the Cod. the variant reading : stoścumāścuh āvataṅsa iti and adds : kintu ubhayapātho'pi durbodhaḥ ! So he did not know that he had a Sūtra of Pāṇini (8,4,40 : stoḥ ścunā ścuḥ) before him which certainly stands at a wrong place in the commentary, because it can only refer to rasāc chonitam of the text.—Also the Poona edition does not seem to have understood the citation because it quotes it after allopo'nas (Pāṇ. 6,4, 134) in order to explain the form majjñah.

2. The Poona edition reads with Nārāyaṇa prthustu "but it (the body) is (indeed) space-filling."

Garbha Upaniṣad

each of the five" inasmuch as ] the ears serve for the perception of the sound, the skin for the touch, the eyes for seeing, the tongue for tasting and the nose for smelling. —[Or, again, inasmuch as] the sexual organ serves for sexual enjoyment, the Apāna for evacuation, while the body perceives with the Buddhi, imagines with the Manas, speaks with the speech.

Why is it " supported on six"?

Because it finds ( in the food, out of which it develops) sweet, sour, saline, bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

Further there are ṣadja, ṛṣabha, gāndhāra, madhyama, pañcama, dhaivata and niṣāda ( as the seven notes of the scale). Further [the above enumerated fivenesses] become, through their application, tens according as they are characterized by the words "acceptable" and "unacceptable."

2. Why is the body "Having seven constituent elements" ?

Because in it 1) white, 2) red, 3) black, 4) smoke-coloured, 5) yellow, 6) brown, 7) pale [liquid is found], according as substances [read dravyāṇi with Nārāyaṇa] become objects of food for, say, Devadatta. [The common source however, of all the seven constituent elements ] is, in so far as they have the quality of wateriness common with each other, the sixfold [above mentioned : sweet, sour, saline, bitter, pungent, and astringent] food-sap.

Out of the [1. white] food-sap originates the [2. red] blood, out of the blood [3. black, i.e. opaque] flesh, out of the flesh

1. This second reference to the fivenesses is difficult to explain; more difficult, how all of a sudden the seven notes of the scale drop in in advance. Nārāyaṇa thinks, with the reference to the ṣadgunayogayuktam of the verse, Nārāyaṇa thinks, with the reference to the ṣadgunayogayuktam of the verse,

on the application of the seven notes in the six Rāgas and in the six times six Rāginīs belonging to them; Śaṅkarānanda explains the enumeration of the seven notes as a Pūrvapakṣa to the question about the 'seven constituent elements" although this question is raised only later on. Besides, his reading and the word order are too different to allow us to go into them. Further, the Telugu edition offers entirely different readings, and yet other readings seem to have offered themselves to the Oupnekhat. — Quot capita, tot sensus. The corruption of the passage consequently seems to be quite desperate.

the [4. smoke-coloured] fat, out of the fat [snāyavaḥ snāyubhyas is to be struck off with Śaṁkarānanda and the Telugu edition] the [5. yellow] bones, out of bones the [6. brown] marrow, out of the marrow the [7. pale] semen.

From the union of the semen and the blood develops the embryo; "in the heart are the partings" as they say. Particularly in the heart is a fire, and by the fire is bile, and by the bile is wind, and where the wind is, there goes forth the heart [of the child] in consequence of a creative process.

3. From the pairing at the time of the season there originates after one night a nodule, after seven nights a bubble, within a fortnight lump, within a month it becomes hard, after two months originates the head, after three months originate the parts of foot, in the fourth month ankles, belly and hips, in the fifth the vertebral column, in the sixth the mouth, the nose, the eyes, the ears, in the seventh the embryo is equipped with the soul [jīva ], in the eighth it is complete in all parts.

By the preponderance of the father's semen originates a male, by the preponderance of the mother's semen a female; in the case of the preponderance of the semen of both a hermaphrodite; in the case of stupefaction of the mind are born the blind, the lame, the hunch-backs and the dwarfs. If the semen pressed in by the winds on both sides goes as under, then the body also becomes twofold and a twin is born.

The [embryo] "consisting of five [elements]" is capable of living [in the eighth month, of course - the preceding sentences on the procreation are parenthetical remarks], and his fivefold Buddhi has, by reason of the intelligence, the perception of smell, taste etc. Since, however, according to the text "he then thinks over the imperishable syllable Om" he perceives this one syllable [as the Puruṣa], so further the eight produc-tives [Prakṛti, Mahat, Ahaṁkāra, 5 Tanmātrās] and the sixteen products Manas, 10 Indriyas, 5 Bhutas [to sum up, therefore, all 25 principles of the Sāṁkhya doctrine] are also present in the body of this embodied soul. Then his Prāṇa also swells on account of what is eaten and drunk by the mother which reaches him by means of a vein. Finally in the ninth month he is complete in all parts and in perception; then he remembers (so long

Garbha Upaniṣad

as he is still in the mother's body) his earlier births and has a

knowledge of his good and bad deeds:

4. After I had thousands of times before

Lived in the mother's womb,

I enjoyed many kinds of food,

And drunk many a mother's breast.

Born was I, died again

And was continually born anew.

What I did for my fellow-creatures,

Work, good or bad,

For that I must suffer alone;

Those who enjoyed it, are gone.

Alas ! sunk in the ocean of grief,

I see no remedy.

If once I escape from mother's womb

I shall turn to Maheśvara,

Who destroys all the evil

And bestows the reward of liberation.

If once I escape from mother's womb.

I shall turn to Nārāyaṇa,

Who destroys all the evil

And bestows the reward of liberation.

If once I escape from mother's womb,

I shall study the Sāṁkhya Yoga

who destroys all the evil

And bestows the reward of liberation.

If once I escape from mother's womb,

I shall meditate on the Brahman.

But then, when reaching at the opening of the genital organs,

oppressed by the squeezing, he is hardly born, then touched by

the Vaiṣṇava wind, [i.e. the wind of the outer world as against

the wind in the body,] he can no more remember his births and

deaths and has no knowledge any more of good and bad

deeds.

644

Sixty Upaniṣads

Why is he called "the body" (śarīram)?

Because in it lie (śriyante) close fires, namely the fire of knowledge, the fire of seeing and the gastric fire. Here it is the gastric fire which digests what is eaten, drunk, licked, sucked. The fire of seeing effects the seeing of forms. The fire of knowledge knows the good and bad deeds.

[Besides] there are three places of fire; in the mouth is the Āhavanīya fire, in the stomach the Gārhapatya fire, in the heart the Dakṣiṇa fire. The Ātman is the sacrifice, the Manas the Brahman [the priest of this name], greed, etc. are the victims, perseverance and contentment are the sacrificial consecration, the organs of sense are the sacrificial utensils, the organs of activity are the offerings; the head is sacrificial potsherd, the hair the Darbha grass, and the mouth the inner sacrificial ground.

The head has four skull-bones, and on [each of] their both sides are sixteen tooth-cells. [In the body] there are 107 weak parts, 180 joints, nine times hundred sinews, 700 veins, 500 muscles [Yajñav. 3,100; according to the commentator it should be majjā for peśī], 360 bones, and four and a half Koṭi (45 million) hair.

The heart weighs eight Pala (364 grams), the tongue twelve Pala (546 grams), the bile a Prastham (728 grams), the phlegm an Āḍhaka (2912 grams) the semen a Kudavam (182 grams), the fat two Prastha (1456 grams), excrement and urine are uncertain, depending on the quantity of food.

This is the science of liberation by Pippalāda, the science of liberation by Pippalāda.

PRĀNĀGNIHOTRA UPANIṢAD

The thought underlying this Upaniṣad, of Prāṇa-agnihotram "the fire-offering made to the Prāṇa" (or the sacrifice offered in the Prāṇa-fire) has developed through the following stages.

1. After one had discovered the all-encompassing universal soul in the individual self, it was natural to see old-Vedic natural gods embodied in the individual body, the sun as the eyes, the wind as the breath, and so on for which the older Upaniṣads offer numerous examples.

2. It was a consequence of this view (cf. already Brh. 1, 5, 2) when the Agnihotram daily offered to the gods was replaced by an offering to the gastric fire in the body (to the fire Vaiśvānara, Brh. 5, 9) i.e. by feeding, which followed among certain ceremonies. This sacrifice made to the Prāṇa (life) is described in Chānd. 5, 19-24, in connection with the doctrine of Ātman Vaiśvānara Chānd. 5, 11, 18; since the vital breaths are satisfied, the sense organs and the corresponding gods and the accompanying quarters are equally satisfied. --In an adjacent passage, Chānd. 5. 2, 2 (Brh. 6, 1, 14) the rinsing of mouth laid down before and after eating is allegorically looked upon as a dressing of the Prāṇa.

3. A combination of both the ideas, the feeding and the dressing of the Prāṇa, beside some formulae to be employed in the ceremony is there in the Maitr. 6, 9. The invocation to the wise who have praised this sacrifice, which is found there can probably refer to Chānd. 5 only. In order to make the procedure still more similar to the usual fire-sacrifice, an analogy therein is found to the second offering also to be made silently, in that after the five offerings one eats the rest of the meal silently, yatavāg aśnāti.

4. The repetition of this last feature as also the recurrence (with variants) of the verses prāṇo'gniḥ and viśvo'si in the Prānāgnihotra Upaniṣad render it probable, that this [Prānāgnihotra-Up.] is based not only on Chānd. 5,19-24 but on Maitr. 6,9 also and that it represents a further embellishment of the ceremony prescribed there. There the two verses, to be sure, precede the ceremony while here they follow it and they are prescribed to be recited before a triad and a couple of verses which in this association are found neither in the Ṛgveda nor in the Atharvaveda and accordingly they seem to presuppose a collection other than both of these. The glorification of water which then follows doubtless refers to the rinsing of the mouth which precedes eating. Further follow the five offerings to the Prāṇas with special instructions upon the use of particular fingers, whereupon the silent offering appears, spread out to five offerings in the five fires of the body. The rinsing of the mouth after the meal and the explanation of the five fires in the body mentioned (in the head, mouth, heart, navel and abdomen) form the contents of the second part.

As the first and the second part are based on Chānd. 5 and Maitr. 6, 9, similarly the third and the fourth part of our Upaniṣad contain a further depiction of the idea occurring in Chānd. 3, 17 and Mahānār. 64, to interpret allegorically the manas the sacrifice. This little agrees with the first two parts; there the five Prāṇas receive the offerings, here they are sacrificial priests. Besides the beautiful and ingenious thought of the original has not gained in detail in the course of interpretation.—It is remarkable that Śaṅkara to Brahmas. 3, 3, 24 (my translation p. 582 ff.) where he discusses the Chānd. 3, 16-17 and the Taitt. Ār. 10.64 passages, does not mention our Upaniṣad, may be that he did not know it or did, not recognize it.

I

Now, therefore, let us explain the sacrifice offered in one's own body, (the sacrifice) which forms the essence of all the Upaniṣads, which is helpful for knowledge of the Saṃsāra, which is studied [in the Veda, Chānd. 5, 19-24], and which has food as its authority.

Liberation from Saṃsara is possible in this present human body, even without the Agnihotram, and without Sāṃkhya and Yoga. In this belief one puts down food on the ground, each according to the prescription applicable to him, and consecrates it with the three stanzas: “The herbs which are in Soma's realm” and with the two verses: “Give us, O Lord of food” etc.

The herbs, which are in Soma's realm Many, different in hundreds of ways, Which Bṛhaspati created in past, They should protect us from fear.1—

Those bringing fruit, and those fruitless, Not blossoming and blossoming, Which Bṛhaspati created in past, They should protect us from fear.2

1. Atharvav. 6, 96, 1. The first hemistich is Ṛgv. 10, 97, 18 also. [The second hemistich is ṚV. 10, 97,15cd also—GBP.]

2. Ṛgv. 10, 97,15.

Prānāgnihotra Upaniṣad

647

As re-invigorating I apply to you1

The herb Naghāriṣā;

May it bring you fresh life-force2

And scare away the demons.3

Give us, O Lord of food,

Wholesome and powerful food,

Lead the sacrificer forth and forth,

Give us strength. to the bipeds and quadrupeds.

What indigestible I eat so often,

Fore-tasted by Rudras, by Piśācas,

May the Lord make it all free from danger

And auspicious; svāhā to the Lord!

You abide within the beings

In the cavity of heart and everywhere,

You are the sacrifice, are Brahman, are Rudra, are Viṣṇu,

are the exclamation Vaṣaṭ.

Water, light, essence, the immortal, Brahman, Bhūr,

Bhuvah, Svar, Om, Salutation!4

By waters may the earth be purified.

Purified, may she make me pure!

By Brahmanaspatī, Brahman

Purified, may she make me pure!5

What sticks6 me, what uneatable,

What misdeed I committed,

ay the water wash me pure of all,

And from the gifts of the wicked!

1. Read : ā te badhnāmi.

2. With the Telugu ed. : yā ta'āyur upāharat.

3. [Quarter a=AV. 8.2.6a—GBP.]

4. We have already come across this formula, whose first part is called

the Śiras (of Gāyatrī), at Maitr. 6,35; cf. Amrtabindu 10, Note.

5. I have translated Deussen literally. The Sanskrit original of the last

two quarters in the editions available to me is : Punantu Brahmanaspatir

Brahmapūtā punātu mām which I have not been able to understand.—GBP.

6. 'anklebt' (Deussen). The Sanskrit original, however, in the editions

available to me is ucchiṣṭam 'remainder of food after somebody has eaten

it; hence impure for others to eat'.

O water, you are Amṛtam, (ambrosia, nectar) you are bed of Amṛtam (Taitt. Ār. 10, 32). I offer Amṛtam in the Prāṇa! In us,

O ward, you are fed 1!

Svāhā to the Prāṇa, the most pre-eminent!—Svāhā to the Apāna!—Svāhā to the Vyāna!—Svāhā to the Samāna! Svāhā to

the Udāna!

With these words he offers (read: juhoti) with the little finger and the thumb to the Prāṇa, with the nameless (ring) finger to

the Apāna, with the middle finger to the Vyāna, with the fore-finger to the Samāna, with all fingers to the Udāna.

Then he silently makes an offering to the Ekarṣi (the sun),

two to the Āhavanīya (in the mouth), one to the Dakṣiṇa fire

(in the heart), one to the Gārhapatya (in the navel), one to the

All-atonement fire (below the navel).

Then he says [to the water]: “You are the covering ! For

immortality I superimpose you!” and therewith he rinses out the

mouth, takes once more of it and rinses out once more. Then

he takes the water in the left hand (read: savye pāṇau apo gṛhītvā)

lays hold of the heart therewith and murmurs:

The breath-fire, by five winds

Encircled, who the highest Ātman is,

Who gives peace to all the creatures!

I shall not be born any more!

You are all, all-human, multiform,

You sustain the universe born out of you.

May all sacrificial offerings enter (read: viśantu) into you,

there where you Brahman, immortal in all, are.

Great is, and refreshment, that spirit,

Which lives on the tip of the thumb;

Him I will moisten with water,

May he bring immortality in the place of finger-tips.2

1. amā, śiṣya, anto'si. The explanation of these mysterious words

given by the scholiast seems to us extremely doubtful.

2. sosya ante amṛtāya yonau; the superfluous syllable certainly shows

that the passage is corrupt.

Prāṇāgnihotra Upaniṣad

—Who the Pratipprasthātar (assistant of the Adhvaryu)?—Who the Prastotar (assistant of the Udgātar)?—Who the Maitrāvaruṇa (assistant of the Hotar)?—Who the Udgātar? — Who the partners in the feast ?—Which the sacrificial utensils ?—Which the sacrificial food ?— Which the sacrificial bed ?—Which the northern fire-hearth?—Which the Iḍā(Milk-offering)?—Which the Somavat ?—Which the cart ?—Which the sacrificial animal? Which the Dhārāpotar (stream-strainer) ?—Which the grass-bunch ?—Which the Sruva-ladle ?—Which the pot of the clarified butter?— Which the two sprinklings of fat ?—Which the two portions of the sacrificial clarified butter (for Agni and Soma. ? —Which the preceding offering ?—Which the subsequent offering ?—Which the recitation of the hymns ?—Which the Saṁyor formula ?—Which the Ahimsā (non-injury of the Yajamāna through a wrongly applied formula, Ait. Br.1, 30, 11) ?—Which the Patnī-saṁyājas (offerings made to the wives of the gods)?—Which the sacrificial post ?—Which the sacrificial rope ?—Which the Iṣṭis ?—What the reward of the sacrifice ?—Which the concluding bath ?

In this sacrifice offered in the body, adorned with sacrificial posts and sacrificial ropes the Ātman is the sacrificer;—the Buddhi his wife;—the Vedas the chief Ṛtvij;—the Prāṇa the Brāhmaṇācchamsin;—the Apāna the Pratipprasthātar;—the Samāna the Maitrāvaruṇa;—the Udāna the Udgātar;— the Ahaṁkāra the Adhvaryu; the mind the Hotar;—the body the sacrificial bed;—the nose the northern fire-hearth;—the head the Somavat;—the right hand the Sruva-ladle;—the left hand the pot of the clarified butter;—the ears the two sprinklings of fat; —the eyes the two portions of the sacrificial clarified butter;—the neck the Dhārā-strainer;—the subtle elements (tanmātra) the partners in the feast;—the gross elements the preceding offering; —the elements the subsequent offering; the tongue the Iḍā;—teeth and lips the recitation of the hymns;—the roof of the mouth the Saṁyor-formula;—memory, compassion, patience and non-injury (ahimsā) are the four Patnī-Saṁyājas:1—the sound

1. According to this the ahimsā occurs, indeed, twice in the answer. while the question about the Ahimsā has remained undisposed of.

Then it goes through the ether three days

And for a day then in the wind.

4. Then with the first meal-ball

The atoms reassemble again;

And with the second meal-ball

Originate new flesh, skin and blood;

5. And with the third meal-ball

Consciousness (mati) originates in him anew;

And with the fourth meal-ball

Originate the bones and the marrow;

6. And with the fifth meal-ball

Hands and fingers, head and mouth;

And with the sixth meal-ball

Are formed the heart, neck, palate;

7. By the seventh meal-ball

Vitality for a long life;

And with the eighth meal-ball

He attains the power of speech;

8. And with the ninth meal-ball

All organs are tightened,

And with the tenth meal-ball

Come the powers anew in the stream;

9. Thus is formed through the offerings of balls

A new body from ball to ball."

ĀTMA UPANIṢAD

Now the highest Self:

The one, who

to be worshipped according to the constituents [of the word Om] while one meditates over him (-cintakam adverbial) as one's self, by breath-control, withdrawing inwards from the objects of sense, meditation and Yoga-practices, as seed of the fig tree (Chānd. 3, 14, 3), is not wither up (Chānd. 6, 11,2) and is not burnt (Chānd 6, 16, 2), does not shake (Praśna 5,6., Yogaśikhā 1), is not divided (Chānd 6.12.1) and is not split up (Bhag. G. 2, 23), who is the Guṇa-less observer (Śvet.6,11), the pure, the limbless Ātman, the subtle, partless, spotless (Śvet. 6,19), free from self-illusion (Maitr. 6, 30) free from sound, touch, taste, form and smell, changeless (Brahmab. 8), desireless, all-penetrating (Śvet. 1-16), he, the inconceivable and indescribable, who purifies the impure and the unholy, whom no work sticks nor the effect of a work—that is the highest Self, the Puruṣa—that is the highest Self, the Puruṣa!

1. In the editions available to me, thirtyone stanzas follow here, source of which are met with elsewhere such as the Māṇḍūkyopaniṣat-Kārikā and the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi.

SARVA-UPANIṢATSĀRA1

Like the ‘óroi, Definitions in the corpus of the Platonic writings, some very late and secondary writings occupy a similar position in the collection of the Upaniṣads which, on the basis of the older Upaniṣads, particularly as it appears, enumerate and explain the main concepts of the Vedānta system for the purpose of teaching and learning. The Nirālamba-Upaniṣad treated by Weber (Ind. Stud. XVIII, 136-160) is of such a kind, which discusses 29 basic concepts; the Sāritraka-Upaniṣad proceeds in a more classifying way; and the Nirvāṇa-Upaniṣad, difficult to judge, also seems to belong to this circle. —Our Sarva-Upaniṣat-sāra, or also called Sarva-Upaniṣad which occurs not only in Colebrooke's and Nārāyaṇa's collections, but also as Sarb (not to be confused with Sarbsar) in the Oupanekhat and as Sarvasāra in the Muktikā collection, has received greater recognition than the above three older Upaniṣadic passages yet with an independent attitude, following twentythree :

1-4 : bandha and mokṣa, avidyā and vidyā;

5-8 : The four states in the Māṇḍūkya;

9-13 : The five sheaths in the Taitt. 2;

14-16 : kartar, jīva, kṣetrajña;

17-19 : sākṣin, kūtastha, antaryāmin;

20-22 : pratyagātman, paramātman, ātman;

23 : māyā.]

Om!

1. What is the bondage ?

2. What is liberation ?

3. What is ignorance ?

4. What is knowledge ?

5-8. What are the states waking, dreaming, deep sleep and Turyam ?

9-13. What is the sheath consisting of food,

Consisting of breath, consisting of Manas,

Consisting of perception, consisting of bliss ?

1. Named in some editions as sarvasāropaniṣat. — GBP

Sarva-Upaniṣatsāra

10. When in the sheath consisting of food there are also fourteen kinds of wind, Prāṇa etc. [prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna; nāga, kūrma, kṛkara, devadatta, dhanamjaya; vajram-bhava, sthānamukhya, pradyota, prakṛta], then this is called the sheath consisting of breath (prāṇamaya).

11. When the Ātman, bound up with these two sheaths, brings about sounds and other objects, as also the activities of imagination by means of the four organs of Manas (Manas, Buddhi, Cittam, Ahaṁkara), then it is called the sheath consisting of manas (Manomaya).

12. When the Ātman, bound up with these three sheaths, appears as perceiving the differences and similarities based on those activities [of imagination etc.], then it is called the sheath consisting of perception (vijñānamaya).

13. When he remains in the knowledge that he himself is the cause of the four sheaths, as the fig seeds of the fig tree, then it is called the sheath consisting of bliss (ānandamaya).

14. When, supporting himself on the perception of joy and sorrow, he becomes a doer (kartar) within the body, then the perception of the desired object becomes the perception of joy, the perception of an undesired object becomes perception of grief; but the causes of joy and sorrow are sound, touch, form, taste and smell.

15. When he brings about the separation with the present body and a union with a future body in consequence of good and bad deeds, then he is called, while he is involved with these bodies, the individual soul (jīva).

16. The Manas with the rest [Buddhi, Cittam, Ahaṁkāra], the Prāṇa with the rest [Apāna, Vyāna, Udāna, Samāna], the Sattvam with the desire with the rest [Rajas and Tamas], the rest1 and the good with the rest [evil, perception, impression],

17. The scholiast understands the enumeration of the functions of Manas occurring at Bṛh. 1,5,3 : “desire, deciding, doubt, belief, disbelief, firmness, infirmity, shame, perception, fear”;—hardly correctly, because icchā is certainly no member of this series. More correctly one will have to think of icchā, dvesas, sukham, duḥkham (Śaṅk. to Brahmasūtra p. 660,7) or of the five Klesáḥ (avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dvesa, abhiniveśa) of the Yoga (Yogasūtra 2,3).

—these are the five groups. The supporter of these five groups,

who does not perish until the knowledge of the Ātman arises,

and is perceived as eternal in the vicinity of the Ātman although

it is only a determinant (upādhi) of the Ātman, that is called the

Liṅga-body or the heart-knot; and the spirituality, which

appears in it, is called the Body-knower (kṣetrajña).

17. The one who perceives the subject, the object and the

activity of knowing in their appearance and disappearance,

while he himself neither appears nor disappears but is light in

himself, this is called the witness (sākṣin).

18. In so far as he is noticed without any distinction in the

consciousness of all living beings from the Brahmān down to the

ant, as being in the consciousness of all living beings, he is called

the one standing on high (kūṭastha).

19. When the Ātman, as the cause of the natural disposition

of distinctions endowed with the one standing-on-high etc.,

appears interwoven in all bodies, as a thread through a string of

pearls, then he is called inner guide (antaryāmin).

20. When the Ātman, freed from all determinants, like pure

gold, appears in its nature as consisting of knowledge and spirit

then it is called inner Ātman (pratyagātman) denoted by

the word “thou” [in tat tvam asi].

21. The Brahman is real, knowledge, unending, bliss. Real

i.e. imperishable is that which does not perish simultaneously

when the name, place, time, body and the cause perish. This

imperishable one is further called knowledge, that is to say

as the spirituality not subject to the origination and destruction,

i.e. as knowledge. Further it is called unending that is to say, as

the clay in the case of clay utensils, the gold in the case of gold

products, the thread in the case of the texture, similarly the

spiritual one precedes all objects coming from the unmanifest

one and penetrates them all, and as such is called unending.

Further, it is called bliss: the one consisting of joy and spiritua-

lity, the infinite ocean of bliss : the one by his nature consists

of joy without any distinction, is called bliss. That one, which

has these four and essential factors [being, knowledge, unending,

bliss] as its characteristic, and which remains immutable in

space, time and causality, that one, denoted by the word “that”.

Sarva-Upaniṣatsāra

661

[in tat tvam asi] is called the highest Ātman (paramātman)

or the highest Brahman.

22. The one who is different from the word1 “thou” affected

with determinants, different from the word1 “that” affected with

determinants, is pure and absolute like ether, and consists only

of existence, is designated as the self (the essence, the soul, the

Ātman) of the word “that”.2

23. The one, which is without a beginning but still is not with-

out an end (read: antavat!), which behaves similarly towards

valid means of knowledge and towards what are not valid

means of knowledge, what is not existent, yet not non-existent,

nor existent and non-existent, which does not exist inasmuch

as one imagines the cause (i.e. Brahman) for the created object

arising out of what itself is not created, and which exists

in so far as one does not imagine it (remaining on empirical

plane), what defies all these characteristics is named delusion

(māyā).3

1. Rather “different from the content of the word ‘thou’ and of the

word ‘tat’ ”. —GBP.

2. There seems to be some confusion here in the German original. The

paragraph, which I have translated literally, is not quite clear to me. —

Besides the editions available to me speak of param Brahma, and not of

the Ātman. —GBP.

3. The editions available to me add a number of verses here. —GBP

GĀRUḌA UPANIṢAD

[This snake-charm, named after Garuḍa, the bird of Viṣṇu and the sworn enemy of snakes, owes its inclusion in the Upaniṣads probably to the seriousness which the danger from being bitten by snakes still possesses in India down to the present day. It is not so much for the European who is equipped with strong footwares and who can avoid to go out in dark. It is however all the more for the natives who must wander with naked feet at night or must perform their work in fields or forests in which case the possibility of treading over a snake inadvertently and consequently to be bitten by him is not small. The danger is increased through the commandment of Ahiṁsā which does not allow an orthodox Hindu to kill a snake but only to take him, at his own peril, and to carry it there where in his opinion it can do no harm. Also in the masonry of old houses snakes not seldom nest, without being exterminated by the inmates of the house, because on account of a widespread superstition people see souls of the ancestors in them and there is also the rumour that they never do any harm to the house-mates.

The present snake charm, raised to the dignity of an Upaniṣad has a double purpose, to guard one against a snake-bite as also to obviate evil effects of a snake-bite when it has taken place.

Our translation follows the recension given in Jacob's edition (Eleven Atharvaṇa Upaniṣads pp. 83-88). Weber has edited our Upaniṣad in an enlarged form (Ind. Stud. XVII, 161ff).]

1

Om !

I will preach the Brahman-science. Brahmán taught it to Nārada, Nārada to Bḥatsena, Bḥatsena to Indra, Indra to Bḥāradvāja, Bḥāradvāja to his pupils who desired to preserve their life.

2

[He taught them the science] which achieves this, which achieves good, removes poison, destroys poison, overcomes poison, annihilates poison:

"Struck is the poison, annihilated is the poison, destroyed is the poison; it is struck by Indra's thunder-bolt, svāhā! May it originate from snakes, from vipers, from scorpions, from cankers, from salamanders, from amphibious animals or from rats.

May you be Anantaka's messenger, or be Anantaka himself,1

May you be Vāsuki's messenger, or be Vāsuki himself,

May you be Takṣaka's messenger, or be Takṣaka himself,

May you be Karkotaka's messenger, or be Karkotaka

himself,

May you be Saṅkhapulika's messenger, or be Saṅkhapulika

himself,

May you be Padmaka's messenger, or be Padmaka himself,

May you be Mahāpadmaka's messenger, or be Mahāpad-

maka himself,

May you be Elāpatraka's messenger, or Elāpatraka himself,

May you be Mahailāpatraka's messenger, or be Mahailā-

patraka himself,

May you be Kālika's messenger, or be Kālika himself,

May you be Kulika's messenger, or be Kulika himself,

May you be Kambalāśvatara's messenger, or be Kambalā-

śvatara himself !"

3

For twelve years snakes do not bite him who hears this great

science on the new-moon night. The snakes do not bite him as

long as he lives who, having recited this great science on the

new-moon night, wears it [as an amulet].

He who teaches it to eight Brāhmaṇas, he releases (from the

effects of snake-bite) by merely touching with grass, with a piece

of wood, with ashes. One who teaches it to a hundred Brāhmaṇas

he releases by a mere glance. One who teaches it to a thousand

Brāhmaṇas, he releases by the mere thought, — by the mere

thought.

Thus spake the exalted Brahmán, —the exalted Brahmán.

Thus is the Gāruḍa-Upaniṣad.

1. At the end of the formula of exorcism follows this enumeration of

twelve chief snakes.

BRAHMAVIDYĀ UPANIṢAD1

[Brahmavidyā Upaniṣad, "the esoteric teaching of the science of Brahman"],

with this much promising name denotes this small Upaniṣad consisting of

only 14 ślokas in our recension (in the Telugu ed. it has about eight times

the expanse of this). But once in the older Upaniṣads the complete imper-

ceptibility of the Brahman had been already taught (neti ! neti ! — yato

vāco nivartante,—avijñātam vijānātām, etc.), a proper science of Brahman

could no more be formulated. For it would then be as a science of the

symbol under which the imperceptible Brahman was looked at and

worshipped. Already since Kāṭh. 2,15 the old sacrificial syllable Om, con-

sisting of three moras (mātrā-s) a+u+m serves as this symbol, to which was

added as a 3½th mora the buzzing reverberation (nāda) of m, which, along

with this latter, was denoted by a point (bindu) of Anusvāra placed above

the syllable. This syllable Om as a symbol of the Brahman had an advantage

of keeping away from the Brahman all predicates of the external world on

account of its (Om's) being completely without any meaning. But it had

also the disadvantage in that it could not put any limits to unbridled

fancy. As in the case of so many other Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, a

probe into it also appears here.

The Introduction (verses 1-3) proclaims the intention to impart

the Brahman-lore, in which the origination and the course of all

things are recognized through and in Brahmán, Viṣṇu and Śiva (verse 1).

Particularly it is the esoteric doctrines of Viṣṇu and his human incarnations

which are glorified as the Dhruva fire in the Brahman-lore Dhruva

(constant) is, like Akṣaram (imperishable, syllable) a characterization of

the highest essence (dhruvam Viṣṇusamjñitam, Maitr. 6.38) and thereby

that of the sound Om also (cf. Rāmatap. Up. ed. Weber p. 335, 14 and

Mahābh. 1,24,30² dhruva-akṣaram). The Om sound particularly is, as verse

3 declares, the Brahman, whose knowledge is to be taught here, and this

1. On the order of sequence. As the second class of the

Atharva-Upaniṣads, we let follow, maintaining again the order of

sequence in Nārāyaṇa and Colebrooke, the eleven Yoga-Upaniṣads

admitted by them. The first of these groups (3-5) is formed by Brahmavidyā,

Kṣurikā, Cūlikā, the second (17-23) by Nādabindu, Brahmabindụ, Amṛtabindu,

Dhyānabindu, Tejobindu, Yogaśikhā, Yogatattva, the third by the Haṃsa-

Upaniṣad standing by itself. The contents of the last-named one show that

it is much later than the others, which also corresponds to its position; in

the case of the remaining, their sequence in the collections mentioned may

hardly correspond accurately to the time of their origination.

2. =1.57.85 (The Critical Ed. by the BORI). —GBP.

3. The syllable Om is the Brahman,

Thus, verily, teach the Brahman-knowers;

Body, location, time and dying away

Of this syllable, I will proclaim.

I. The body (śarīram) of the sound Om.

4. There are three gods and three worlds,

Three Vedas and three fires,

Three moras and the half mora

In that trisyllabic, blissful one.

5. The Ṛgveda, Gārhapatya,

The earth and Bráhman as god,

That is the body of the a-sound

As expounded by the Brahman-knowers.

6. The Yajurveda and the mid-region,

And the fire Dakṣiṇa,

And the holy god Viṣṇu

Thus is the u-sound proclaimed to us.

7. The Sāmaveda and heaven,

The Āhavanīya fire also,

And Īśvara, the highest god

Thus is the m-sound proclaimed to us.

II. The location (sthānam) of the sound Om

8. In the midst of the brain-conch

Like the sunshine glitters the a;

Within it is situated

The u-sound of moonlike splendour.

9. The m-sound too, like the fire,

Smokeless, resembling a lightning flash —

Thus shine the three moras

Like the moon, the sun, and the fire.

10. Thereupon a pointed flame

Like a torch light exists;

Know it as the half mora

Which one writes above the syllable.

670

Sixty Upaniṣads

III. The terminus (Kāla) of the sound Om.

11. Yet one, like a pointed flame

Subtle, like lotus-fibre, shines

The sunlike cerebral artery

[Passing through it] penetrates [the Om].

12. Through the sun and seventytwo thousand

Arteries, breaks through the head,

And remains as bringer of blessings to all,

Pervading the whole universe.

IV. The vanishing, the fading away (laya) of the sound Om.

13. And just as the sound of a metal utensil

Or of a gong dies in silence,

So he, who seeks the All,

Lets the Om-sound fade away in silence.

14. For that wherein the sound fades away,

Is the Brahman, the higher;

Yea, the whole sound is Brahman

And conduces to immortality.

KṢURIKĀ UPANIṢAD

[This passage is named "The esoteric doctrine of the kṣurikā (sc. dhāraṇā), of concentration which cuts like a razor (kṣura)". Along with the features of the Yogic practice well known from other Upaniṣads (the place and the way of sitting verse 2; the withdrawing of the Manas from sense objects and locking it up in the heart, verse 3; three kinds of breath-regulation, pūraka, kumbhaka, recaka, verses 4-5), it contains an original thought, the details of which are often difficult to indicate on account of the uncertainty of readings, grammatical incorrectness of diction and the defectiveness of the commentary.

The Yogin has to detach himself not only from all external objects, but also from his own corporeality. This detachment appears as a successive cutting away of the individual parts of the body which is accomplished by means of the Manas as a razor (kṣura, verse 11,—hardly consistent with the locking up of the mind in the heart, verse 3) through a process in which attention is concentrated (dhāraṇā) on the individual parts of the body and thereby one secludes himself from them successively (nirodha; in verses 6-7 āve should be supplemented by dhāraṇe and trayas, as the scholiast states, by nirodhāḥ). Thus one detaches oneself successively from one's toes, ankles, knees, anus and penis and reaches to the navel; from here along the suṣumnā (already Chānd. 8,6,6, although not mentioned with this name, but as the 101st main artery) to the heart and further in the neck where the Suṣumnā serves as the support (taittilam, pillowy) of all other arteries and is specially surrounded and protected by two of these, viz. Iḍā and Piṅgalā. One again cuts away all other arteries with the mind-razor and goes along the suṣumnā upwards and out, while one leaves behind in it all good and bad states (bhāva), one as it were stuffs the Suṣumnā-pillowy with them (verse 20; cf. Sāṁkhyakārikā verse 40; bhāvair adhivāsitam liṅgam). Since in this way one cuts off all parts of the body by meditative concentration on them, one breaks all the chains of the Saṁsāra and is no more required to be born again (verses 21-24). —Particularly striking is the application of dhāraṇā, which otherwise means fettering of the mind, here however the concentration of attention on the individual parts of the body for the purpose of detachment from them. Similarly striking is the contradiction related with it and which is already mentioned, viz. that the Manas is locked up in the heart (verse 3), and at the same time it is supposed to be a razor (kṣura) with which one cuts off the individual parts of the body, from which the whole Upaniṣad has received its name.]

8. There is the Suṣumnā artery,

Many arteries surround it.

Pale red, yellow and black,

And from deep red to dark red.

9. But one should slip into the subtle

And delicate white artery,

There upwards climbs the vital breath,

As a spider along a filament.

10. So he comes to the great seat of the Puruṣa,

Which looks like a lotus red,

Which as “the little lotus flower”

The Vedānta texts delineate to us.

11. Penetrating through it, along that artery

He ascends to the neck.

And seizes the sharp razor of Manas,

Shining bright with knowledge,

12. Sharpens it and cuts off completely

The forms and names,

And through Manas, the sharp,

Gives himself permanently to the Yogā.

13. Glorious like Indra’s thunderbolt,

One praises the joints and legs as firm,

Until through power of meditation, through Yoga,

Through concentration he cuts them off.

14. Shifting himself into the thies,

He cuts off the breath and the joints,

Through Yoga, repeated four times,

Without hesitation cutting them off.

15. Then gathers together within the neck

The Yogin his host of arteries,

Of which a hundred and one

Are regarded as the best of them.

16. Where on the left guards Iḍā

And on the right the Piṅgalā,

Between them is the chief spot;

He who knows it, knows the Veda.

17. Dustless, entering into Brahman,

The Suṣumnā is related to it,

It's the pillow on which rest

The seventytwo thousand [arteries].

18. The concentration-Yoga splits everything,

The Suṣumnā it splits not.

With the lightning-sharp razor of Yogic power

Which shines like the fire.

19. He should split the hundred arteries,

The wise one here on earth itself.

And just as with Jasmine flowers

A pillow is perfumed.

20. So the Yogin stuffs the artery

With states good and bad.

Thus prepared he moves off,

From future birth liberated.

21. Then, well conscious in the mind,

He chooses a quiet place,

Freed from worldly inclination and expectation,

A real knower of Yoga, by and by.

22. Just as a bird, cutting the cord,

Soars fearless into the sky,

So the soul, cutting the cord,

Rises above the Saṁsāra.

23. Just as a flame, having burnt,

At extinction comes to nought,

So the Yogin, having burnt

His actions all, comes to nought.

Kṣurikā Upaniṣad

24. Who as a Yogin with the razor,

Pointed with breath-control, sharp with moras,

Sharpened on the stone of renunciation,

Cuts the cord in two, remains free.

25. He attains immortality,

Who frees himself from desires,

Who, giving up all wishes,

Cuts the cord in two, remains free.

678

Sixty Upaniṣads

puruṣa Atharvav. 19,6 (Rgv. 10,90; Gesch. d. Phil. I, 150-158);

Śarva, Bhava, Rudra, Atharvav. 11,2;

Īśvara along with Puruṣa Atharavav. 19,6,4;

Prajāpatí Atharvav. 4,2 and often repeated (Cf. however Gesch. d. Phil.

I, 189-190).

Viráj Atharvav. 8,9,10;

Pr̥śni (to be so read for Pārṣṇi) Atharvav. 2,1 (Gesch. d. Phil. I, 253).

salilam, primordial water, Atharvav. 8,9,1.

The Atharvans know him as the Head (perhaps with reference to

Atharvav. 10,2,26-27.10,8,9), while some as the 26th (the Īśvara of the

Yoga along with the 25 principles of the Sāṁkhya) or as the 27th (pro-

bably by differentiating the Cittam from Buddhí, Ahaṁkāra, Manas) or as

the reverced one who brings to Vyaktam the 24 principles hidden in the

Avyaktam (verses 14–15). But he is also one, two, three - five etc. as the

verse 15 (with a reference evidently to Chānd. 7,26,2) assures, he is the

source and the place of dissolution of beings. One who proclaims him

(exoteric) as life-principle obtains inexhaustible food for himself and for

his ancestors, one who perceives him (esoteric), whether or not he is a

Brāhmaṇa, he enters into him for perennial rest.

The Upaniṣad may have found its place at a time when the theistic Yoga

developed out of the Sāṁkhya doctrine which had not still been finalised

systematically, and would, if this view proves to be correct, be of a special

value as a proof of this transition.]

1. The bird, radiating, eight-footed1

Three-stranded,2 eternal jewel,

Having flames of fire, wandering twofold,3—

Everyone sees him and sees him not,3—

2. When at the time of creatures’ delusion

The darkness around God is torn,

Then He is seen in the cavern of Guṇas,

In Sattvam, by the Guṇaless one.

3. For He is not to be seen otherwise,

As when like an infant He sucks4

1. Illuminating the eight regions of the heaven.

2. tristūtram, perhaps because fettered with the three Guṇas.

3. Everyone sees Him as the sun-bird, and does not see Him as the

Ātman.

4. Read dhayamānaḥ.

Cūlikā Upaniṣad

Māyā, the mother of all that becomes,

Eternal, firm, of eightfold form.1

4. Lying,2 he sucks at her breast;

And again she becomes excited and broad

And brings forth for the Puruṣa,

By whom she was covered before.

5. With the cow's voice lows3

The procreatress, who cultivates the beings,

The black, white and red,4

Milking all desires for the master alone.

6. Countless indeed are the infants,

Who drink the world of senses,

But only one as God drinks her,

Freely following His own will.

7. Through his thought and deed

He enjoys first, the holy God,

The all-bestowing milch-cow,

Who is worshipped by all sacrificers.

8. In her they see the great Self

As bird, that eats the fruit,5

Although it eternally sits idle,

Sacrificing householders and priestly class

9. After Him, speaking, repeat

the Ṛg-singers, in tradition versed,

Him in Rathantaram, Bṛhat.

In all seven6 applies the song.

1. Māyā (Prakṛti) is eightfold, perhaps in the sense of the eight forms

of Śiva which occur in the Nāndī of the Śākuntalam.

2. Literally : “She (the Prakṛti) is lain upon, sucked, by him” (read

dhīyate).

3. Cf. Ṛgv. 1,164,28 (Atharvav. 9.10.6).

4. Following Śvet. 4,5; the three Guṇas are meant.

5. Ṛgv. 1,164,20 (Gesch. d. Phil. I. 113).

6. The seven forms of Stoma may have been meant; Rathantaram and

Bṛhat are of course Sāmans. (For the names of the seven Stomas, see Ind.

Stud. IX, 276).

SIXTY

UPANIṢADS

OF

THE

VEDA

n

in

the

esoteric

lores

, in

a

series

of

words

m

the

Atharvans,

t

sons

of

Bhṛgu.

1-student,1

as

wanderer,2

r3

and

grey-with-age,4

nainder6

and

Rohita7

ms

the

Bhṛgu-work.

;

Prāṇa,9

as

Ātman,10

one,

as

Puruṣa,11

java

and

Rudra12

Puruṣa13

together.

1d

as

primordial

water,15

1d

prajāpati17

iptions18

coupled

with

aphorisms

'vans,

the

Lord

is

praised.

twentysixth,19

wentyseventh,

1tharvav.

11,5.

1av.

°

ān

sums

up

the

epithets

appearing

there.

s),

Bhava

Rudra

11,2.

the

same

time

Puruṣa

19,6,4:

The

Poona

edition

arvav.

11,2,18)

sa-asuras

tathā;

anyway

Puruṣa

ing.

ī

is

meaningless,

because

we

cannot

probably

expect

1ght

of

something

like

kena

pārṣṇit

etc.

10,2,1.

d

often,

mostly

to

give

a

new

meaning

to

it.

o

the

Brāhmaṇas

(vidhi)

of

the

Atharvaveda.

,

Māṇḍūkya-Kārikā

2,26.

Cūlikā Upaniṣad

The Atharvans know him as the head

The Sāṁkhyas as the Guṇaless Person.

15. Who makes the Avyaktam visible

As Vyaktam, in twentyfour ways;

As one without and with duality,

As threefold, fivefold, Him they know.1

16. Through the eye of knowledge

The Brāhmaṇas see the One alone

Extending throughout, from Brahman

Down to the world of plants.

17. In whom is woven this universe,2

All that moves and does not move,

In Brahman also merges everything

As bubbles in the ocean.

18. In whom enter all the objects

Of world, in whom become invisible,

In whom they merge and emerge again

To view like so many bubbles.

19. That in body as soul he dwells,

The wise show with reason,

And that as God, again and again,

He changes His dwelling thousandwise.

20. Who, as a Brāhmaṇa true to law,

Teaches this at the time of the Śrāddha meal (Kāṭh. 3. 17),

He obtains for himself and forefathers

Food and drink inexhaustible.

21. Yea, who, Brāhmaṇa or not

Knows the Brahman and its commandment,

He disappears, entering

Into the one who rests in the Brahman,

—Into the one who rests in the Brahman.3

1. A reference to Chānd. 7,26,2.

2. Bṛh. 3,6.

3. Literally : “they are merged in the Brahman (tatraiva), in that [as in

the case of rivers, Chānd. 6,10. Muṇd. 3,2,8] their mouths disappear

(līnāsyāḥ) for a union with the one who [already] exists in the Brahman-

ocean (brahmaśāyine, Dative of purpose).”

NĀDABINDU UPANISAD

[Nāda the tone, especially the buzzing nasal sound, in which the word Om fades away; —bindu the point, especially that of the Anusvāra, which denotes the third mora of the sound Om as also its reverberation as 3½th mora; —therefore nādabindu-upaniṣad "the secret meaning of the nasal-point".

The philosophical rigour, with which the older Upaniṣads had excluded all identifications of the empirical reality from the Brahman (neti, neti), brought with it that in order to satisfy the necessity of worship one had to catch hold of symbols and, as remarked above, in the interest of philosophical truth there was nothing at all wrong if, as a symbol, such a meaningless thing as the word Om with its three or later three and a half moras (a+u+m+reverberation) came to be chosen. According to our Upaniṣad the true Yoga, and with it the way to salvation consists in the meditation of this Om along with the renouncing of all sense perception, through the Indriyas and the Manas (verse 18) and the annihilation of attachment to the world of sense (verse 19).

In the first part (verses 1-6a) the Ātman appears, with an appeal to the Atharvav. 13,3,14 (Gesch. d. Phil. I, 228), as the bird (ham்sa) which "spreads its wings broad like thousand days" and carries the Yogin on high. The 3½ moras of the word Om and the three Guṇas of the Sāṁkhya doctrine are designated the parts of the body of this bird, dharma and adharma (it observes the right and the wrong of men) its eyes, and its body extends upwards through all the seven worlds : bhūr, bhuvah, svar, mahar (cf. Taitt. 1,5), jana(r)loka, tapoloka, satyaloka (cf. with Muṇḍ 1,2,3 above).

Further (verses 6b-7) it is taught, that of the 3½ moras of the word Om, a is dedicated to Agni, u to Vāyu, m to the sun, and the reverberation to Varuṇa.

Each of these four moras, the text thus goes on (verses 8-11), has a threefold aspect (is kālātryānanā), from which originate the following twelve objects of meditation :

ghoṣinī, — vidyunmālī, — pataṅgī,

vāyuveginī — nāmadheyā, — aindrī,

vaiṣṇavī, — śaṁkarī, — mahatī,

dhruvā, — maunī, — brāhmī.

According as one meditates on one of these twelve forms at the time of death, —thus the development in verses 12-17 is in evident imitation of Praśna 5, —one attains, as his reward :

king in India, —Yakṣa, —to become a Vidyādhara, to become a Gandharva, — Somaloka, —communion with Indra, communion with

Viṣṇu, — Rudra (Paśupati), Maharloka, dhruvam, — Tapoloka,

—Brahman;

from where only then he reaches the Brahman which is sadoditam

(=sakṛdvibhātam, Chānd. 8,4,2), from where the luminaries rise (Kāth. 5,15,

the germ already in Rv. 10.121,6).]

The Ātman as bird

1. Its right wing is the a sound,

The u is its left wing,

The m-sound is its tail-feathers,

The half mora is its head.

2. Rajas and Tamas its feet,

The Sattva is called its body,

Righteousness is its right,

Its left eye is the wrong.

3. At his feet is Bhūrloka,

At his knees Bhuvarloka,

Svarloka at the hip region,

At the navel is the Mahar-world.

4. At the heart is Jana(r)loka,

At his neck the Tapas-world,

Between his forehead and the brows

Is located the Satyaloka.

5. “He spreads to a thousand days' width”

In this hymn (Atharvav. 13,3,14) he is meant,

It is the bird on which ascends

The knower of the Yoga.

6. He is not slave to work,

Him do not bind many a thousand sins.

The three and half moras of the word Om

The first mora is sacred to Agni,

To the Vāyu the one that follows;

7. The mora, which comes as the third,

Has the lustre of the solar orb.

The three and halfth, the highest

The wise name it after Varuṇa.

Nādabindu Upaniṣad

The twelve partial moras of the word Om

8. Each of three moras has its own

Aspect in three parts;

That’s how the Om sound is interpreted,

Listen to it with attention and thoughtfulness.

9. The first mora is rich in sound,

The second is wreathed with lightning,

As third follows the flight-enjoyer,

The fourth is swift as wind.

10. The fifth is the namable,

The sixth is called sacred-to-Indra,

The seventh after the God Viṣṇu,

after Śaṅkara (Śiva) the eighth is called.

11. The ninth is called great,

The tenth is regarded as the firm,

The eleventh is the silent,

The twelfth is called the Brāhmic.

Reward for the meditation at the time of death

12. Meditating on the first mora,

If one gives up life,

Then in the Bhārata Varṣa

He is born as a sovereign king.

13. Who in the second departs,

Becomes a high-souled Yakṣa,

The third makes a Vidyādhara,

A Gandharva the fourth one.

14. And who, while giving up the life,

Meditates on the fifth mora,

He lives among gods, he roams

In the Somaloka magnificently.

15. The meditator of the sixth with Indra,

Of the seventh, with Viṣṇu,

With Rudra, with Paśupati lives he,

Who meditates on the eighth.

16. The ninth leads to the World-of-greatness1 The tenth to the firm place, The eleventh to the Tapoloka, To the eternal Brahman the twelfth.

17. And then to the pure, partless, Omnipresent, holy, To the eternal light of Brahman, From which the luminaries originate.

The Yoga and its reward

18. When, free from senses and Guṇas, The Manas is dissolved in itself, Not comparing, not imagining— That is called the correct art of Yoga.

19. Serving him and attached to him, He is gradually liberated from the body prospering in the Yogic practice, Free from all worldly attachment.

20. Then all bonds are loosened, And pure, unstained and free, Becoming Brahman, he goes there through Into the highest bliss, Into the highest bliss.

21. i.e. Maharloka (GBP)

BRAHMABINDU UPANIṢAD

[The name of this Upanisad Brahmabindu Upanisad (Amṛtabindu Upaniṣad in Śaṁkarānanda, Anquetil, in the Telugu edition and in a few manuscripts) must no doubt mean "the esoteric instruction on the point which signifies the (higher) Brahman," i.e. on the Anusvāra of the word Om, which, in so far as it denotes the reverberation also, refers to the higher wordless Brahman, while the word Om as such represents only the "Word-Brahman" symbolically (verses 15-17). Accordingly, the verse 7 teaches that through the sound (Om) one can only 'begin' the Yoga, but the highest one must remain wordless. For the rest nothing further is said of Om and its reverberation. The Upaniṣad rather treats of the dissolution of the Manas (verses 1-10), the relationship of the Brahman with the world of appearances (verses 11-17), the worthlessness of the external perception, bookish learning etc. (verses 18-22) in a way which makes it (Upaniṣad) appear like a link between the older Upaniṣads and Śaṁkara, whose favourite illustration of the space in the jar and the universal space already appears here (verses 13-14), as also the verse 12 which is indeed cited by Śaṁkara under Brahmasūtra p. 810,1, possibly from our Upaniṣad. Also it has five verses (1.2.4.5.17) in common with the Maitrāyaṇa Up. (6,34 and 6.22), which appear there as citātions, and as more torn off than in our Upaniṣad, in whose context they are woven quite naturally. It is therefore quite probable that Brahmabindu Up. is cited in the Maitr. Up.—Of sectarian inclinations there is no trace, with the exception of Vāsudevaḥ at the end, which can, however, by reason of its metrical impossibility, be surely recognized as an interpolation by one or the other worshipper of Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa and which has dislodged the original end (something like iti smṛtam).]

Verses 1-10

The withdrawal of Manas from the sense objects and liberation as its result

Om !

1. The Manas, they say, is twofold,

Either impure or pure,

Impure, when it imagines desires,

Pure, when it is free from desires.

2. The Manas therefore is the cause

Of bondage and liberation to us:

Of bondage, when attached to object,

Of liberation, when free from it.

11. Know the Ātman as one,

Then, waking, dream and deep sleep,

Throwing off these three states,

You will never be born again.

12. A single being-self there is,

It dwells in each and every being,

Uniform and yet multiform

It appears like the moon in pond.

13. As the space, which a jar encloses,

When the jar is broken to pieces,

The jar alone breaks, not the space,

Life is like the jar.

14. All forms are like the jar;

Unceasingly they break to pieces;

When departed, they are unaware,

Still he is aware eternally.

15. One who is enveloped in word-delusion,

Remains caught up in the heart-lotus,

But when the darkness grows clear,

He sees the unity all alone.

16. Brahman is the syllable of the Om-sound;

When it fades off, what remains,

The wise meditate on that eternal one,

The seekers of the peace of soul.

17. Two sciences are necessary,

The Word-Brahman and the uppermost;

One who is versed in the Word-Brahman,

Attains to the highest Brahman too.

18. The wise, searching through books

For real insight into knowledge,

Throws off the mass of bookish stuff,

As one the chaff, who strives after corn.

AMṚTABINDU UPANIṢAD

[Amṛta-bindu Upaniṣad or Amṛta-nāda Upaniṣad as it is already called by Sāyaṇa (who cites its 10th verse under Taitt. Ār. 10, 27, page 849) and elsewhere (also in Śaṁkarānanda's commentary) means : "The esoteric doctrine of the (Anusvāra) point (bindu) or of the reverberation (nāda) of the word Om, which signifies the Immortal (Brahman)" or also "which grants immortality". In view of the positiveness with which every sound element is excluded in verses 4 and 24 the former name is more appropriate, as also better attested. The interchange of the names can be explained in this way that the name Brahmabindu was dropped by scribal oversight and was replaced by Amṛtabindu, so that it was necessary to choose a new name for our Upanisad also.

The contents consist of an introduction, four parts, and a concluding verse.

The Introduction (verses 1-4) not only condemns all bookish learning but it also considers the sounding elements of Om as pure means to the end. Only the soundless m (asvara makāra), which is also signified by the Anusvāra-point (bindu) is to be meditated.

I. Verses 5-16. Of the eight members of the Yoga system our Upaniṣad, like Maitr. 6, 18, mentions only five to which, as there, tarka, is added as the sixth.

1. pratyāhāra, withdrawing of the Manas and the Indriyas from the sense objects (explained in verse 5, which would better stand after the verse 6)

2. dhyānam, meditation, whose explanation is missing.

3. prāṇāyāma, breath-controlling, consisting of (a) recaka, emptying, (b) pūraka, filling, (c) kumbhaka, retaining of the breath in the chest.

4. dhāraṇā, locking up into the Ātman of the Manas drawn away from the sense objects.

5. tarka, reflecting, missing in the Yogasūtras, and explained differently from Maitr. 6, 18.

6. Communion in the Ātman, the Self, "which one meditates, although one already possesses it" (yaṁ labdhvā api ya manyeta).

II. Verses 17-27. Rules for the conduct of a Yogin : ways of sitting, of meditating over Om etc.; verse 27 would better stand at the beginning, before verse 17.

III. Verses 28-31. Reward of the Yoga. The five moras, which are imagined here, correspond to the five properties : smell, taste, sight, touch sound; the earth has all the five, the water four, the fire three, the air two, the ether one. By concentrating on the half mora one liberates oneself from all these.

IV. Verses 32-37. The Prāṇa and its five ramifications, to which here not only a particular seat but also (similarly as in Chand. 8,6,1 to the arteries of the heart) five different colours have been assigned.

V. Verse 38. Final promise. The term mandalam here and in verses 17.26 is not clear; in verse 17 the same is to be muttered; in verses 26 and 38 a transition point of the outgoing soul, in 38 before its exit from the body and in 26 after it; also, as it appears, the word mandalam has three different meanings at the three places which is not without doubt in so small a work.]

Verses 1-4.

Superiority of Brahman over the book learning and over the audible part of the word Om

1. The wise who read the text books,

And studied them again and again,

When partaking of the Brahman's knowledge,

Throw them off, as if they burnt.

2. He mounts the car of Om,

His charioteer is Viṣṇu,

He seeks the abode of the Brahman-world,

To win Rudra for himself.

3. But the car is useful,

Only so long as one is on the highroad;

Who has come to the end of the highroad,

Leaves the car, and goes on foot.

4. So one leaves the word-symbol also,

And only with the silent m

From Om one comes to the soundless,

Silent, invisible place.

Verses 5-16

The six limbs of the Yoga

5. The five objects of sense

And the Manas, the mobile,

Are only the reins of the Ātman,

To know this is withdrawal.

6. Withdrawal and meditation,

Breath-control and chaining,

Reflecting and communion,

Are the six limbs of the Yoga.

7. As by melting, the slag

Of the raw ore is completely burnt,

So by restraining the breath

The faults of senses are completely burnt.

8. By breath-control is burnt the fault,

By chaining, the sin.

Having thus annihilated the sin

One should think of the shining one.

9. [While thinking of] the shining one

One breathes out and in again,

There are three controls of breath,

Emptying, filling and retaining.

10. The Gāyatrī with its head

Along with Vyāḥṛtis and Praṇava

Say thrice in one breath,

That is called the breath-control.1

11. When one, expelling the breath out,

Makes contentsless, empty space,

Restraining himself to this emptiness,—

It is, what they call, the emptying.

13. 2Pursing one’s lips like a lotus-stalk,

One is accustomed to drink water;3

1. = viṣṇusmṛti 55, 9. Further this verse is cited by Sāyaṇa under Taitt. Ār. 10, 27 (which section contains the entire formula prescribed here), p. 849, and, indeed, as occuring Amṛtanādopanisadi. The “head of the Gāyatrī” is the formula which crowns it (it follows it) : Om āpo jyotī raso'mṛtam brahma (auch Maitr. 6, 35. Prānāgnihotra-Up. 1 above), upon which should follow the Vyāḥṛtis (bhūr, bhuvah, svar) and the Praṇava (Om).

2. See note 1 on p. 694 –GBP.

3. According to the Telugu ed. and Śaṁkarānanda : vaktreṇa utpalānālakaṃ toyam ākarṣayen naraḥ.

One should similarly draw in wind also,

It is, what is called, the filling.1

12. When one breathes neither out nor in,2

And doesn't move his limbs also,

And when the air is thus held fast,

That is called the retaining.

14. Look at the forms like the blind,

Hear the sound like deaf,

Regard the body as a log of wood,

Then you are called the pacified.

15. Who sinks into the Self the Manas

As the organ of imagination

And thus remains chained to himself,—

That is renowned as the chaining.

16. Thinking, which does not run counter

To the accepted doctrine, is called reflecting.

What one already has, and still ponders over3

That is the object of communion.

1. Nārāyaṇa's codex, as also that of Weber, have (on the other hand),

kumbhaka (retention) in verse 13 and pūraka (filling) in verse 12. Weber's

suggestion to transpose the two is supported by the Telugu ed. and

Śaṁkarānanda's text, which also explain the cause of confusion, in that

in both of them verse 13 rightly comes first, then verse 12. Some copyist

transposed them through oversight, and a later copyist established the

sequence recaka, pūraka, kumbhaka required by verse 9 in such a way that

he simply interchanged the two terms in verse 13 and verse 12, which gave

rise to the naive remark of Nārāyaṇa that here a special kind of Kumbhaka

has to be understood.

2. The Bibl. Ind. reads : na ca ucchvaset, na anucchvaset, which would

be an example of a privative a prefixed to a finite verb (nañas tiṅā samāsah);

Weber reads : na ucchvasen na anūcchvāsayet; but anu+ud+śvas does not

occur and it can scarcely mean "breath in". The Telugu ed. has probably

the correct reading : na ucchvased na ca niśvāsāir (scil. śvaset); or one can

read with Śaṁkarānanda and the Bombay edition : na ucchvasen, na ca

niśvaset.

3. According to Weber's MS : yaṁ labdhvā api eva manyeta and draws attention to Bhag. G. 6,22;

reads: yaṁ labdhvā api avamanyeta. (with Śaṁkarānanda) : samaṁ manyeta yal labdhvā, cf. the

well-known : mama samadr̥śo yāntu divasāḥ Ind. Spr. 2nd ed. No. 844.

23. Rhythm [in breathing], resignation,1

Chaining2 and union,3

The Yoga too, of twelve moras,4

Is regarded as fixed according to tempo.

24. Voiceless, neither a consonant nor a vowel,

Not guttural, palatal, labial, nasal,

Without the burring sound, with both lips unmoved.—

The sacred syllable, which sounds silently.5

25. With this sound he sees the way,

The way, along which his Prāṇa goes,

Therefore should one always practise it,

So that he goes along the right way.

26. Through heart-gate, wind-gate,

The gate, which leads upward,

And the opening of the gate of liberation,

Which they know as the open orb.6

27. Against fear, against anger, against sloth,

Against too much waking, too much sleeping,

Against too much eating, not eating,

A Yogin shall always be on his guard.

Verses 28-29

Reward of the Yoga

28. If in this way, at all times,

He practises the Yoga according to rules,

Then without doubt in him will arise,

The knowledge in three months.

1. yoga according to Nārāyaṇa = samādhi.

2. dhāraṇā chaining of the Manas, cf. verse 15.

3. Of the individual soul and the highest soul according to Anquetil,

of Prāṇa and Apāna according to Nārāyaṇa. Śaṁkarānanda differently.

4. For the twelve moras, see Nādabindu, verses 8-11.

5. The word-play between akṣara and kṣarate (Cf. Talav. Up. Br. 1,24,1),

almost untranslatable, here allows to be replaced by another one.

6. Nārāyaṇa thinks of the solar orb (Śaṁkarānanda differently).

29. After four months he sees the gods,

After five he's as strong as they,

After six, without doubt,

He attains to absoluteness at will.

30. Through five moras he becomes akin to earth,

Through four to water;

Akin to fire through three moras,

Through two moras alike the wind.

31. Through one mora space-akin;

Yet he meditates on the half,

Then he is finished with the mind,

He thinks through him and in him alone.

Verses 32-37

The Prāṇa and its ramifications

32.1 Thirty fingers broad space there is,

Where Prāṇa resides with the Prāṇas,

The breath, so called, as it serves

As play-ground to the breath outside.

33. Hundred and thirteen multiplied by thousand,

Plus hundred and eighty times2

Results the incoming and outgoing breath3

In the interval of a day and night.4

34. The Prāṇa, to begin with, dwells in the heart,

The Apāna has the bowel as its place,

1. According to the (corrected) Telugu text :

triṁśad vārddhāngulīḥ prāṇo yatra prāṇaiḥ pratiṣṭhitah,

esa prāṇa iti khyāto yāḥyaprāṇasya gocarah.

2. Weber's conjecture aśtiś ca śatam is supported by the Telugu ed.

and Śaṁkarānanda.

3. viniśvāso Telugu ed.

4. The number 113180 divided by five (since all the five Prāṇas

participate therein) gives 22636 respirations in 24 hours or 15. 7 in a minute

which is correct for the grown-up on the average. Elsewhere the number of

daily respirations is given around 21600 (Sarvadarśanasaṁgraha p. 175, 4)

or even 21000 (under Maitr. p. 79, 4). The Haṁsa Upaniṣad fixes it at

Samāna there, where the navel is,

Udāna, where there is the neck.

35. The Vyāna, finally, continually

Runs, ruling, through all the limbs.

Now the colours of the five Prāṇas,

As they follow in order.

36. The Prāṇa resembles in lustre

A red-hued precious stone,

The Apāna shines reddish

Like a cochineal insect.1

37. The Samāna shines in belly

Like a milk-coloured mountain-crystal.

The Udāna is pale yellowish,

The Vyāna of the hue of a flame.

Verse 38

Summary

38. In whom, breaking through this ring,

The vital breath ascends to the head,

No matter where he dies,

He is never born any more,

—He is never born any more.

1. indragopasamaprabhah of the Sanskrit original translated as ‘Wie ein Marienkäferchen’ by Deussen. —GBP.

DHYĀNABINDU UPANIṢAD

[The Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad, i.e. "the esoteric doctrine of the point (bindu of the Anusvāra in Om), to which the meditation (dhyāna) relates" contains an introduction and four parts.

The Introduction (verses 1-3) promises, in two stanzas taken over out of context from Yogatattva 1-2 and in the third of its own, eradication of all sins as a reward of the Yoga.

I. (Verses 4-6). The complete silence of meditation is in accordance with the infinite subtlety of its object, which is explained by the illustration of the split hair-end taken from the Śvet. 5, 9.

II. (Verses 7-10). Through a series of original and pertinent illustrations it is shown how the Ātman penetrates through all of its appearances, omnipresent in the whole as also in every individual part. The shade (chāyā) in verse 10 does not offer any useful illustration and its emendation into śākhā suggests itself, even though it is not unobjectionable and is justified only by the word sakala which appears beside it to interpret niṣkala 'the partless' as part i.e. as non-whole.

III. (Verses 11-17). After bringing the meditation of Viṣṇu, Brahmán and Śiva into relationship with the three breath practices pūraka, kumbhaka and recaka in verses 11-13, there follow verses 14–17, a difficult section, which I cannot make up my mind, with Nārāyaṇa and Anquetil, to again connect with the Triad for there is no basis for thus hacking the verses of the text. I rather believe that in contrast to Viṣṇu, Brahmán and Śiva the Ātman himself is described here, how as imminent he penetrates the world and still remains transcendent (on the other side of the sun and the moon). As individual soul (lotus flower) he is plucked after death and carried to the moon and the sun along the Pitryāṇa and the Devayāna according to the seed.

IV. (Verses 18-23). The meditation of Om is described towards the end in abundant, but partly borrowed, metaphors; verse 19 stems from Muṇḍ. 2, 2, 4, verse 20 from Śvet. 1,14, verse 21 from Amṛtabindu 13. In verse 22 there is in original comparison of the heart with a well from which (as even today in India) water is drawn up by means of a rope along an inclined plane, usually by a pair of bulls until, poured out, it comes to rest above. So also the Manas at the spot between the eyebrows and the nose as the dwelling place of the highest Ātman, cf. Jābāla 2.]

Verses 1-3

Value of the Yoga

1. 1 I will proclaim the truth of the Yoga

For the well-being of the Yogin,

Who listens to it and recites,

He is freed from all sins.

2. Viṣṇu is called a great Yogin

Great in magic power and penance,

As a lamp on the way of truth

He shines, the highest Puruṣa.

3. Even if the sins are like mountains

Stretching miles after miles,

Yogic meditation pierces thro’ them,

Nothing else ever penetrates them.

Verses 4-6

The silence of the meditation corresponds

to the subtlety of the Brahman

4. Higher than the first syllables

Is the point, higher than resonance,

The syllable vanishes with the sound,2

Silent is the highest place.

5. The sound which remains unbeaten,

There is something higher than this sound,

The Yogin who meditates on this

As highest, doubts break off from him.

6. A thousandth of a hundredth part

Of hair’s tip, a part of this part,

And of this a half part further,—

So subtle is the pure being.

1. Verses 1-2=Yogatattva 1-2, where they suit better, and from which

context they are secondarily taken over here, since they are missing in the

two Poona MSS and the Telugu ed.

2. sa śabdaś ca akṣare kṣīṇo, Telugu ed.

Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad

Verses 7-10

Brahman and its appearances

7. As fragrance is in flower,

As butter is in milk,

As oil is in oil-seeds,

As gold is in ore.

8. As the thread is in pearls,

So firm in Ātman are all beings,

Therefore the knower of Brahman, with mind

Firm on Brahman, stands unconfused.

9. As the oil pervades the oil seeds,

As the fragrance the flower,

So in the body of man

He is in it and outside too.

10. Know the tree as the whole,

The branch1 is only a non-whole,

In the whole as also in the non-whole

Everywhere the Ātman dwells.

Verses 11-17

Viṣṇu, Brahmán Śiva and the Ātman pervading them all

For pūraka, kumbhaka, recaka, see above,

Amṛtabindu Up. 11-13.

11. Comparable to a flax flower

Having his place at the navel,

The heroic Viṣṇu of four arms,

On him one meditates with Pūraka.

12. With Kumbhaka on him,

Whose lotus-seat is in the heart,

On the god Brahman, the ur-father

Red white, having four faces.2

1. I read śākhā.

2. Out of the descriptions like Ṛgveda 10, 81, 3 : “eye on all sides and face on all sides” etc. (comparable to Xenophanic o'ulos 'or'ζ etc.), grew by materialisation god Brahmán with four faces. -In a similar way in the biblical field, what were still concepts in the Romans 1, 3-4, have taken a concrete shape in the imagination of Math. 1,18. Luk. 1,35, in order to be intelligible to the common people.

19. Om is the bow, the soul the arrow,

The Brahman the target of the arrow,

That one should hit unflinchingly,

Identifying oneself with it like an arrow.

20. Making one's body the friction-wood,

With the Om-sound as the upper stick,

Through meditation's friction one sees the God,

Like the fire hidden in the wood.

21. Pursing one's lips like a lotus stalk

One is accustomed to drink water,

One should similarly draw in wind also,

When as a Yogin one practises the Yoga.

22. Using the half mora as a rope,

Draw out of the well of heart-lotus

The Manas upward along the path of artery,

Betwen the brows. where it melts away.

23. For the forehead between the brows,

Where there is the root of the nose,

Is the perennial dwelling place,

The great resting place of all.

TEJOBINDU UPANIṢAD

[This Upaniṣad bears the name Tejo-bindu “the point (of the Anusvāra in Om), which denotes the power (Brahman)” probably on account of the first word (similarly as in Kena and Īśa), for otherwise there is no further discussion, either of Om or of its moras etc., in the fourteen verses which alone constitute our recension.

They rather deal with, in a clearly ordered manner, the most important of the main features of the Vedānta doctrine one after another :

Verses 1-2. Difficulty of meditation (dhyānam).

„ 3-4. The requirements of one qualified for it.

„ 5-8. The place of the Brahman as its object.

„ 9-11. The enigmatic nature of the Brahman.

„ 12-14. Portrayal of one liberated alive.

Although the train of thoughts here is on the whole clear, the individual passages are often equally difficult and have already demanded from the Indian commentator the most jaw-breaking exegetical acrobatics. But when he e.g. in verse 9 puts up with brahmāṇam instead of the required brahma vibhakti-vyatyayah), or when in verses 12 ff. he supplies śritā na vidur (subject, copula, negation and predicate) to the accusatives lobham etc., which are completely hanging in air, to make them intelligible, — then we shall not follow him here as in much else but we will find ourselves facing the alternative as to whether the language feeling was already so completely blunted1 in the original author of these verses, or whether we are dealing with an enormously corrupt text-transmission. The latter alternative would seem to be supported by the numerous but not better readings of the Telugu ed. in which our 14 stanzas form only the beginning of the Tejobindūpaniṣad, which is followed by discussions in verses and prose which exceed more than thirty times the extent of our recension.]

Verses 1-2

The meditation (dhyānam)

1. At the power-point aims the highest meditation,

Supremely enthroned in the heart,

Subtle, blissful, powerful,

First gross, then fine, then superfine,

1. Even for the title the majority of the manuscripts used for the Poona edition offer Tejabindu which is impossible.

8. Rapture indeed, yet beyond pleasure,

Difficult to see, endless, beginningless,

Free from the mind's bossing,

Eternal, firm, impossible to shake.

Verses 9-11

The enigmatic and contradictory nature of the Brahman

9. This Brahman, which dwells in the Self.

This first cause, this highest aim

Of unthinking thinking, is the soul

And the highest haven of refuge.

10. Unempty, it appears as empty,

Above emptiness it stands majestically,

Nor thought it is, nor thinking,

Unthinkable and yet, indeed, thinkable.

11. It's all and yet it is nothing,

There's nothing higher than it,

Unthinkable unawakened it is,

It's not real and is not known.

Verses 12-14

Portrayal of one who is liberated alive

12. Essentially associating with the lonely,—

He who is God, sure knows the highest,—

Greed, delusion, fear, pride,

Anger, love, sin renouncing,

13. Cold and warm, hunger and thirst,

And intentions, which ever change,

Not proud of the Brāhmaṇa descent,

Not of the rubbish of liberation texts,

14. Knowing no fear, nor lust, nor pain,

Nor respect, nor disrespect any more,—

Because from all these is free

Brahman, the highest goal of all endeavour,

—Brahman, the highest goal of all endeavour.

YOGAŚIKHĀ UPANIṢAD

Verses 2-3

A brief account of the Yogic meditation

2. Choosing the posture of the lotus type,

Or whichever else may please him,

Fixing the gaze on the nose tip,

With hands and feet pressed close,

3. Controlling the Manas on all sides,

The wise shall meditate,

Continuously on the syllable Om,

Enshrining the highest God in heart.

Verses 4-7

Penetrating to the God and the flight to Him after the death

4. Upon one pillar,1 three posts,2

With nine doors,3 having five gods,4

Stands a temple, body it is,

In it one shall seek the highest.

5. Therein glows a sun,

With flamelike rays surrounded,

In its midst is a fire,

Which burns like the wick of a lamp;

6. As large is its pointed flame,

So large the highest God there.

Practising the Yoga repeatedly,

The Yogin penetrates through the sun,

7. Then zigzag he goes upwards

Through the shining door of Suṣumnā;

Breaking through the cerebral dome,

He finally sees the highest one.

1. The vertebral column.

2. The three arteries iḍā, piṅgalā and suṣumnā or the three Guṇas sattvam, rajas and tamas (schol).

3. The nine openings of the body.

4. The five senses.

Yogaśikhā Upaniṣad

Verses 8-9

A substitute for the Yoga1

8. Yet, who, inattentive and lazy,

Does not see his way to meditation,

He can penetrate to the highest place,

If he daily thrice recites.

9. The pure speech that I proclaimed

After participating in the Yoga,

After reaching, what is to be known,

The gracious, the highest God.

Verse 10

End

10. Who through thousands of births

Does not consume the debt of sins,

He finally beholds through Yoga

The dissolution of the Saṁsāra here.

1. According to the readings of the Telugu ed. the idea rather is: “He

who goes through this meditatingly thrice a day reaches, from out of laziness

and inattentiveness, to the pure bliss”.

YOGATATTVA UPANIṢAD

[This Upaniṣad, which bears its name Yogatattva "The essence of the Yoga" either according to the initial word or according to the main contents, consists of only fifteen Ślokas in our recension while in the Telugu ed. it has a considerable augmented form. The two initial stanzas are the same there, but then follow about a hundred Ślokas, after which again stanza 2, stanzas 3-13 and 15 as the end, partly with quite different variant readings. Whether these rest on an original tradition or only on a later arrangement, we do not undertake to decide for the time being. In our recension the text is so corrupt and the commentary so defective, that the translation can be looked upon only as an experiment in order to reproduce the contents in a somewhat intelligible form.

After the initial verses (1-2), which less suitably form the beginning of the Dhyānabinḍu also, follows in verses 3-5 a very drastic picture of the cease-less rotation of re-births and in verses 6-8 an exposition, how the 3½ moras of the Om sound include everything in themselves, wherein the verse 8 is again the same as Dhyānabinḍu 7, but this time it stands there better suited; -accordingly it appears that Yogatattva and Dhyānabinḍu are dependent, not on each other, but both on a common source which however is probably to be sought only in individual stanzas, which were transmitted orally in the Yoga circles and which, considerably altered, were finally admitted in these Upaniṣads. This also applies to the following verses (9-11), which, according to the model of the Mahānār. 11, 8 and in repeated agreement with the Dhyānabinḍu 12-14, picture the heart, the seat of the Manas, as a lotus flower facing downward, which opens in meditation but becomes motionless with the quieting of the Manas, whereupon the soul reflects in itself the highest Being as the rock-crystal the ray of the sun (verse 11). Verse 12 probably refers to the Pratyāhāra, the withdrawing of the organs, while the breathing still continues, verse 13 to the Prānāyāma, the breath control, which has its acme in the Kumbhaka (Amṛtabindu 13. Dhyānabinḍu 12), verse 14 to the exit of the soul through the Suṣumnā and the Brahmarandhra (cf. Yogaśikhā 7), verse 15 finally deals with the selection of the proper place for meditation, and the indulgence on the part of the Yogin towards all living beings.]

Verses 1-2

Importance of the Yoga1

1. I will proclaim the truth of the Yoga

For the well-being of the Yogin.

1. Verses 1-2=Dhyānabinḍu 1-2.

Who listens to it and recites,

He is freed from all sins.

2. Viṣṇu is called a great Yogin,

Great in magic power and penance,

As a lamp on the way of truth,

He shines, the highest Puruṣa.

Verses 3-5

The rotation of the migration of the soul

3. The breast at which he once drank,

Later he squeezes lasciviously,1

On the womb, which once gave him birth,

He sates his carnal desire.

4. She, who was once his mother,

Now becomes his wife, and wife mother,

His father becomes his son.

He, who son was his father.

5. Thus in the rotation of Saṁsāra

Like a bucket on the water-wheel2

Running round, he's once more born

In the mother's womb.3

Verses 6-8

All-comprehensiveness of the sound Om

6. There are three worlds, three Vedas,

Three times of day, three gods,

Three sacrificial fires, three Guṇas,

The Tri-syllable comprehends all in it.

1. Yaḥ stanaḥ pūrvapītās tam niṣpīdya mudam asinete (Telugu ed.).

2. Even today one sees quite frequently this wheel for drawing water furnished with bucket around. When this is turned through a stream flowing under it, the buckets merged in it are filled with water and when they reach up, they empty their contents into a channel which carries the water to the fields.

3. yonijanmāni śritvā (Telugu ed ).

Yogatattva Upaniṣad

7. And who at the end of the Tri-syllable

Meditates on the half syllable also,

He pervades through all this

And finally goes to the highest place.

8. As fragrance is in flower,

As butter is in milk,

As oil is in the sesame,

As gold is in the ore;1…

Verses 9-11

Reward of the meditation on Om

9. The lotus flower, that occupies

The space in the heart, calix down,

The stalk on high, dewing down,

Therein the Manas has its seat.

10. With the a-sound it become luminous,

With the u-sound it opens out,

With the m-sound it resounds,—

Motionless is the half sound.—

11. And just as in a crystal perchance

Is reflected the light of the sun,2

So shines in the soul, inspiring it,

The highest spirit by means of Yoga.

Verses 12-13

Pratyāhāra and Prānāyāma

(See Introduction to the Amṛtabindu Up.)

12. Like a tortoise he draws within

The hands and feet and head.3

While the breath still plays around

The gates. Then it's called 'fill in! fill in!'

1. This Śloka can be fitted with the preceding one only artificially (by

means of the all-pervasion of the sound Om) and is perhaps taken over from

the context which is there for the Dhyānabindu 7ff.

2. ātmā labhate sphatikasaṁkāśam, sūryamarīcivat, "the soul takes on

the glow of the mountain-crystal, as [when] a ray of the sun [touches it]."

3. We read with the Telugu ed. ; śiraś ca.

13. When after closing the nine gates,

He seeks to breathe out and in

Like a torch in a jar

Without wind, that's called "detaining"

Verse 14

Exit through the Brahmarandhra

14. Till, breaking, as through a lotus petal,

The impetuous wind leads him,

Whom they know as the guileless,

Between the brows and the forehead.1

Verse 15

Relationship of the Yogin with the outer world

15. At an unprohibited, far off, place,

Calm and quiet, undisturbed,

The Yogin guarantees protection

To all beings, as to his own self.2

1. Cf. Dhyānabin͟du 23. Jābāla 2.

2. Literally: "Through the Yogic service the sanctity of beings who form

the self (of the Yogin) is guaranteed."

HAṂSA UPANIṢAD

[This Upaniṣad, included in the Oupanekhat also as Hensnad (i.e. Haṁsa-nāda), belongs, as is already shown by its position in the collections of Colebrooke and Nārāyaṇa, but more so by its contents, to a later stage of development than the Yoga-Upaniṣads treated so far. The assertion about the words haṁsa haṁsa as being the Mantrarāja (King of the aphorisms, i.e. as an aphorism running through the whole of the Upaniṣad) and the way how the beginning, the middle and the end (vijam, kilaka, śakti) are distinguished in it, and how the employment of the aphorism is taught as a diagram, make our Upaniṣad appear in closest relationship with the circle of thoughts of the Nṛsiṁhatāpanīya and the Rāmatāpanīya.

As the fundamental thought can be shown that the Haṁsa [the individual soul] becomes the Paramahaṁsa (the highest soul) through the meditation of the sound Om, and particularly of its reverberation.

The main contents are the following. The division into paragraphs is our own, because the one in the Calcutta edition and that in both the Poona editions (with the commentary of Nārāyaṇa and of Śaṁkarānanda) are conflicting and are not sufficient for the purpose.

1. Introduction. The verse at the beginning as also the one at the end are missing in Śaṁkarānanda's recension.

2. The individual soul is called as Haṁsa through the combination of sounds of out-breath (han) and in-breath (sa).

3. Just as the Kṣurikā Upaniṣad teaches a successive detachment of the self from the several parts of the body, similarly our Upaniṣad teaches an ascent through six mystical circles differentiated in the body on to the Brahmarandhra. This ascent is accomplished through meditation of the syllable Om and particularly of its reverberation.

4. The haṁsa haṁsa repeated 21606 times in day and night through the respiration of the (five fold) Prāṇa appears as hymn (as the Mantrarāja) whose poet, metre and the deity are determined, and whom the vijam (germ, initial syllable), the kilaka (stem, middle syllable), and the śakti (power, final syllable) are differentiated.

5. This king-of-aphorisms, which as such has (cf. Nṛsiṁhap. 2, 2. Rāmap. 61), six physical parts (heart, head, tuft of hair, armour, three eyes and weapon) is, under specific invocations (to be supplied from the commentary) of these parts, put down (the exact way of executing this is not given) as a diagram (evidently to be worn as an amulet) and besides, as it appears, it is also laid on the hands.

6. Symbolical interpretation of the individual Ātman conceived in the form of a bird as Haṁsa (goose).

7. Identity of the Hamsa and the Paramahamsa (of the individual and the highest Ātman).

8. Portrayal of Hamsa who has yet to become Paramahamsa.

9. Its becoming one with the Paramahamsa.

10. The ten ways in which the reverberation can be brought forth (cf. Chānd. 2, 22, 2. Maitr. 6,22); The tenth of these is recommended for practice The verses which follow differ.

11. Dissolution of the Manas and unification with the highest Ātman.

The context makes it appear conceivable that those sections of this Upaniṣad which make it look far more modern than the other Yoga Upaniṣads (particularly 3-5) rest on later insertion.]

1. Gautama spake:

The awakening of the Brahman-lore,

Which is familiar with all duties,

Which comprises the content of all texts,

Through what, O sir, is it effected ?

Sanatsujāta spake:

Pondering over all the Vedas

And grasping firmly their content,

Śiva expounded to Pārvatī

The truth;–learn it from me.

Indescribable and shrouded, equally,

Is the mystery of the Yogins;

Which spreads out the path before the Hamsa,

Bestows joy and the fruit of liberation.

Now we will impart precise information over the Hamsa and the Paramahamsa for the Brahman-student who is passionless, restrained and devoted to the teacher.

2. With the sound ham-sa ham-sa (outbreathing and inbreath-ing) it (the breath) stays continually in all bodies, filling them completely, as the fire in the fuel or the oil in the sesame seeds. He who knows it, does not fall into the hands of Death.

3. Editions available to me read sarvadharmajña sarvaśāstraviśārada (both vocatives) which certainly give a better meaning.–GBP.

Hamsa Upanisad

Sixty Upaniṣads

his [Hamsa, i.e. the individual soul] is that Parama-

highest soul], which shines like ten million suns and

is entire world.

haviour, however, [so far as he abides in the eight-

lower of the heart] is eightfold: On the eastern petal

directed to holy acts, on the south-eastern sleep and

some him, on the southern his mind is cruel, on the

n he strives after sin, on the western after play, on

estern he desires going etc., on the northern love-

sn the north-western acquisition of property. Renun-

in the middle, the state of waking in the filament,

seed-pod, deep sleep on the stalk, the Turyam at the

he lotus flower ends upward.

en the Hamsa is merged in the reverberation, then

t is called above-the-Turīya, Unthinking, Conclusion-

ring. All this happens at the will of the Hamsa. There-

las is allowed to run; however, he [the worshipper]

everberation in ten million mutterings. All this

le will of the Hamsa.

verberation can be brought about tenfold: the first

t, the second as ciñcini, the third like the sound of

surth like the blowing of a conch, the fifth like the

the sixth like clapping, the seventh like the note of

ghth like the beating of a drum, the ninth like that

um, the tenth like a thunder. One should avoid the

ose preceding it] and practise the tenth alone.

ase of the first his body

ciñcini, in second it crumples,

ird he is very tired,

surth his head shakes,

fith his palate runs,

xth he drinks Amṛtam,

venth he has esoteric knowledge,

ighth skill in speech.

Hamsa Upanisad

In the ninth power to disappear

And a clear-seeing eye divine,

In the tenth he becomes the Brahman,

Brahman and Ātman become one.

11. In him the Manas vanishes, and in the Manas are burnt

desire and doubt, good and bad. But he, ever blissful, with all

penetrating power, omni-present, glows through his own light as

pure, enlightened, eternal, spotless and calm.

Om! that is the Veda-explanation,—Veda-explanation.

c. Sannyāsa Upaniṣads

BRAHMA UPANIṢAD

SAMNYĀSA UPANIṢAD

ĀRUNEYA UPANIṢAD

KANṬHAŚRUTI UPANIṢAD

PARAMAHAMSA UPANIṢAD

JĀBĀLA UPANIṢAD

ĀŚRAMA UPANIṢAD

BRAHMA UPANIṢAD1

[According to Nārāyaṇa the Brahma-Upaniṣad consists of four parts,2

two in prose of a more archaic bearing and two in verse which show a

more modern character in respect to the form and content.

1. In the first part Pippalāda “the Aṅgiras” (contrast with this the

beginning of the Atharvaśikhā) answers four questions of Śaunaka in this

way that he refers to the Prāṇa (the Ātman, the Brahman) as the life-

principle of the organs and characterises its behaviour in deep sleep, dream

and waking in the manner of the old Upaniṣads and with considerable

accord with these (particularly with Brh. 4, 3-4). The style is extremely

abrupt and reminds one of the manner of Sūtras which consist of referring,

by a casual expression, to a context known to the reader. This whole

section is missing in most of the manuscripts; Śaṅkarānanda's commentary

ignores it and even Nārāyaṇa mentions, without approving of it on his

part (p. 239,10), that according to many the Upaniṣad began with the

second part. Probably they omitted the first part because the style there

is so concise and the transmission so uncertain that it is possible only with

a straining to extract a meaning from it, and that too remains problematic.

2. The second part mentions the four physical seats and (without

assigning to these) the four states of the Ātman in order then to dwell upon

a complete negation of this as also on its residence in the heart-space,

which, with an appeal to the Veda (vaidya=vaidika), i.e. probably the

Chānd. 8,1,3, is compared to the universal space (suṣiram ākāśam, neutr.)

1. On the order of succession. The Brahma Upaniṣad, in view of its

third part, can be considered as a transition from the Vedānta and the

Yoga-Upaniṣads to those texts, which see the highest goal, in the Saṁnyāsa.

This is followed, according to the order in the lists of Colebrooke and

Nārāyaṇa, by two groups of Saṁnyāsa Upaniṣads, (1) Saṁnyāsa, Āruneyī,

Kaṭha-śruti, all three characterised by their fragmentary form and dilapi-

dated transmission, and (2) Parama-haṁsa, Jābāla, Āśrama, whose presenta-

tion is more orderly, and whose late position in the canon cannot be an

evidence of its posteriority. Only the last-named one will have to be placed,

on account of its systematic character, at the end of the whole line of

development.

2. The determination of these originates partly from us, since the

divisions in the Calcutta and both Poona editions (with the commentary of

Nārāyaṇa and that of Śaṅkarānanda) are partly confused and partly they

are of no use whatever. In the Telugu ed. our Upaniṣad exists in two

entirely different recensions, without the first part as Brahma Upaniṣad, and

with it as Parabrahma Upaniṣad.

The

most

original

and

most

intimately

connected

with

the

Sannyāsa

Upanisads

is

the

third,

more

modern

part

in

verse,

which

recommends

the

Brahman-knower

to

do

away

with

the

śikhā

(the

hair-tuft

which

is

not

cut

off

for

religious

reasons)

and

the

Yajñopavītam

(the

sacred

sacrificial

thread)

and

to

carry

knowledge

alone

as

śikhā

and

yajñopavītam.

A

series

of

verses

follow

as

a

supplement,

which,

it

seems,

are

meant

to

explain

the

prose

portion.

The

first

four

are

taken

from

Śvet.

6,11.6,12.

1,14.

1.15.

Then

follow

three

verses

for

explanation

of

the

metaphor

of

the

spider,

of

the

heart

as

a

lotus

flower,

which

the

Brahman

occupies,

and

of

the

four

places

of

Brahman

which

are

here

paralleled

with

the

four

states

for

which

purpose,

however,

nābhi

has

been

replaced

by

netram.

The

two

following

Ślokas

recommend

the

samdhyā

as

a

symbol

of

oneness

with

God

and

oneness

of

all

beings;

here,

there

is

a

play,

difficult

to

reproduce,

on

the

words

samdhā

and

samdhyā.

—A

reminiscence

of

Taitt.

2,4

and

the

verse

Śvet.

1,16

conclude

the

whole

which

is

built

up

of

such

a

variety

of

constituent

parts.]

1

Om!

Once

it

so

happened

that

Śaunaka,

a

highly

rich

man,

asked

Pippalāda,

the

worthy

Aṅgiras:

In

the

divine,

lovely

Brahman

city

[in

the

body]

how

are

they

(the

gods

of

the

vital

organs)

established?

And

how

do

they

break

forth

[outwards]?

And

from

whom

originates

this

power

of

theirs?

And

who

is

he,

who

has

become

this

power

of

theirs?

He

then

explained

to

him

the

most

splendid

doctrine

of

Brahman

and

said:

It

is

the

Prāṇa,

is

the

Ātman;

from

the

Ātman

originates

their

power;

he

is

the

vital

power

of

the

gods

[of

the

vital

organs]

he

is

the

[place

of]

disappearance

and

appearance

of

gods.

He,

who

shines

in

the

divine

Brahman-city

as

the

dustless,

indivisible,

pure,

imperishable

Brahman

(cf.

Muṇḍ.

2,

2,

9),

controls

them,

[and

they

follow

him]

as

the

bees

the

bee-king.

1—

And

as

the

female

fly-destroyer

[the

spider]

spreads

its

net

out

of

a

thread

and

withdraws

it

within

itself

again

to

that

thread

(according

to

Muṇḍ.

1,1,7),

similarly

the

Prāṇa

also,

when

he

According

to

Praśna

2,4,

with

which

passage

makṣikāvat

has

to

be

read.

The

corruption

is

due

to

the

following

yathā

makṣikā.

as non-harm, as the higher and the lower Brahman, as Ātman makes the gods (of sense-organs) conscious.

He who knows this, grasps that the local soul (kṣetrajña) is the highest abode of Brahman,– he grasps that the local soul is the highest abode of Brahman (Cf. Muṇd. 3,2,1).

2

There are four dwellings of this Puruṣa; the navel, the heart, the neck and the head. In them the Brahman shines with its four quarters which are: the waking, the dream, the deep sleep, the Turīyam (Fourth); in the waking as Brahmán, in the dream as Viṣṇu, in the deep sleep as Rudra, in the Turīyam as the highest Imperishable.

This is Āditya, Viṣṇu and Īśvara, this is Puruṣa, this is Prāṇa, this Jīva, and this is the god-filled fire, which keeps guard (Praśna 4,3) in the Brahman-city of the body; in those (four dwellings) the highest Brahman shines.

Itself, however, it is without Manas, without ear, without hand and foot and wanting in light; in it there are not1

worlds and non-worlds,

gods and non-gods,

Vedas and non-Vedas,

sacrifices and non-sacrifices,

mother and non-mother,

father and non-father,

daughter-in-law and non-daughter-in-law,

cāṇḍāla and non-cāṇḍāla,

Paulkasa and non-Paulkasa,

ascetic and non-ascetic,

animals and non-animals,

penitent and non-penitent,

but it is only the one highest Brahman, which shines.

1. What follows is a citation from Bṛh. 4,3,22 which, however, has acquired a completely different meaning on account of the prefixed na (not) : neither the objects nor their contradictory counterpart can be ascribed to the Brahman. (Śaṅkarānanda differs).

Brahma Upaniṣad

729

In the space in the heart is the Brahman, as consciousness, the space; and this very space is the hollow (universal) space because is the space in the heart taught by the Veda (Chând. 8,1,3), and in it stirs to and fro he in whom the whole world is sewn lengthwise and crosswise (Bṛh. 3,6). The creatures (or creation) must be viewed as His own Self, of the All-mighty. In him prevail no gods, no worlds, no wise, no forefathers, but only the awakened, the all-knowing.

In the heart are all gods,

In it the vital breaths also,

In the heart is life and light,

And the threefold thread1 of the world.

In the heart, in the spirit, all this exists.

3

The sacrificial thread, the highest means of purification, which in past originated along with Prajâpati, The powerfully highest, pure, put it away! May now strength and energy be your sacrificial thread.

Shearing off the tuft of hair too, The wise one should cast off the external thread, And wear the imperishable, highest Brahman as his sacrificial thread.

The thread is so called from untying,2 So the thread is called the highest place too, He who has understood this thread, He is wise, grounded in the Veda.

Everything is interwoven in him, Like pearls strung on a thread, Let the Yogi wear that as his thread, He who sees the truth in the Yoga.

1. Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas.

2. Literally : “from making visible” (sūcanāt sūtram); the same etymology in Āruṇeya 3. (below).

The wise one casts off the external thread,

Who practises the Yoga as the highest,

He is the knower, wearing the thread,

Woven out of the Brahmanness.

He who wears such a thread,

Never lacks in purity, nor in purification.

Who, wearing the thread within,

Has the knowledge for his sacrificial thread,

He is the knower of the world-thread,

He is the wearer of the sacrificial thread.

To him the knowledge is the hair-tuft,

The permanent quarters and the thread,

The knowledge is to him the highest,

Incomparable means of purification.

Who like the pointed flame of fire,

Wears only a tuft of knowledge,

He really wears the hair-tuft,

The others only grow hair.

Yet one who, as a Brāhmaṇa,

Is engaged in Vedic activities,

Such an one may wear the external thread,

Which is a part of the accessories to works.

Who wears the knowledge as hair-tuft,

And the knowledge as the sacrificial thread,

He is the true Brāhmaṇa,

So teach us the Brahman-knowers.

Whom knowledge the highest sacred thread,

Whom knowledge the highest aim is,

That wise one hás the sacrificial thread,

He is versed in sacrifice, is sacrifice himself.

4

The one God, hidden in all the beings,

All-pervading, inner soul of all,

Brahma Upaniṣad

The observer of works, filling all with perfume,

Witness, pure spirit and devoid of Guṇas,1—

The one wise, who multiplies

The eternal oneness into many, by nature inactive,

Him, the wise one who sees dwelling in the heart,

He has eternal peace, and none else.2

Making oneself the lower churn-stick,

And the Om-sound the upper wood,

One sees, after diligent thought-stirring,

The God, latent like the fire.3

Like oil in oil-seeds, butter in milk,

Water in streams, fire in the Churn-stick,

So one finds that Ātman in his own self,

He, the wise, who looks with truth and austerities.4

Like a spider which projects

And withdraws the thread within,

So the soul goes out in waking,

And goes in sleep again 5

A space, resembling a lotus-calyx,

With its tip inclined downward,

Is the heart, and it is, know,

The basis that supports the universe.6

In waking he dwells in the eye,

In the neck during the dream,

In the heart during deep sleep,

As Turīyam he dwells in the head.7

1. = Śvet. 6.11.

2. = Śvet. 6.12 (free).

3. = Śvet. 1.14.

4. = Śvet. 1.15 (free).

5. Explanation of the metaphor of the spider, above para 1.

6. Explanation of part 2, end, = Mahānār. 11,6-7 (Atharva-recension).

7. Explanation of the beginning of part 2, with the substitution of the eye in the place of the navel mentioned there.

When through the knowledge dawns1

The individual self into the highest self,

That is the twilight-prayer,1

Worship, therefore, in the twilight!

The twilight-worship checks,2

Wards off the need of body, of speech,

Dams into a unity all beings

So the carriers-of-one-staff3 practise it.

That from which words turn back,

Along with the Manas, without finding him,4

That is the bliss of the life's spirit;

The wise one knows him and becomes free.

The all-pervading Ātman,

Like butter concealed in milk,

In self-knowledge, self-discipline rooted,

Is the final goal of the Upaniṣad:5

Is the core of the All-One doctrine,

Is the final goal of the Upaniṣad,

—Is the final goal of the Upaniṣad.

1. A word-play between samdhā joining, samdhin (here probably : joining) and samdhyā twilight-prayer.

2. Read nirodhakā.

3. A particular class of Saṁnyāsins, here probably for the latter in general.

4. According to Taitt. 2,4.

5. = Śvet. 1,16.

SAMNYĀSA UPANIṢAD

[In this Upaniṣad we have before us a very much damaged piece of old-Indian literature which, in prose with interspersed verses, portrays the transition from the position of the householder to that of the forest resident (vānaprastha) and the monk (samnyāsin), which two are not distinguished here.

1. The first chapter portrays the difference of the Samnyāsin from the sacrificial ritual. Retiring into the forest he performs once more a sacrifice to manes, as if sufficient for the whole future; then the Brahman-sacrifice (brahmeṣṭi) in which, to judge from the description, a real sacrifice to Brahman must be understood. Finally he throws into fire, under the recitation of the entire book Atharvav. 18, both the fire-sticks which he no more needs in the future, which his consecration (samskāra) is complete. From now on he pays homage to the sacrificial cult only symbolically in that, according to a notion familiar from Manu 6,25.38, he contains sacrificial fires in the body.

2. In the second chapter follows in verses a short description of the Brahmacārin and of the Grhastha and then a sketch of the Samnyāsin not differing from the Vānaprastha.

3. In the third chapter follows the consecration (dīkṣā) and the sketch of the Samnyāsin according to his outward appearance.

4. The same forms the subject of verses with which the fourth chapter begins. To them is added a section in prose which shows how elevation to Brahman is accomplished through meditation, connected with Taitt. 2,1, on the origination of all beings from the Brahman (here represented by Manas). The external behaviour of the meditator and the reward of his meditation are the subject of the verses which then follow.

5. The fifth chapter, linked with these, describes in prose the ascendance to the Brahman through the coronal suture after death.

These are the main contents of the Upaniṣad as existing in the very corrupt text of the Calcutta and Poona editions.1 The commentary of Nārāyaṇa printed here is very defective, and its explanations are partly extremely forced and partly completely unacceptable.

Under these circumstances the translation here and there could be established only with some violence and it may serve as makeshift as long as a better text of the Upaniṣad is not available.]

1. The Telugu ed. could offer help only rarely, since the recension, in which our text appears there (p. 660-662) under the name Kuṇḍikā Upaniṣad, differs too much from ours. On the other hand the Samnyāsa-Upaniṣad of that collection is different and corresponds, in substance, to our Kaṇṭhaśruti 1-2.

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1

When one who had deposited sacrificial fires dies, the consecration of the deceased takes place through Vedic formulae; — or also, when one in good health entertains a desire to reach over to the life's stages.

Then he brings together a collection of vegetables required for a sacrifice to departed forefathers, goes into the forest, and after depositing for the last time the sacred fires towards morning on the new-moon night, and after satisfying the forefathers by funeral offerings, he should then offer a Brahman-sacrifice (brahmeṣṭi), at which time he utters the words (the first line, the Muṇḍ. 1,1,9):

The all-knower and omniscient,

With knowledge as his penance,

Him for immortality may help

This divine sacrificial pouring !

and then further [in rhythmical prose] :

The Brahman, which rose to heaven as abode,

Filling this world and that everywhere,

May it, all creating, all blessings to us

Grant as well-disposed Godhead.

Then after making the offering with the verse:1

Brahman first, in former times was born,

[And later the seer discovered it shining,

While he its deepest, highest forms,

The womb of what exists and what not, unlocked.—]

and with the words: “To the Brahman, Atharvan, Prajāpati,

Anumati and Agni Sviṣṭakṛt” and further, after offering both the fire-sticks to the fire with the formulae:

O sacrifice, go to sacrifice,

[Go to the dark spouse,

Go to your cradle! Svāhā!

1. Atharvav. 4,1,1; cf. our translation and discussions of the song, Gesch. d. Phil. I, 255.

and:

This is your sacrifice, 'O lord of sacrifice,

And your manly formula,

Enjoy it! Svāhā!

he should make offerings of the butter with the four Mantras

which begin with: “Hereby I will be friend—” etc. Atharavav.

18, 1-4).

Through these [Mantras] it [the consecration] takes place.

Then, with the words :

[In me,] O fire, [I receive] the fire,

[Together with strength, dignity and vigour,

In me I contain posterity and life ! Svāhā !

he should receive in himself the two fires [in which he offers

the fire-sticks] (cf. Manu 6,25,38) and maintain his vows

without slackening.

2

About this are the verses :

1. Who, weary of Brahman-studentship,

Having fully learnt the Vedas,

Is discharged by teacher he had ev'r obeyed,

Such an one is called the Āśramin.

2. Choosing a wife of equally high birth,

He should deposit the sacred fires,

And bring to those deities,

The Brahman-sacrifice, day and night.

3. Until, dividing among the children

His property, abstaining from conjugal pleasures,

He gives himself to the forest-life,

Wandering in a pure region.

4. Living on water and on air,

And on such fruit as proper,1

1. In the explanation of the corrupt vihitānottaraih phalaih Nārāyaṇa

shows at his greatest. Read : vihitan nottaraih phalaih. [Here vihitān=

vihitāt in samdhi. Other editions have a smoother reading : vihitaih

kandamūlakaiḥ.—GBP.]

Fire within body, he abides on earth Without obligations, without tears.

5. But when he takes with him the fire, How then is he called a renouncer ?- How would the fire be similar, By which he is called a renouncer !1

6. Therefore, a fire, which is unpolluted By reward, does not vitiate renunciation, It's such a fire that goes to the Forest,2 Accompanying the retiring recluse.

7. From the world into the forest He goes, accompanied by his wife.- Still he casts off there every desire, How can fear then assail him ?

8. What can pain hold against him, Since he runs away from lovely pleasures ?- Dreading a fresh womb of mother, A new pain through heat and cold.

9. I want to enter into my heart, Where the dwelling is free from grief !-

3 After renouncing the sacrificial fire in this way, he does not return [to it] any more. Then he should solemnize the consecration (dīkṣā), while muttering the formulae relative to the Self.3

1. The meaning of the obscure verse seems to be : Although he takes with him to the forest the sacrificial fires which he has received into the body, he is still a renouncer (sannyasta, active), because these fires are essentially different from the real sacrificial fires which bring a reward.

2. Read agnir vanam.

3. Atharvav. 11,8; translated and explained in Gesch.d.Phil. I, 270-277.

Saṁnyāsa Upaniṣad

Saṁnyāsa Upaniṣad

5

Then leaving behind the head, he overgrows it;1 that is the road of those, who go to him; and those who have found the highest way [they ascend along it], they do not again return from the highest highplace,—from the highest high-place (parama-vasthāt for paramāvasthānāt).

1. asya is supposed to be equivalent to kṣiptvā, and deha to dideha (upacaye). An Indian scholiast is never at a loss.

ĀRUNEYA1 UPANIṢAD

[Āruṇi asks Prajāpati how he can get rid of works in such a way that nothing remains, and (so we must add) of the wandering of the soul which depends on them. Prajāpati refers him to the life as a Saṃnyāsin, who is here understood in the strict sense and is distinguished not only from a Brahmacārin and a Grhastha, but also from a vānaprastha and from a kuṭicara (the ‘hut-visitor’,) cf. on this Āsrama-Up. 4 below). The rules which are laid down here for his life certainly let miss the systematic arrangement as also a perfect harmony, but they nonetheless give, particularly when one requisitions closely allied Upaniṣads for supplementing with, a vivid and in essentials a truly correct picture of that remarkable cultural phenomenon of asceticism, which would not have developed and preserved itself down to the present day, if the disposition to it had not been founded deep in human nature. But he who wishes to study Man wholly and perfectly cannot afford to neglect any side of him which has come into prominence in the course of history. Asceticism, it is true, has become quite foreign to our age and part of the globe, but it is not completely ruled out that Man will once more come back to it, since what gave birth to it lies in Man, lies in all of us.]

1

Āruṇi came to the world of Prajāpati. And approaching him he said: “How can I, O exalted sir, get rid of works, so that nothing remains of them ?”

Prajāpati said to him:

“[Renounce] your sons, brothers, relations and [friends]; one should renounce the hair-tuft and the sacrificial thread, the sacrifice along with the thread and also the Vedic studies, one should renounce the [seven higher] worlds: Bhūr, Bhuvah, Svar, Mahas, Jana, Tapas, Satyam, and the [seven lower] worlds: Atala, Pātāla, Vitala, Sutala, Rasātala, Mahātala, Talātala, and the egg of Brahman (the universe);—one should take hold of a staff, an upper garment and a loins-cloth and should give up everything else,—should give up everything else.

1. Named Āruṇika in some editions and Āruṇeyī by Deussen himself above (Brahma-Up., Introduction, note 1).—GBP.

Āruṇeya Upaniṣad

4

"Further as highest wanderers and pilgrims, it is your duty [to practise your homelessness] by sitting and lying on the ground, and as Brahman-students [who live on begging] [to carry] an earthen bowl, or a gourd-bowl or a wooden bowl.

He should give up desire, anger, lust, delusion, pride, deceipt, envy, egoism, self-conceit and untruth.

During the rainy season he should stay at one place, but in the remaining eight months, as an ascetic he should wander alone, or he should wander for two months,—wander for two months.

5

"Verily, he who grasps the meaning of the Veda may, after his initiation by the preceptor or even before that, renounce all this: his father and his son, the sacrificial fire and the sacrificial thread, his work and his wife and everything in this world.

Then as ascetics they enter the village only for begging food, with the belly as the bowl, or with the [palm of] the hand as the bowl. 'Indeed Om, indeed Om, Indeed Om!' He should bear this as an Upaniṣad [on the parts of the body]. Verily, he is a knower who knows this as an Upaniṣad.

Discarding the staff of Palāśa-wood, of Bilva-wood, of Aśvattha-wood [as the Brāhmaṇas, the Kṣatriyas and the Vaiśyas carry it], the hide, the girdle and the sacrificial thread, he becomes a conqueror, who knows thus".—

And the highest step of Viṣṇu

The patrons see for ever

Like an eye, stationed in heaven.

And wondering over this highest step

Of Viṣṇu, the priests, wide-awake,

Enkindle the sacrificial fire.1

Thus runs the instruction upon the Nirvāṇam, the instruction of the Veda,—the instruction of the Veda.

1. These verses (from Ṛgv. 1,22,20-21) form a favourite conclusion of many an Upaniṣad; cf. Skanda-Up. 15-16. Ṇṛsiṃhap. 5, 10. Vāsudeva 4. Muktikā, end.

KAṆṬHAŚRUTI UPANIṢAD

Kaṇṭhaśruti, the name of this Upaniṣad first cropped up in Colebrooke's catalogue Misc. Ess., 2.ed., p. 86, note 3, and in Bergstedt's transcript, Ind. Stud. I, p. 302, but it was changed into Kaṭhaśruti by Weber, Ind. Stud. II, p. 396 and Lit. 2. Aufl., p. 181 (with reference to a prosodial error in the initial and concluding verses of Nārāyaṇa's commentary). It was subsequenly accepted in the Petersberg Wörterbuch (see under Kaṭha) as well as by Jacob, Concordance pref. p. 7; by both rather hastily : because with the exception of Telugu ed. (and, correspondingly the manuscript of the India Office, Eggeling p. 127) which, according to the enumeration of the Muktikā Up. verse 37 (Bombay) followed by it, calls the work Kaṭha Upaniṣad (Kaṭharudra Upaniṣad in the new Bombay ed.), as also possibly with that of Nārāyaṇa1, all the manuscripts known to us (besides those mentioned above at the beginning : probably all the manuscripts of the Calcutta ed., since in any case no variant reading is noted,—two manuscripts of the India Office, Eggeling p.110. 112,—the Oxford manuscript, Aufrecht p, 394b.—Stein's Catalogue of Kashmiriian Manuscripts, which contains three copies of the Upaniṣad, p. 25—the Poona Collection in a catalogue prepared for me most kindly) offer, with a remarkable unanimity, Kaṇṭhaśruti. That this was corrected here and there into Kaṭhaśruti is as conceivable, as it is inconceivable that the name of one of the best known Vedic schools should have been corrupted uniformly in different parts of India, into the rare and unintelligible Kaṇṭhaśruti. We shall have therefore to regard this later as the original name and we must make an attempt to find out an explanation for it.—If one considers the contempt in which these ascetics held the writing (how in the concluding verses of our

1. How Nārāyaṇa read, remains doubtful. The prosodial error in the initial and the concluding verses means nothing in the case of a ‘versifex’ who concludes so many of his Ślokas with Upaniṣad-dipikā. The corrupt initial verse must be read (as already seen by Jacob, Concordance p. 5) as :

Yajurvede tu carakā dvādaśa, eṣāṁ kathās trayaḥ | Saṁnyāsa-upaniṣat-tulya catuhkhaṇḍa ka(n)thaśrutiḥ //

“In Yajurveda there are twelve Caraka schools, three among them being Kaṭhas (Kaṭhāḥ, Prācyakaṭhāḥ, Kapiṣṭhala-Kaṭhāḥ, Ind. Stud. III. 257); [on the other hand] the Ka(n)thaśruti consisting of four [of five according to the edition; possibly a text with a different division than the present one was there before Nārāyaṇa] Khaṇḍas is like the Saṁnyāsa-Upaniṣad.” Whether at the end Nārāyaṇa read Kaṇṭha or Kaṭha cannot be ascertained in the absence of manuscripts, because the contrast with the Kaṭha schools of the Yajurveda which he wants to stress makes both appear as possible.

Upaniṣad also the Vedas are expressly prohibited to them), and if one reminds oneself, that for 'learnt by heart' the expression kanṭhastha 'residing in the throat' (cf. par coeur=by heart) is quite common in (at least in the present day, spoken) Sanskrit, then the hypothesis will perhaps not be found altogether rash, that kanṭhaśruti could denote a "Śruti meant to be learnt only by heart, not to be written down" (in contrast to the Veda already written down).

The motley confusion of the rules for ascetics, which constitute the contents of our Upaniṣad, matches this unordered way of transmission.

Ch. 1. The last sacrifice of the Samnyāsin (a Vaiśvānara sacrifice).

Ch. 2. Parting with the son. Food, dwelling and dress of the Samnyāsin.

Ch. 3. Myth for recommending of the Maunam (silence). Parting with the son, once more and in detail.

Ch. 4. The last sacrifice (a twelve-day milk sacrifice), differing in performance from Ch. 1. Samnyāsin's way of life.

Ch. 5. Consecration (dīkṣā) of the Samnyāsin. His equipment, his way of life. Everything excepting a tattered piece of cloth (for filtering a drink) is denied him, even those very objects which are permitted to him in the parallel passages of the Samnyāsa Upaniṣad (above).

One could make an attempt, on ground of the last-mentioned contra-diction, to construct different tendencies of milder and stricter observances, had not every attempt been still inadvisable for the time being to draw definite conclusions on account of the fluctuating nature of the text from the very beginning, the incredible naïveté of the commentator and the disgraceful carelessness of the editor.

It would be similarly hazardous to undertake a division of our text into more than one Upaniṣad, such as the Telugu ed. offers (Ch. 1–2=Samnyāsa-Up. there, 3–5=Kaṭha-Up; to both of these is appended a comet's tail of further verses) on account of contradictions and repetitions found in it. Also the agreement, partly verbatim, and the disagreement standing side by side with it, between Kanṭhaśruti 5 and Samnyāsa 3–4 (above) remain for the time being still unclarified.

And only this much can be known for the present, that among the Samnyāsins all kinds of rules, prose formulae and verses circulated, that the products of this mendicant-poetry or mendicant-philosophy gradually fused into small wholes, naturally circulated orally (kanṭhastha), until finally these disorderly jumbled up passages, partly repeated, partly mutually contradictory, found their recorder and they were received into the Atharva-Upaniṣads as Kanṭhaśruti-, [Samnyāsa-, Āruneya-Upaniṣad and so on.

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Then he should beg among all castes, for his subsistence, eat his meals out of his hand as a pot, should take it as though it were his medicine, should eat according as he receives, only to keep his body and soul together, and in such a way that he does not put on fat, and remains lean.—He can stay one night only in a village, five nights only in a town, whether in a village or in a town, he can spend only the four months of the rainy season.1 For clothing he should wear a torn one or a similar one made of tree-bark, he cannot wear another one.—If he is weak, he should practise austerities only so far as no complaint arises.

One who renounces in the proper order of succession, and also one who deviates from it, what serves him as the sacrificial thread? and what as the hair-tuft ? and how is his washing and rinsing of the mouth done ?—And he2 said to them: The meditation of the Ātman is his sacrificial thread, and the knowledge is his hair-tuft, while he performs the work [of washing] with water as found everywhere, with water itself as the utensil [i.e. without a utensil]; his abode is on the river-bank, say the Brahman-teachers.—But after the sunset, how can he perform the washing and the rinsing of the mouth [because at night nothing can be taken out from the pond]?—And he said to them:

As by day so it is at night too,

For him there is no day and no night;

therefore it is said by the Ṛṣi also: “Then it is over the day” (Chánd. 3,11,3). Who knows this, does not mix with such-like,—

Once upon a time the gods jointly said to Prajāpati: “We do not know it, we do not know it !” — And he said to the holiest

1. Here the Telugu ed. (p. 609, 19) inserts the observation : pakṣau vā māṣā; iti dvau māṣau vā (instead of four) vaset,—which is evidently a commentarial gloss.

2. Perhaps Prajāpati, and one could think of placing initial lines of the third chapter at the beginning of the present paragraph, had not the whole Upaniṣad too much the character of a fragmentary patchwork.

3

Kaṇṭhaśruti Upaniṣad

ones: “Hear it from me, while I impart it”. Thereupon [after he had imparted it] it so happened that the holiest ones did not speak any further, did not speak any further. That is all [to be said in recommendation of silence]. He who knows this, attains to participation in dignity, world and life in common with gods.

After removing the hair on the head including the hair-tuft (śikhā) and discarding the sacrificial thread, he goes out, takes a look at his son and says: “You are Brahmán, you are the sacrifice, you are the Vaṣaṭ-exclamation, you are the Om sound, you are the Svāhā wish, you are the Svadhā-greeting [to the manes], you are the creator, you are the ordainer, you are the modeller, you are the foundation”. Thereupon the son says: “I am Brahmán, I am the sacrifice, I am the Vaṣaṭ-exclamation, I am the Om sound, I am the Svāhā-wish, I am the Svadhā-greeting, I am the creator, I am the ordainer, I am the modeller, I am the foundation”; all this [he repeats]. When he then accompanies the father, he should not shed tears, for if he sheds tears he cuts off his progeny and his knowledge [they show that he does not feel as identical with the father]. Then while they turn around towards the right, they go along their way, without looking back here and there. That is the heaven—that is the heaven.

After a Brahman-student has studied the Veda or two Vedas or all the three Vedas, observed a Brahmacārin's code of conduct, taken a wife, begotten sons, established them in suitable stations of life, and performed sacrifice according to the capacity, then renunciation (samnyāsa) is due for him. After taking the leave of his teachers and relatives, he goes out into the forest and for twelve days [first] performs the Agnihotram with milk, while he subsists on milk for twelve days. At the end of twelve days [he offers] to the Agni Vaiśvānara and offers to Prajāpati a Prajāpati- oblation (of rice, barley and pulse) and to Viṣṇu a cake in three potsherds. Then, consigning to fire, he offers his old wooden utensils to the fire, offers his earthen utensils in the water, and gives the metallic ones to the teacher. “May you not, leaving me, go away from me. May I not, leaving you, go away from you!” so says he to the Gārhapatya

fire, so to the Dakṣiṇa fire, so to the Āhavanīya fire while, according to some, he drinks a handful of ashes from region of the fire-sticks.

After removing the hair on the; head, including the hair-tuft, and discarding the sacrificial thread he offers the same with the words: “to the earth svāhā” into the water. Then he may set out on the great journey, while he abstains from food, goes into water, goes into fire or chooses a hero’s death; or he may also betake himself to a hermitage of the old.

What then he eats in the evening, that is his evening-sacrifice; what in the morning, his morning sacrifice; what on the new-moon day, his new-moon-sacrifice; what on the full-moon day, his full-moon-sacrifice; and when in spring he causes his hair on the head, beard, hair on the body and nail to be cut, that is his Agniṣṭoma,—that is his Agniṣṭoma.

After renouncing the sacrificial fire, he should not restore it back. He should mutter the formulae relating to the Self (Atharvav. 11,8, Gesch. d. Phil. I, 270 ff):

When Manyu for himself a bride [From Saṅkalpa's house] chose,

and after saying: “May all beings prosper! “he may solemnize the consecration (dīkṣā). His garment should be brownish red, he should remove the hair in the armpit and on the private parts; he should live with a small tonsure, without the sacrificial thread, having his belly as the utensil; why so ? because his meditation aims at the soul. With his arm stretched up, he should wander about without a place of residence; living by begging, he should give no alms:1 he should carry only a rag (lava) with him in order to [filter his drinking] water and to save the germs [that may be there].

1. bhikṣāśi na dadyāt (Saṁnyāsa 3; bhikṣāśanam dadhyāt): perhaps in our passage bhikṣāśi 'sad adyāt “one living by begging should eat frugally” is to be read.

Kaṇṭhaśruti Upaniṣad

On this there are these verses also:

1. Pot, goblet and water-flask,

The three staves, the pair of shoes,

A speckled mantel, giving protection

From winter cold, the loins-cloth,

2. Bath-towel and cloth-strainer,

And further, an uppper garment,

The sacrificial thread and the Vedas,–

All that the ascetic shall avoid.1

3. With holy waters he should exert

After bathing, meditation and purification,

Lying on the sandy bank of rivers

Or in temples he may sleep.

4. Not straining the body too much

Whether in pleasure or in pain,

Not rejoicing, when praised,

Not cursing those who abuse him.

5. That is the conduct, practising which

They accomplish the mortification of senses.

1. Verses 1-2

which, however, exactly reverses the whole idea; the things enumerated

there are the only ones which are allowed to a Samnyāsin, while according

to the stricter custom of our Upaniṣad even they are forbidden to him.

[Stanzas 3-4=Samnyāsa 3-4, with a variation in the sequence cf. lines.—

GBP].

PARAMAHAMSA UPANIṢAD

[Hamsa, the wandering (wild) goose, whose roaming is already mentioned in the Ṛgveda (1,163,10.3,8,9) and more frequently in the Upaniṣads (Chānd. 4,1. Śvet, 1,6.3,18) is a symbol, on the one hand, of the migrating soul and on the other, of the homeless Parivrājaka on pilgrimage who is called Paramahamsa 'supreme wandering bird' in the stage of his highest perfection. Our Upaniṣad draws a lovely and vivid picture of him, portraying how he renounces the world and all inclination towards it, in order to find a full recompensation for it in the consciousness of unity with the Brahman, with the Bhagavān. By the Bhagavān it is not here Sanatkumāra who is to be understood, as Nārāyaṇa does with a reference to Chānd. 7, but as remarked by Śaṅkarānanda, only Hiraṇyagarbha, i.e. the Brahman conseived as person (Cf. the words at the beginning : "All his thoughts are always about me; so I am also always in him"). The picture of the perfected ascetic drawn by the Bhagavān agrees essentially with the one sketched in previous Upaniṣads but on the whole it makes an impression of belonging to a later period in which the inserted verse as also the warnings at the end give it to understand, that the position of the Saṁnyāsin and his immunity from law was already occasionally utilised as a cloak for licentious lust.]

1. Nārada, approaching the Bhagavān, asked him : "Which is the way of the Yogīns, the Paramahamsas ? And what is their position ?"

The Bhagavān said to him :

This way of the Paramahamsas is difficult to find in the world and it is not much trodden. But when one treads it, he remains in constant purity, he is the Veda-man, so think the wise, is a great man. All his thoughts are always about me; so I am also always in him.

He renounces children, friends, wife, relatives, the hair-tuft and the sacrificial thread, Vedic study and all works, he renounces the whole world and takes up loin-cloth, staff and a covering and endeavours just to preserve his body and help others.—

But this one is not the highest; and if you ask, who the highest is,—it is he,

2. who, as a Paramahamsa carries no staff, no hair-tuft, no sacrificial thread, no covering any longer, who no longer

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Sixty Upaniṣads

cares for cold and heat, for pleasure and pain, for respect and disrespect, who on the contrary, is free from the six waves [of Saṃsāra: hunger, thirst, grief, illusion, old age and death], in that he leaves behind censure, pride, jealousy, deceipt, haughtiness, desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, longing, anger, greed, illusion, joy, irritation, egoism and all things of that kind; and while he looks upon his own body only as a corpse, he turns away for ever from this depraved body which is the cause of doubt, perversity and error, directs his perception continually on it [Brahman], abides in that alone, knows of it, the quiet, immutable : “That timeless, consisting of bliss and knowledge I am myself, He is my highest abode, my hair-tuft, my sacrificial thread !” Then the dividing wall between the two is pulled down with the knowledge of the identity of the Ātman and the Paramātman, and that is the true union-time (also twilight-prayer, Saṃdhyā).

3. Who, giving up all desires,

Abides in the secondless, supreme one,

Carrying the staff of knowledge alone,

He is truly called a one-staffed one (ascetic)

But he, who, without knowledge

carrying the high staff, eats from anybody,

He goes to terrible hell,

Which is called ‘the great howler’.

he who understands this difference is a Paramahaṃsa.

4. The space is his garment, he knows no obeisance, no sacrifice to manes, no censure nor praise, no sacrificial call, but es just as it comes to him,1 as a mendicant. He does not act, and he does not repulse; for him there are no Veda-mulae any more, no meditation, no obeisance, nothing fit to be seen and nothing unfit to be seen, nothing separate and hing inseparate, no I, no you and no world. Without a ing, he lives as a mendicant; he has nothing to do with and such things, for him there is nothing to be seen or ed at. But do you mean to say that he may not harm him-iv merely looking ? He may harm himself thereby. Because

Paramahaṃsa Upaniṣad

he is an ascetic, therefore, if he looks at gold longingly, he becomes a Brāhmaṇa-killer; because he is an ascetic, therefore, if he touches gold longingly, he becomes a Paulkasa; because he is an ascetic, therefore, if he grasps gold longingly, he becomes a self-killer. Therefore an ascetic should not look at, touch or grasp gold longingly; he should turn away from all desires that may come to his mind. Firm-minded in grief, not seeking after joy, renouncing all desires, not attached anywhere, neither to the good nor to the bad, he is without hatred and without pleasure. The impulse of all senses comes to rest, he abides in the knowledge alone, well-established in the self. That is the true Yogin, is the knower; his consciousness is permeated with that whose only taste is perfect bliss. That Brahman I am, he knows it and has that goal achieved,—that Brahman I am, he knows it and has the goal achieved.

JĀBĀLA UPANIṢAD

[The Jābālas are enumerated as a branch school of the Yajurveda in

the Caraṇavyūha (Ind. Stud. III, 262). In the commentary to the

Braḥmasūtras Śaṅkara cites ‘Jābālānām’ or ‘Jābālānāṁ śrutiḥ’ thirteen

passages, out of which nine are found in our Upaniṣad (System des Vedānta, p. 33), and already even Bādarāyaṇa (Braḥmasūtra 1,2,32) seems

to refer to one of these. Further, the beginning of the sixth chapter of our

Upaniṣad has been quoted by Sāyaṇa under Taitt. Ār. 2,11 p. 246 as a

text of the Jābāla-śākhā-adhyāyinah. From this it appears that a Śākhā of

the Jābālas in reality existed, of which, however, our Upaniṣad formed

only a part (as the citations of Śaṅkara, which are not any more traceable

to it, already show), which, to judge from its whole attitude, certainly seems

to stand on the same footing as the other Saṁnyāsa Upaniṣads and any-

way not much removed in antiquity it can be compared with the related

passages of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

According to the pattern of the Bṛh. 3-4 , here also it is Yājñavalkya

who in the first five chapters answers the questions put to him by

Bṛhaspati, Atri, The Brahman-students, Janaka and by Atri once more.

1. On Avimuktam as the sacrificial place of the gods and the Brahman-

seat of all beings. Avimuktam ‘that which is never left [by Śiva]’ is a region

in Banaras, in a wider sense Banaras itself. By the grace of Śiva liberation

is granted to him who dies there (Prāṇāgnihotra Up. above, last foot-note).

But the Parivrājaka carries this Avimuktam on himself as the point between

the eyebrows and the nose (just as he has admitted the sacrificial fires and

the sacrificial thread in his self). This allegorical explanation of

Avimukteśvaram, it is true, comes later on only in the next section, but it

is already presupposed here, because it is fully understandable only to the

initiated.

2. Near Banaras two small streams flow into the Ganges : on the

upper side of the city the Asi, mostly dry, on the lower side of it the Varanā,

similarly very small; the city of Banaras is supposed to have got its name

from these two. This place between the Varanā and Asi, on which the

supreme Ātman rules is always carried by the Parivrājaka on himself as

the spot where both the eyebrows meet together at the root of the nose,

just like the two streams meeting together near Banaras. The name of the

city is falsely analysed into Varanā and Nāsī, in order to achieve a word-

play with vārayati and nāśayati.

3. Yājñavalkya recommends the Satarudriyam (Vāj. Saṁh. XVI) as a means

of immortality to the Brahman-students who had questioned him,

because the hundred Rudras, who occur there, are conceived as many

epithets of the Immortal (i.e. the Ātman).

4. Janaka asks Yājñavalkya (in connection with Brh. 4,4,22, it appears) about the departure of the Samnyāsin, at which it is described quite similarly as in other Samnyāsa Upaniṣads. Like the Vaiśvānara sacrifice in the Kaṭhasruti 1, here a sacrifice to Agni as a representative of Prāṇa, and a sacrifice to the three Guṇas of the Sāṁkhya doctrine is prescribed for the person renouncing. The inhaling of the fire probably means that thereby it is symbolically received into the body of the Samnyāsin

5. Upon the enquiry of Atri, feeding and dressing of the Prāṇa in the sense of the Chān. 5,19ff and 5,2 is recommended to the Parivrājaka as his only duty. At the end the words esa panthāḥ etc. are repeated from Brh. 4,4,9 and refer to the Samnyāsin.

6. The concluding section portrays, according to the enumeration of a number of great models, the procession, the way of life and the place of residence of the Samnyāsin; the whole section recurs similarly at the end of the Bhikṣuka Up. and partly at the end of the Āśrama Up. also.

1

Om !

Brhaspati said to Yājñavalkya : "[Tell me that] which is next to Kurukṣetram itself as a sacrificial place of the gods and as Brahman-seat of all beings".— He said : "Verily, Avimuktam is the [true] Kurukṣetram, the sacrificial place of gods and the Brahman-seat of all beings.

Therefore, wherever he may be wandering, he [the Parivrājaka who does not restrain himself to any holy places any longer] should think : here, verily, is the [true] Kurukṣetram, the sacrificial place of gods, the Brahman-seat of all beings. For here, when the vital breaths depart out of a person, Rudra imparts the saving formula, by which one participates in immortality, participates in liberation. Therefore, one should revere Avimuktam, one should not leave Avimuktam [which is not left] !"—"It is so, O Yājñavalkya."

2

Then Atri asked Yājñavalkya : "This infinite, not manifest Ātman, how can I know him ?"—And Yājñavalkya said : "In Avimuktam he is to be revered ! that infinite, not manifest Ātman, he is to be found in the Avimuktam".—"But where is this Avimuktam-place to be searched for ?" — "It is to be searched for between the Varanā and the Nāsī."

is the Varanā and what the Nāsī ?

—“Varanā is so-called because she wards off (vārayati) errors committed by the organs of the body; while Nāsī is so-called because she destroys (nāśayati) sins committed by the organs of the body”.—“But where is the place of this Avimuktam ?”—“It is the meeting place of the eyebrows and the nose. For that is the connecting place of the world of heaven and the highest world [of Brahman]. Therefore, the knowers of Brahman revere this connecting place as the union-time (twilight). For in Avimuktam, so they know, one should revere him [the Ātman]. He who knows thus, proclaims his knowledge as avimuktam (unforgettable)”.

3

Then the Brahman-students said to him : “By the muttering of which [prayer] one attains immortality, tell us that !”—Yājñavalkya said: By the “Ṣatarudriyam; for these are the names of Immortality, and through them one becomes immortal”.—“It is so, O Yājñavalkya !”

4

Then Janaka, the king of Videha, approached Yājñavalkya and said : “Explain to me, O exalted sir, the renunciation (Samnyāsa)!” And Yājñavalkya said: “If one has finished the Brahman-studentship, one may become a householder; after one has been a householder, one may become a forest-resident; after one has been a forest-resident, one may wander about on pilgrimage [as Parivrājaka, Bhikṣu, Samnyāsin]. Or one may even directly go on pilgrimage after Brahman-studentship, or after househership, or after the forest-residentship. And even otherwise, whether he may have observed a vow or not, whether he has taken the final ablution or not, whether he has caused the house-hold fires to extinguish or whether he is [already] without fire,—from that day on, on which he renounces, he should wander as a pilgrim. Here some perform a sacrifice to Prajāpati;1 one

1. In the place of sacrifice to Prajāpati (which, as it appears, means redeeming oneself from the obligation of propagation) comes a sacrifice to the Prāṇa (an ascetic requires no progeny, Brh. 4,4,22).—Here there seems to be a polemic against the precept given in the Kaṭhaśruti 4 (above).

should not do that, but offer a sacrifice to Agni alone, for Agni is the Prāṇa; so thereby one offers to the Prāṇa. Then he should offer the Traidhātavīya sacrifice; thereby the three Dhātus (elements), namely Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas are worshipped.

This is the place, which is rightfully yours,

Where, as soon as born, you shone brilliantly;

Knowing it, Agni, ascend it

And make our riches grow!

With this formula (Atharvav. 3.20,1) he should inhale the fire. The Prāṇa, verily, is the seat (place of origination, yoni) of the fire, and he says thereby “Go to the Prāṇa, svāhā !”

Or [the priest] may also bring the fire from a village and make him [the Samnyāsin] inhale the fire as described. If he cannot get fire, he should make an offering in water, for water is all godheads. And after performing the sacrifice with the words “Om, I offer to all godheads svāhā” he should take out of it and eat the wholesome sacrificial food along with clarified butter. Thereby he will find that the liberating formula [Om] is all the three Vedas; for this is the Brahman, that one should worship. It is so, O exalted sir”.

Thus spoke Yājñavalkya.1

Then Atri asked Yājñavalkya : “I ask you, Yājñavalkya, how can a Brāhmaṇa be without the sacrificial thread ?”—And Yājñavalkya said : “This very thing is his sacrificial thread, namely the Ātman; that he feeds himself, and that he rinses the mouth, that is the sacrificial precept of the Parivrājakas, whether for the rest he chooses a hero’s death or abstains from taking food, or goes into water, or goes into fire or sets out on the great journey [otherwise].

Thus it comes to pass that the pilgrim, with colourless garments, with shaven head, without belongings, pure, free from deceipt, living on begging, becomes fit for Brahmanhood.

1. Here, as also at the end of sections 1 and 3, editions available to me read Yājñavalkyah. Still Deussen's way of translation there suggests that he reads Yājñavalkya (i.e. a vocative) there. He should have done the same here also. The word bhagavan (which should properly refer to Yājñavalkya) and the absence of any word for 'spoke' in the Skt. original also indicate this.—GBP.

Jābāla Upaniṣad

761

If he is too ill [to observe this mode of life], then he may practise the renunciation only mentally and by words.

This is the path found out by Brahman, the renouncer goes along it, the knower of the Brahman (Cf. Bṛh. 4,4,9).

This is the case with him, O exalted sir.”

Thus spoke Yājñavalkya.1

6

Thus were the men called Paramahaṁsas, a Saṁvartaka, Āruṇi, Śvetaketu, Durvāsas, Ṛbhu, Nidāgha, Jaḍabharata, Dattātreya, Raivataka and others, without a visible sign and with their conduct concealed, behaving like insane, but not insane.

Three staves, water-vessel, drinking bowl, water-flasks, water-filter, hair-tuft and sacrificial thread, all this one should throw into water with the words “bhūḥ svāhā” and seek the Ātman.

Naked as he was born, above the pairs of opposites (joy and sorrow etc.), without belongings, wholly devoted to the way to truth, the Brahman, with a pure heart, going out, without any restrictions, aimlessly for begging alms at prescribed hour only to sustain his life, with the belly as his utensil, even-tempered whether he gets anything or not,—staying homeless, whether in a deserted house, in a temple, on a heap of grass, on an ant-hill, at the roots of a tree, in a potter's workshop, in a fire sanctuary, on a river bank, in a mountain cave, in a ravine, in a hollow tree, at a waterfall or on bare ground, not striving, free from the feeling of ‘mine’, given to pure contemplation, firmly rooted in the supreme Self, eradicating all evil deeds,—who becomes free from the body by means of renunciation, he is called a Paramahaṁsa,—he is called a Paramahaṁsa.

1. Editions available to me read Yājñavalkya (i.e. a vocative). Also there is no word corresponding to ‘spoke’—GBP.

ĀŚRAMA UPANIṢAD

[For the four Āśramas or the 'exercise-stages' in which the life of an Ārya was supposed to proceed, see above Introduction [at the beginning of this work] and the Chānd. Up. Introduction to 23rd khaṇḍa. The last stage of life is that of the Saṁnyāsins, Bhikṣu, Parivrājaka who, as the names signify "throws away everything", "lives on begging" and "wanders about on pilgrimage homelessly." The division of these Saṁnyāsins into four kinds as Kuṭṭcāras (or Kuṭṭcakas), Bahūdakas, Haṁsas and Paramahaṁsas is often met with. To conclude from the names, this division originally seems to refer to the different places of residence of the Parivrājaka (near huts, near water, sometimes in towns and sometimes in villages, wholly uncertain) and only later to have attained to a hierarchy of gradually increasing perfection. Thus a verse of the Mahābhārata (13,6478)1 runs :

Caturvidhā bhikṣavas te, kuṭṭcaka-Bahūdakau,

Haṁsaḥ Paramahaṁsaś ca; yo yaḥ paścāt, sa uttamaḥ.

With this may be compared particularly passages from older authorities collected by Mādhava in Aufrecht, Oxf. Cat. p. 269a.

These four stages of the Saṁnyāsa are shortly characterised in an Upaniṣad text which has found a place in the Muktikā Collection (No. 60, Telugu ed. p. 552) under the name of Bhikṣuka-Upaniṣad. This text forms (in a somewhat different recension) only the fourth chapter of the present Upaniṣad, to which three others are prefixed, which also examine the remaining three Āśramas in a similar way and distinguish four classes in each of them. What is not clearly perceptible is whether all these varieties are to be thought of as different, coexisting tendencies or whether as ascending stages, following one another, as in the first three Āśramas also. Probably here we are dealing with, as in the case of the Āśramas themselves, varieties which originally existed side by side and were later combined in the system into an ascending graded sequence. In any case this systematisation is only secondary and artificial; also the names do not quite agree in many cases with the description given. Particularly unintelligible is how the Prājāpatya, according to its first definition, can be assigned to the class of Brahmacarins. The names given here and their explanations are therefore to be accepted rather cautiously and may serve as a source for the knowledge of the Āśrama life, only so far as they are corroborated from other side.

Our Upaniṣad, which is the last one in Colebrooke's list, is missing in the Oupanekhat, and about Nārāyaṇa also it cannot yet be shown with

1. = BORI Crit. Ed. 13.129.29 (with variants).

certainty (above, Introduction to the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda, section 5), that he has presented and commented upon it in his list, also how uptil now no commentary at all on it has come to light.

1

Now it is to be further said that there are four Āśramas with sixteen subclasses.

The Brahmacārins are fourfold, viz. Gāyatra, Brāhmaṇa, Prājāpatya and Brhan.

Gāyatra is he who, after the initiation, not eating salty food throughout for three [days and] nights, remains occupied with the Gāyatra-formula.

Brāhmaṇa is he, who adheres to the Vedic study for fourtyeight years throughout, twelve years for each Veda, or only so long, until he masters the Veda.

Prājāpatya is he who, content with his wife, approaches her at the time of the Ṛtu and always keeps himself away from other women.

Or also : Brāhmaṇa is he who lives in the house of the teacher for twentyfour years, Prājāpatya who lives there for fourtyeight years.

Brhan is he, who as Naiṣṭhika (constant in chastity) does not leave the teacher until his death.

2

Also the Grhasthas (householders) are fourfold viz. Vārttāka-vṛttis, Śālīnayṛttis, Yāyāvaras and Ghorasaṃnyāsikas.

Vārttākāvṛttis (living on farm-produce) are they who, engaged in agriculture, cattle-breeding and trade without ill repute and performing sacrificial acts lasting for a hundred years, strive after the Ātman.

Śālīnavṛttis (living a settled life) are they who, sacrificing without making one sacrifice, studying without teaching, giving without taking and performing sacrificial acts lasting for a hundred years, strive after the Ātman.

Yāyāvaras (wander lusty) are they who sacrificing and making one sacrifice, studying and teaching, giving and taking and performing sacrificial acts lasting for a hundred years, strive after the Ātman.

Āśrama Upaniṣad

Ghorsamnyāsikas (practising a fierce renunciation) are they who doing their work with selected and filtered water only, managing their maintenance with ears of corn picked up daily and performing sacrificial acts lasting for a hundred years, strive after the Ātman.

The Vānaprasthas also are fourfold viz. Vaikhānasa, Udumbaras, Vālakhilyas and Phenapas.

Vaikhānasa (followers of Vikhānasa) are they, who, tending the sacred fires with creepers and trees which grow on uncultivated land, and with ritual performed outside a village and thus observing the practice of the five great sacrifices, strive after the Ātman.

Udumbaras (Audumbaras ? fig-gatherers) are they who, when they get up in the morning, gather corns of fig-trees, jujube, rice and millet from the region on which his glance falls and tending the sacred fires with them and thus observing the practice of the five great sacrifices, strive after the Ātman.

Vālakhilyas (bald-headed) are they who, wearing hairlocks with a cloth rag, clad in hide or tree-bark, offering flowers and fruit on the full-moon day of the month of Kārttika [the festival day of Śiva], procuring their subsistence in the remaining eight months [until the beginning of the rainy season], tending the sacred fires and thus observing the practice of the five great sacrifices, strive after the Ātman.

Phenapas (foam-drinkers) are they who, while they, like insane, subsist on fallen leaves and fruit, dwelling wherever they be tending the sacred fires and thus observing the practice of the five great sacrifices, strive after the Ātman.

4

The Parivrājaka also are fourfold, viz: Kuṭṭcaras, Bahūdakas, Hamsas and Paramahaṃsas.

The Kuṭṭcaras (hut-visitors) are they who, carrying on begging in the houses of their children, strive after the Ātman.

The Bahūdakas (the water-friends) are they who, equipped with the three-staff, water-pot, water-flask, side-locks, water-filter, drinking bowl, shoes, seat, hair-tuft, sacrificial thread, loins-cloth, and reddish brown garments, carrying on begging

766

Sixty Upaniṣads

in well brought-up families of Brāhmaṇas, aspire after the Ātman.

The Hamsas (wandering birds) are they who, carrying a single staff, without hair-locks, wearing a sacrificial thread, with the waterflask and water-pot in the hand, staying for one night only in a village and five nights in a town and in holy bathing places, still threat undertaking throughout one or two nights difficult vows like the fasting according to the lunar course, aspire after the Ātman.

The Paramahaṃsas (highest wandering birds) are they who, without staff, bald-headed, clad in rags and loins-cloth, without any particular mark and without any particular mode of life, moving about like an insane one although not insane, discarding three-staff, water-pot, water-flask, side-locks, water-filter, drinking bowl, shoes, seat, hair-tuft and sacrificial thread, dwelling in a deserted house or in a temple, no longer know right, wrong, untruth, put up with everything, remain patient with everybody, regard earth-clods, stones and gold equally and, begging alms among all the four castes where they happen to be, liberate their soul,—liberate their soul.

d. Śiva Upaniṣads

ATHARVAŚIRA UPANIṢAD

ATHARVAŚIKHĀ UPANIṢAD

NĪLARUDRA UPANIṢAD

KĀLĀGNIRUDRA UPANIṢAD

KAIVALYA UPANIṢAD

ATHARVAṠIRAS

(Atharvaśira Upaniṣad)1

This Upaniṣad, which calls itself (p. 10,9, Calcutta ed.) Atharvaśiras (which probably means : "The main point of the Atharvaveda"),—cf. Vedānta "The final goal of the Veda") and quotes, at 9,3, the verse Atharvav. 10,2,27 (probably misunderstood) for an explanation of this name, extols as the principle of all things and as the highest goal, parama-param (not param-aparam2), parāyaṇam, Rudra (Īśāna, Bhagavān Maheśvara,—the name Śiva does not occur). Rudra is the past, the present and the future, he is all-embracing and is the innermost of all objects, he is the visible and the invisible. He who knows him, thereby knows everything (1,12); he is to be proclaimed through silence alone (7,13). His symbol is the sound Om, and especially the three-and-halfth (imaginary) mora of it (4,10). Rudra dwells in the heart (4,10) and pervades the entire creation (8,10ff), which consists of nine heavens, nine atmospheric regions and nine earths (9,5). When he coils himself together as a snake, he absorbs the world and releases it again through his breath (9.10ff). He is the unity of the life-organs and the corresponding deities (6,1 ff). The man is his creation (paśu) and is bound by the cord (pāśa) of earthly existence. The liberation from birth, sorrows, death (5,10) follows when one surrenders anger and lust (trṣṇā), the earth as the root of the causal chain (hetujālāsya mūlam) and all possessions to Rudra (7,3.8.3).—The Upanisad seems to belong to a sect of the Pāśupatas, as whose vow (vratam pāśupatam) the symbolical smearing with ashes is mentioned (8,8). The further systematisation of the Pāśupatas, however, does not appear in this Upaniṣad. The text of this Upaniṣad is considerably corrupt, so that help had to be taken from conjectures.

1. On the sequence. Now follow five Upaniṣads which look upon the god Śiva as a symbolical personification of the Ātman, viz : Atharvaśiras, Atharvaśikhā, Nilarudra, Kālägni rudra and Kaivalya. We adhere to this sequence which follows from the lists of Colebrooke and Nārāyaṇa, although it does not certainly quite correspond to the time of origination, since the Nilarudra Upaniṣad, in so far as it offers only an abstract of the Vāj. Samh. 16 and similar passages, is by far the oldest piece. Also to judge from its contents, the Kaivalya Upaniṣad, in spite of its late position in the above lists, could have originated in a comparatively old age, an age close to that of the Śvetāśvatara, Muṇḍaka and Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣads.

2. But the foregoing pairs of expressions like hutam ahutam favour this interpretation rejected by Deussen.—GBP.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

1

Om! Once the gods went to heaven. And they asked Rudra: 'Who are you?'—And he said: 'I am that one [which] existed at first, I exist, and I shall exist. None else is there apart from me. I am that [which] entered the inner from the inner. I am eternal and non-eternal, visible and invisible, Brahman and non-Brahman. I am eastern and western, southern and northern, I am below and above (Chānd. 7,25,1), I am the quarters and the sub-quarters. I am masculine and neuter and feminine (Atharvav. 10,8,27). I am the Sāvitrī and the Gāyatrī, I am the Triṣṭubh, the Jagatī and the Anuṣṭubh. I am the appearance and the reality. I am the fire Gārhapatya and Dakṣiṇa and Āhavanīya. I am the cow and the she-buffalo. I am Ṛc, Yajus and Sāman and I am the Atharvāṅ-giras'. I am the eldest, the noblest and the best (Bṛh. 6,1,1). I am the water and the fire, I am hidden in the fire-sticks. I am the imperishable and the perishable. I am the lotus flower and I am the Soma-filter. I am the powerful, I am within and without, I am 'the light [born] in the East' (Atharvav. 4,1,1). I am all, I am the unending.1 He who knows me, becomes all at the same time. He knows the gods and all the Vedas and the Vedāṅgas. And I am also that, I who with my power satisfy the Brahman by the Brāhmaṇas, the cow with the cows, the Brāhmaṇas with the Brāhmaṇahood, the sacrificial food with the sacrificial food, the life with the life, the truth with the truth, the law with the law''.—Then the gods asked Rudra, the gods looked at Rudra, the gods thought over Rudra, the gods praised Rudra [with the following hymn of praise] with raised hands.

2

Om!

Rudra is this exalted one and Brahmán, to him the salutation, the salutation!

" " " Viṣṇu, " " " "

" " " Skanda, " " " "

" " " Indra, " " " "

1. The text and the sense are quite uncertain here and in the following lines.

Atharvaśira Upaniṣad

773

And why is he called the holy call (praṇava) ?—Because being

uttered, he makes the Brahman consisting of Ṛc, Yajus, Sāman,

Atharvāṅgiras lean towards the Brāhmaṇas and bends it, there-

fore he is called the holy call.

But why is he called all-pervading ?—Because. being uttered,

he pervades and permeates that quiet one (Kāṭh. 3,13), sewn

lengthwise and crosswise (Bṛh. 3,6), as a lump of sesame-dough

with oil, therefore he is called all-pervading.

But why is he called infinite ?—Because, when it is being

uttered, no end of it is to be found athwart, upward, and down-

ward, therefore it is called infinite.

But why is he called the protecting ? Because, being uttered,

he rescues from the dire fear of conception, birth, illness, old

age, death and from the transmigration of the soul and protects,

therefore, it is called the protecting.

But why is he called the pure (śu-klam) ? Because, being

uttered, he makes noise (klandate) and makes one tired (klāmayati),

therefore he is called the pure.

But why is he called the subtle ? Because, being uttered, he

takes possession of the body in a subtle form and tinges all the

limbs, therefore he is called the subtle.

But why is he called lightning-like? Because, being uttered, he

illumines it in the great unmanifest darkness, therefore he is

called lightning-like.

But why is he called the highest Brahman? Because he is the

highest of the highest, the highest goal, the strong and streng-

thens by the strong [magic power] (bṛhatyā bṛṃhayati), therefore

he is called the highest Brahman.

But why is he called the one?—He who, the devourer of all

vital powers (prāṇāḥ), by the act of devouring them, as being

more eternal unites them and again spreads them apart, so that

some hasten to their master and some others hasten to their

master and yet others [as the natural powers corresponding to

the Prāṇas] hasten to the South, the West, the North and the

East, who is the meeting place of all here, and has become one

by uniting, moves along [as the vital breath] of the creatures,—

therefore he is called the one.

But why is he called Rudra?

—Because his essence (rū-pam) is grasped instantly (dru-tam) only by the seers (r̥-ṣi), not by other devotees, therefore he is called Ru-dra.

But why is he called the ruler? Because it is he,

Who rules over all the gods,

With his regal and procreative powers (cf. Śvet. 3,1),—

To you, O here, we cry out,

Like cows, which go for milking,

To the lord of what moves, to the heaven-seer,

To the lord, O Indra, of what stays (R̥gv. 7,32,22),—

therefore he is called the ruler.

But why is he called the exalted Maheśvara?—Because he permits the devotees (bhaktān) in the participation of perception and is gracious towards them; because he withdraws the speech [of the Veda] in himself and again allows it to flow out (Br̥h. 2,4,10); because, giving up all forms, he raises himself and is elevated through the perception of the Ātman and the mastery of the Yoga, therefore he is called the exalted Maheśvara.

This is the knowledge of Rudra.

5

The one god in all the world-spaces,

Born of old and in mother's womb,

He was born, he will be born,

He is in men and omnipresent (Vāj. Sam̥h. 32,4. Śvet. 2,16).

One Rudra there is,—[don't worship] him as second!—

Who with his regal powers rules over the world;

He dwells in the creatures and gathers them in him at the end,

When he, the guardian, devours all creatures (Śvet. 3,2).

Who, as one, presides over every womb,

Through whom the whole universe spreads out;

Who knows him as ruler, as God, liberal giver, praise-worthy

Atharvaśira Upaniṣad

He enters into that peace for ever.

(Śvet. 4,11, cf. Śvet. 5,2. Kāṭh. 1,17).

Shunning the world, the root of the causal net,

Wisely surrendering to Rudra all acquisition,

[they] acknowledged Rudra as the unity, as the eternal, the senior in refreshment and energy,1 the creatures, as the one who cuts their bonds of death.

Thus it happens that, by means of that [sacred sound], when he penetrates into the soul, [the Īśvara] grants peace, the release of creatures (paśu) from their bonds (pāśa) by the three-and-halfth mora [of Om].

The first mora [of Om = a + u + m] has Brahman as its deity and is red in colour; he who meditates on it continuously, goes to the abode of Brahmán.

The second mora has Viṣṇu as its deity and is black in colour; he who meditates on it continuously, goes to the abode of Viṣṇu.

The third mora has Īśāna as its deity and is brown in colour; he who meditates on it continuously, goes to the abode of Īśāna.

But the three-and-halfth mora has all these as its deities, is unmanifest, goes out into the wide, is pure and resembles a mountain-crystal in colour; he who meditates on it continuously, goes to the abode of the bliss.

Therefore one should revere this! The silent ones (ascetics) proclaim it worldlessly, because there is no grasping of it.

That is the prescribed way to the North, by which the gods go (Chānd. 5,10,1), and the fathers and the Ṛṣis to the highest of the highest, to the supreme goal.

Minute like hair's tip, in the midst of heart,

Omnipresent, the God, golden dear,

The wise who sees him as dwelling in himself,

He alone attains peace, and none else.

[Leaving] anger to him, greed and worldly desires,

1. iṣamūrjena : the compound iṣam-ūrja is formed ungrammatically from the constituents iṣam ūrjam. Similarly below, p. 8,5. We have come across a similar example [tamasah paryam] above, Maitr. Up. 6,24.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

shunning the world, the root of the causal net

Wisely surrendering to Rudra all acquisition,

they acknowledged Rudra as the unity; for Rudra is the controller

through eternal, old refreshment-and-energy and austerities.

What is called fire is ashes, and what wind, is ashes; and what water, is ashes; and what earth, is ashes; and what ether, is ashes; and the whole universe is ashes, and the mind and these eyes! Because this is the vow of the Pāśupata, viz. that he covers his limbs with ashes, therefore this is the Pāśupata form of prayer, so that the creation be freed from his bonds.

6

To Rudra, who is in fire, in water,

Who has entered plants and creepers,

Who has become all these creatures,

to this Rudra, salutation, as Agni!

To Rudra, who is in fire, in water,

Who has entered plants and creepers,

Who has become all these creatures,

to this Rudra, salutation, salutation!

Rudra who is in water, Rudra in plants, Rudra in trees,

Rudra by whom the world is held on high, by whom is supported the earth in a two-fold or three-fold form as supporter, and the snakes who dwell in the atmosphere, to this Rudra, salutation, salutation!

[ Rudra as Prāṇa in the human head :]

When Atharvan sewed together

His head and the heart in him,

He stimulated him over the brain,

As purifier, from the head down.

This head belongs to Atharvan,

A cask stuffed with gods,

Atharvaśira Upaniṣad

This head is guarded by Prāṇa,

Food and Manas in union.1

Nine heavens there are, guarded by divine community,

Nine atmospheres, and nine of these earths;

He who is seven lengthwise and crosswise in all,

From him nothing exists apart.

Nothing is earlier than him, nothing later.

Nothing what had been or was going to be;

With a thousand feet and only one head

He pervades the world and makes it roll.

From the Eternal, time is born,

From time he is called the pervader,

for the pervader is the exalted Rudra. When Rudra lies down

in the manner of a serpent's coils, then the creatures are withdrawn within. When he breathes out (Bṛh. 4,5,11), there

originates darkness, from darkness the water; when he stirs in the water with a finger, what is stirred becomes cold in the cold

and, when it is stirred, it becomes foam; out of the foam originates the (universe-) egg, out of the egg Brahmán, out of

Brahmán the wind, out of the wind the sound Om, out of the sound Om Sāvitrī, out of Sāvitrī Gāyatrī, out of Gayātrī the

worlds (cf. Ṛgv. 1,164,25. Chānd. 3.12).

They praise Tapas and truth when they pour out the sweet drink, who does not forget (liberation). Indeed, this is the

highest Tapas, is water, light, essence, the Immortal, Brahman

(cf. above, Amṛtabindu-Up., 10, footnote).

Bhūr, bhuvaḥ, svar! Om ! Salutation!

(Cf. Mahā Up. 4)

The Brāhmaṇa who studies this Atharvaśiras, one who is not an authority on scriptures becomes an authority on scriptures,

an uninitiated becomes initiated; he is purified by fire, purified

1. Atharvav. 10,2, 26-27, whose readings we have followed. The purifier who, rising to the head, stimulates man, is the Soma. cf. our

explanation of the hymn, Gesch.d.Phil. I. 269.

by wind, purified by soma, purified by truth; he is known by all the gods, is meditated upon by all the Vedas [which appear here as persons], becomes one who has bathed in all the holy bathing places, and all sacrifices are performed by him. Sixty thousand Gāyatrī stanzas are muttered by him, a hundred thousand [stanzas] of the Itihāsa-Purāṇas and of the Rudra-hymns are muttered by him, ten thousand Pranavas are muttered by him. He purifies the assembly as far as his sight reaches (ācakṣuṣaḥ) he purifies up to the seventh generation (ancestors and descendants): thus has the exalted one promised.

He who mutters the Atharvaśiras once, becomes pure, purified, fit for activity?—he who mutters it a second time, attains supremacy over the host of the supreme god; he who mutters it a third time, enters into a similar existence.

Om! The truth! Om! The truth! Om! The truth!

ATHARVAŚIKHĀ

UPANIṢAD

The name of this Upanisad “The tip of the Atharvan” seems to be an imitation, if not an outdoing, of the title of the Atharvaśirā Upanisad, with which as a model the Atharvaśikhā Upanisad shows close relationship, in that it takes up once more some topics touched by it in order to present them more closely.

The first is the symbolical interpretation of the sound Om, whose moras are treated of, in connection with Atharvaśiras 5, according to the following diagram :

Moras Worlds Vedas Main Gods God-hosts Metres Fires Colours

a Earth Ṛgv. Brahmán Vasus Gāyatrī Gārhapatya Red

u Atmosphere Yajurv. Viṣṇu Rudras Triṣṭubh Dakṣiṇa Black

m Heaven Sāmav. Rudra Ādityas Jagatī Āhavanīya White

Reverberation— Atharvav. Ekarṣi (Puruṣa Īśāna.) Maruts Virāj Fire of All-coloured.

Then follows a section (extremely obscure on account of the uncertainty of transmission and the inadequacy of the commentary) on the illumination of the highest knowledge which appears suddenly with the buzzing of the reverberation. To this are joined some break-neck etymologies, of the kind of the Atharvaśirā Upaniṣad and partly practically borrowed verbatim from it (as, e.g. those of oṃkāra and praṇava). As the deity of the three-and-half mora here appears Īśāna, as previously Ekarṣi and Puruṣa (and therefore probably to be identified with them). But what is new is that at the end our Upaniṣad adds, on the authority of a Śloka cited, as the fifth and the highest god Śiva, to the four gods Brahman, Viṣṇu, Rudra and Īśāna, represented by the sound Om,—(Śiva) whom the Atharvaśirā Upaniṣad yet does not know or recognize (otherwise the Upaniṣad would not have probably let him slip in its derivations of names), and whom our Upaniṣad identifies with the sound Om itself,—as its (Om's) true content. The emphatic way in which Śiva, this old epithet of Rudra, is elevated here to the top of deities makes the impression of lateness and it should not be improbable that our Upaniṣad forms a transitional link from Rudra, Īśāna etc., to Śiva which later prevails as the main name.

Om!

1. Pippalāda, Aṅgiras and Sanatkumāra asked the holy Atharvan :

Which meditation enjoined as the highest is to be meditated ?

What does this meditation consist of?

Who is the meditator ?

What is the object of the meditator ?

Thereupon Atharvan replied to them :

Om, this syllable is enjoined as the highest to be meditated.

Om, this syllable contains four quarters, four gods, four Vedas.

This syllable consisting of four quarters is the highest Brahman.

Its first mora, the earth, is the a-sound.

It (a-sound) is, consisting of verses, the Ṛgveda, it is Brahmán, the Vasus, the Gāyatrī, the Gārhapatya fire.

Its second mora, the atmosphere, is the u-sound.

It is, consisting of sacrificial formulae, the Yajurveda, it is Viṣṇu, the Rudras, the Triṣṭubh, the Dakṣiṇa fire.

Its third mora, the heaven, is the m-sound.

It is, consisting of songs, the Sāmaveda, it is Viṣṇu,1 the Ādityas, the Jagatī, the Āhavanīya fire.

The fourth, the half mora, which is at the end of the syllable, is the fragmentary m-sound.

It is, consisting of the Atharvaveda, it is the fire of universal destruction, the Maruts, the Virāj, the wisest.

This mora is Shining with light, in its own lustre.

The first mora is red, dedicated to Brahmán and has Brahman as its divinity.

The second mora is bright, dedicated to Rudra and has Rudra as its divinity.

1. Read Rudra, which occurs in Nṛsiṁhap. 2,1 and Nṛsiṁhott. 3 [and also here in the editions of the Atharvaśikhā Up. available to me.—GBP.].

Atharvaśikhā Upaniṣad

The third mora is black, dedicated to Viṣṇu, and has Viṣṇu as its divinity.1

The fourth mora is lightning-like, multi-coloured and has Puruṣa as its divinity.

That is the Om-sound with its four quarters and its four (fires as) heads. The fourth quarter is the half mora; it is pronounced materially in three ways, short, long or extra long.

om̀, om̄, om̐

The fourth is the calm-self (śāntātman) which, in the employment of the extra long pronunciation, must come suddenly as an illumination of the self, and not in a similar way [i.e. not materially as a continuous buzzing of m]. [Om-sound] which, as soon as it is uttered, [sends upwards] all the vital breaths suddenly; and just because it sends them upwards (ūrdhvam utkrāmayati), it is called the Om-sound (Om-kāra).

2. And it is called Pranava because it makes all the Prāṇas bow down (pranāmayati) to itself;2 because it makes them bow down, therefore, it is called Pranava.3 Because it is fourfold, therefore it is the origin of the Vedas and the gods;3 because they are to be grasped (dheya) in it, therefore it is called All-grasper (saṁdhartr), and because it saves (saṁtārayati) from all griefs and fears, it is so [called] from the saving from all these. As Viṣṇu it conquers all [perhaps because it reminds of vijayiṣṇū]; as Brahmán it has pulled out (abṛhat) all organs [from their activity]. Since he fixed them through meditation and since Viṣṇu fixed them in the Manas in the highest Ātman

3. The second and the third mora seem to be confused here erroneously. The commentator comforts himself by saying that Brahmán, Viṣṇu and Śiva are ultimately identical. [There is no such confusion in the editions available to me.—GBP].

4. There is obviously a tautology. Editions available to me explain instead the name pralaya in the first sentence thus : prāṇān sarvān pralīyate iti pralayah.—GBP.

5. The expression veda-deva-yoniḥ refers to the foregoing comparison of the four moras with the Vedas and gods. The expression recurs at Brahma Up. 1 (above) where, however, this connection is missing, and so it is to be looked upon as an imitation of our text.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

[appearing] at the end of the reverberation, they further

meditate on the Lord (Īśāna) as the object of meditation, for by

the Lord the whole world is set to activity. Brahmán, Viṣṇu,

Rudra and Indra have been brought forth by him similarly all

organs along with creatures. His divine majesty has become the

cause, the universe, the blissful [Śiva], as the ether standing

unshaken in the mid-air.

Brahmán, Viṣṇu and Rudra too,

The Lord and also the Blissful (Śiva)

Fivefold as these five gods

The holy sound is proclaimed.

Therefore one who gives himself up to him even for a

moment, obtains a higher reward than by a hundred sacrifices.

But from all knowledge, Yoga-practice and meditation, all that

relates to the Om-sound is to be meditated as the only blissful

(Śiva), indeed the Om-sound is Śiva.

So let a man give up everything else and study this

[Upaniṣad] ! Then is the twice-born released from a further

stay in mother's womb,—released from a further stay in

mother's womb.

NĪLARUDRA UPAṆIṢAD

The most important older monument from the theology of Rudra, this precursor of Śiva, is the Śatarudrīyam, properly probably (as already derived in the Śatap. Br. 9,1,1,2) Śāntarudrīyam “Song for the pacification of Rudra”, Vāj. Saṁh. 16 (Taitt. Saṁh. 4,5). Although this text has no relation whatever with the Upaniṣadic thought, still it was so renowned, and so often mentioned in the Atharva-Upaniṣads (Jābāla 3. Kaivalya 24. Atharvaśiras 7. Mahā. 4. Ṇṛsiṁhap. 5,10, p. 106), that many a compiler of the Upaniṣads did not want to dispense with it (particularly in view of the role which Śiva plays in the Atharva-Upaniṣads). While the collection of 108 Upaniṣads, as it is before us in the Telugu ed., leaves this song as far as we see, it is wholly admitted in the collection of Daraschakoh as Schat Roudri (Anquetil II, p, 171-196). The collection which we have taken as the basis, on the other hand, contains only an extract from it (with some other ornamentation) under the name Nilarudra Upaniṣad (the esoteric doctrine of the dark Rudra).

The original meaning of Rudra is disputed. But if we keep in mind the predominant features of his image, and moreover consider, that he is the most dreaded god, and that no other natural phenomenon is so immediately fearful to the man originally as the flash of lightning, then it becomes probable that Rudra (properly probably “the shining one”) was originally nothing else than a personification of the descending and striking lightning. He holds the lightning in the hand (vajrabāhu), loves forests, mountain summits, and tree-tops (parame vrkṣe āyudham் nidhāya, Vaj. Saṁh. 16,51), is called a man-slayer, animal-slayer, and his back is red, while his belly (the foot prints which he leaves behind where he lies down) is black (Atharvav.—15, 1,7). Also the further main feature, that he brings healing medicines, is easily understood when one considers that the thunderstorm cleans the atmosphere and banishes infectious emanation.

As the translation shows, this character is maintained very distinctly in our Upaniṣad which (verses 4-17) is a cento from variously mutilated verses of the Śatarudrīyam, to which are added (verses 18-20) some verses from the Vāj. Saṁh. 13. The snakes shooting down from the air could in the same way be lightnings.—Quite obscure is the third part (verses 21-26), whose first verse has got in here perhaps only accidentally, through the mention of the word Nilagrīva, while the verses which follow seem to speak of a law-suit between the brown, brown-eared aborigines and the Āryas, whom Śiva helps. Atharvav. 2,27,6 is related, and since here also a herb is spoken of, so the verse 21 also can perhaps be brought in this connection, only when a more readable text, than the wholly degenerate (in both editions) one which stood at our disposal, becomes available.

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Sixty Upaniṣads

1

1. I saw you, yea, coming down

From the heaven upon the earth here,—

I saw the shooting Rudra,

The dark-necked, curly-haired.

2. From heaven he descended, dreadful,

And planted his feet on the earth;

O men ! see him bright-red,

The dark-necked, see him there !

3. Rudra, who doesn't strike men,

Comes with healing medicines,

May the flatulence, which robbed you

Of sleep, vanish away.

4. Salutation to your world-kindness,

Salutation to your world-anger

Salutation to your arms,

Salutation to your arrows too.1

5. The arrow, which, O rejoicer-in-hills,

You hold in your hand to shoot,

Make it gracious to us, hill-guardian,

May it not strike my people.2

6. With words in a pleasing voice

We call you hither, O mountain-lord,

So that all that lives by us,

Be healthy and happy in mind.3

7. With your kindest arrow

And your gracious bow

And your gracious bow-shot

Pity us, so that we may live.4

1. Cf. Vāj. Samh. 16, 1.

2. Vāj. Samh. 16, 3.

3. Vāj. Samh. 16, 4.

4. Cf. Vāj. Samh. 16, 11.

Nīlarudra Upaniṣad

8. With your gracious appearance,

Not terrible, not harmful,

With your most wholesome appearance,

O mountain-dweller, show yourself to us.1

9. The one who shines, dark and red,

And brownish and in blazing red,

The thousands of Rudras darting

To all sides around,

I beg their fury away from us.2

10. They saw you descending,

With a dark neck, in blazing red,

They saw you, the cowherds,

And the women fetching water,

Yea, everybody saw you,—

Salutation to you, whom they saw.3

11. Salutation to him, the dark-haired one,

Who, the thousand-eyed, comes as a hero,

And to all his legions too

Let me pay a tribute of salutation.4

12. Salutation to your weapon,

The relaxed, daring,

Salutation to your two arms,

To your bow, I have offered.5

13. Relax at both the ends

The string of your bow,

Throw away from us, revered one !

The arrows from your hands.6

1. Vāj. Samh. 16, 2 (according to which the text is to be corrected);

Śvet. 3,5.

2. Vāj. Samh. 16,6.

3. Cf. Vāj. Samh. 16,7.

4. Vāj. Samh. 16,8.

5. Vāj. Samh. 16,14.

6. Vāj. Samh. 16,9.

14. Relax, O gracious one, now

Your bow, O thousand-eyed one;

In hundred quivers break off

Your arrows and bring us help.1

15. His bow is now stringless,

His quiver without an arrow,

His missiles have disappeared,

Bliss-bringer is his sheath of sword.2

16. May the missile shooting from your bow

Pass by us in all directions,

Indeed, loosen your quiver itself

And keep it far away from us.3

17. Or rather take up as weapon

Your bow, O prosperous god,

With it as defender from diseases

To protect us from all sides.4

18. Salutation to the snakes also,

To such as are on the earth,

Also to the snakes in atmosphere,

Salutation to those in heaven.5

19. Those in the radiant regions of heaven,

Those too, that are in the sun's rays,

And those that live in the watery abyss,

Salutation to these snakes too.6

20. Who as arrows of the imps

Shoot down from trees above,

And those who nest in earth-holes,

Salutation to these snakes too.7

1. Vāj. Saṁh. 16.13.

2. Vāj. Saṁh. 16.10.

3. Vāj. Saṁh. 16.12.

4. Vāj. Saṁh. 16.11.

5. Vāj. Saṁh. 13.6.

6. Vāj. Saṁh. 13.8.

7. Vāj. Saṁh. 13.7.

21. He who is the Blue-necked god (Siva) to his people,

He who is quite Hari (Visnu) to his own,

Him with a many-coloured tail, O healing herb,

Quick grind to pieces, Arundhatī.

22. The [goblin] is brown and brown-eared,

But with a circle of black neck is Siva,

Through him, Sarva, the black-haired,

Through Bhava, who the father (read pitrā) of the winds is.

23. Through him with eyes enormous,

Strike [read : hata] by the brown, him who only speaks a word,

Through him wholely dark-haired

At work, a hero's work.

24. Check the demand that he makes,

So that we could share it here,

Salutation to Siva, Salutation to Sarvá,

Salutation to him, the ever-young fighter !

25. Salutation to him, the black-haired,

When he comes to the assembly

And lets his fawn-coloured mules,

And assess graze around.

26. Salutation to him, the black-haired,

When he comes to the assembly,

—When he comes to the assembly.

KĀLĀGNIRUDRA UPANIṢAD

[It will strike anyone who comes to India that the natives often wear on the forehead a mark applied in red or some other colour, consisting of a small round fleck or also of several lines drawn vertically or horizontally, which often cover the whole forehead and, to our feeling, do not exactly contribute to heighten the beauty. These marks, called tilaka or pundra, are (apart from their use as an ornament of women) sectarian marks, which are applied newly every morning after the bath with a certain ritual; through them the Indian openly makes as it were a silent confession of his faith before the whole world, while in other countries even priests would like to conceal what could draw attention to their church.—Tripundram, with which our Upaniṣad occupies itself, is also a similar mark of a Śaiva sect, described as consisting of three horizontal streaks made with ashes on the forehead, cranium, shoulders and the breast, thus in all five times, to the accompaniment of certain formulas. It is a great proof of the accommodating capacity of the Vedānta doctrine, when it knows how to attribute an allegorical significance even to this formality in that it sees in the three streaks the three sacrificial fires, three sounds of the syllable Om, three Guṇas, three worlds, three Ātmans, three Vedas, three [Soma] pressings and the three forms of the god Śiva and grants him, who knows this as such, all sorts of religious gains.—Thus here in the case of a thoughtlessly observed custom a direction on to the higher and the spiritual is given to the mind and with that a stimulus to a further activity with it.]

1

Once it happened that Sanatkumāra asked the exalted Kālāgni-rudra: “Teach me, O exalted sir, the truth in respect to the rule of the Tripundram (a sect-mark consisting of three streaks) and what material, which place, how much, of what extent and which streaks, which divinity, which formula, which powers and which reward there are.”

The exalted one said to him: “The material should be the ash of fires. One should grasp it with the five Brahman-formulas sadyojātam etc. (Taitt. Ār. 10, 43-47), consecrate it with the formula agnir iti bhasma etc. (Atharvaśiras 5), take out with the formula mā nas toke (Rgv. 1, 114, 8) and, [after consecrating] with the formula tryambakam yajāmahe (Rgv. 7, 59, 12) should apply it as three lines across on the head, forehead, breast and

shoulders under the three tryāyuṣa-formulas, tryambaka-formulas

and triśakti-formulas.

This is the Śambhu-vow, which is taught in all the Vedas by

those versed in the Veda. Therefore one desirous of liberation

should practise it, so that he is not born again. And this, O

Sanatkumāra, is its [of the mark] extent: it stretches threefold

from the forehead down to the eyes and goes from the centre of

one eye-brow [to the other].

2

Its first line is the Gārhapatya fire, the a-sound, the Rajas, the

terrestrial world, the external Ātman, the acting power, the

Rgveda, the morning pressing [of the Soma], and Maheśvara is

its divinity.

Its second line is the Dakṣiṇa fire, the u-sound the Sattvam,

the atmosphere, the inner Ātman, the willing power, the

Yajurveda, the midday pressing [of the Soma] and Sadāśiva is

its divinity.

Its third line is the Āhavanīya fire, the m-sound, the Tamas,

the heaven, the highest Ātman, the perceiving power, the

Sāmaveda, the evening pressing [of the Soma], and Śiva is its

divinity.

Therefore, he makes the Tripunḍram from the ashes. He who

knows this, whether he be a Brahman-student, a house-holder, a

forest-resident or an ascetic, he is thereby purified of all the

major sins and minor sins. Thereby all the gods are meditated

upon by him, he is known by all the gods, becomes one who

has bathed in all the holy bathing places, one who has all the

time muttered the Rudra-prayer. And after enjoying all the

pleasures he enters, giving up the body, into union with Śiva and

does not return—and does not return.”

Thus spoke the exalted Kālāgnirudra.

One who recites it here, he also attains to a similar state.

Om Satyam.

Thus reads the Upaniṣad.

3.1

On the other side of heaven, in the depth of heart,

What shines, therein go the penitents;

Those who grasp the Vedānta-doctrine's meaning

Full of renunciation, the penitents, of pure being,

4.2

In Brahman's world at the time of final end

They are all released by the Imperishable.—

Enthroned in joy in a secluded place.

Purified, with neck, head and body still,3

Remaining in the last Āśrama, restraining

The senses, to the teacher devoutly bowing,

Meditating the pure, dustless heart-lotus

And the griefess pure one situated therein,

The inconceivable, unmanifest, infinite,

Calm, blissful, eternal, the Brahman's source,

The one, without beginning, middle and end,

The wonderful lord full of intelligence and bliss,

The supreme god and lord, Uma's companion,

With dark neck, three eyes, wholly calm,—

Meditating him, all-seeing, primordial source of all,

The wise goes to the other side of darkness.

He is Brahmán, Śiva, Indra,

Imperishable, the supreme sovereign,

He is Viṣṇu, he the Prāṇa,

The fire of death and the moon.

It is he, all that originated,

And what originates in eternity,

Who knows him conquers death,

There's no other way to salvation.

He who sees himself in all beings

And all beings in him,

1 3ab=Mahānār. 10, verse 21.

2 3ed 4ab=Mund. 3,2,6. Mahānār. 10, verse 22.

3 Cf. Śvet. 2,8.

17. In waking, dreaming, deep sleep

What you see spread out,

Know yourself to be that Brahman,—

Then all the chains fall down."—

18. "What as experience, its object,

The experiencer, are known in the three states,

Different from them, the witness,

Pure intelligence, blissful I ever am !

19. In me was born everything,

In me alone everything abides,

In me it's dissolved, I myself am

That Brahman, the one without a second.

20. I am minutest of the minute, none the less

Great I am, I'm this diverse, rich universe,

I am the ancient, am the spirit, the Lord,

Wholly golden I am, of blissful appearance.

21.1 Without hands and feet, I have infinite power,

I see without eyes, hear without ears;

I am the knower, and apart from me

There's no other knower in eternal times.

22. Through all the Vedas I am to be perceived,

I am the Veda-perfecter, Veda-knower,

Imperishable, I am free from good and bad,

Free from birth, without body and mind.

23. For me there's no earth, and no water,

No fire, no wind and no ether."

He who has thus found the highest Ātman

In the depths of heart, partless, secondless,

24. All-seeing, free from being and non-being,

To his share falls the pure supreme Ātman.

1. Cf. Śvetaśva. 3,19.

Kaivalya Upaniṣad

SIXTY

UPANIṢADS

OF

THE

VEDA

sacrificial hymn of praise is uttered by him, as he remains absorbed in meditation. Therein originated fourteen Puruṣas (men) and a girl, viz: the ten Indriyas, the Manas as the eleventh, the Tejas as the twelfth, the Ahaṁkāra as the thirteenth, as fourteenth the Prāṇa, it is the Atman, as fifteenth the Buddhi. Besides the five subtle elements and the five gross elements. This is the twentyfivefold Puruṣa. The [primordial] Puruṣa appointed him the creator. Yet his creatures are not born without the year, but they are born from the year.

2

Then Nārāyaṇa, desirous of another, once more meditated in his mind. As he stood absorbed in meditation, there was born from his forehead a three-eyed Puruṣa holding a trident, possessing about him beauty, truth, chastity, austerity, renunciation, intelligence and mastery; but the Om-sound and the three Vyāhṛtis (bhūr, bhuvah, svaḥ) the Ṛcs, Yajus', Sāmans, Atharva-Aṅgiras' and all metres, they abided in his limbs.

3

Then Nārāyaṇa, desirous of another, once more meditated in his mind. As he stood absorbed in meditation, sweat came out of his forehead. It expanded into these primordial waters. In them was born the Tejas as a golden egg. Therein was born the god Brahmán with four faces. He meditated towards the East, and there was born the exclamation bhūr, the metre Gāyatrī, the Ṛgveda;—towards the West, and there was born the exclamation bhuvar, the metre Triṣṭubh, the Yajurveda;—towards the North, and there was born the exclamation svar, the metre Jagatī, the Sāmaveda;—towards the South, and there was born the exclamation om janad, the metre Anuṣṭubh, the Atharvaveda.

Om !

To the god with thousand heads,

Thousand eyes, bringing every happiness,

Who, the eternal, transcends all,

The all, Nārāyaṇa, Hari.

The Puruṣa, who is all this,

Who is the enlivener of the world,

Mahā Upaniṣad

801

The wise lord of all, who,

Omniform, resides in the waters.

Like a lotus-calyx it hangs,

Almost like a flower-cup,

In the heart, with drops of dew1 as if

Swollen, it hangs downwards.

In its midst a great fire,

All-fire, flaming in all directions;

In it a pointed flame,

A fine one, striving upwards,

And in the midst of the pointed flame

The Puruṣa, the highest self,

He is Brahman and Īśāna,

The eternal, supreme lord.2

4

(Cf. Atharvaśiras 7).

The Brāhmaṇa who studies this Mahā-Upaniṣad text, one who

is not an authority on scriptures becomes an authority on scrip-

tures, an uninitiated becomes initiated; he is [purified by Agni,

purified by Vāyu, purified by Sūrya, purified by Soma, purified by

truth, purified by all; he is known by all the gods, is meditated

upon by all the Vedas, becomes one who has bathed in all the

holy bathing places, and all sacrifices are performed by him;

Sixty thousand Gāyatrī stanzas are muttered by him, a hundred

thousand [stanzas] of the Itihāsa-Purāṇas and of the Rudra-

hymns are muttered by him, ten thousand Praṇavas are mut-

tered by him. He purifies the assembly as far as his sight

reaches, he purifies up to the seventh generation (ancestors and

descendants); thus has the exalted Hiranyagarbha promised.

By muttering one attains immortality,—one attains immor-

tality.

1. Read : śikarādibhilḥ.

2. After this, editions available to me read huge passages, as if to

make the name Mahā-significant !—GBP.

Nārāyaṇa is the twelve Ādityas also,

„ „ the Vasus and Aśvins also,

„ „ all Ṛṣis also,

„ „ the time also

„ „ the quarters also,

„ „ below also,

„ „ above also,

„ „ corporal and uncorporal also,

„ „ the inner and the outer also,

indeed, this whole universe "what was and what is yet to be"

is Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is thus the eternal, spotless, inexpressible, changeless, artless, pure, one god, there is no second apart from him.

Choose Rudra as your charioteer,

Use your Manas as reins,

Then go to the supreme hereafter,

To the eternal abode of Viṣṇu,

—to the eternal abode of Viṣṇu.

3

This, verily, is the Upaniṣad-text of Nārāyaṇa. Verily, he who-studies the Upaniṣad-text of Nārāyaṇa is freed of all fearful, he-obtains all desires and all worlds, and entering into Brahman-hood he goes into immortality,—he goes into immortality.

4

One should first utter Om, then namo, and afterwards-Nārāyaṇāya. Om is one syllable, namo are two syllables,

Nārāyaṇāya are five syllables. This is the octo-syllabic metrical-line of Nārāyaṇa. He who studies this octo-syllabic metrical line of Nārāyaṇa reaches the full span of life without a mishap,

he enjoys happiness in offspring, growth of prosperity, possession-of cattle, and he further participates in immortality,—and he-further participates in immortality.

5

He (Nārāyaṇa) merged into one with the inner bliss, the-Brahman, the Puruṣa, the holy syllable consisting of a, u and m,

it became the sound Om.

Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad

805

The Yogin who has seen this,

Is free from birth and Saṁsāra.

And he who worships the formula : Om namo Nārāyaṇāya,

he goes to Vaikuṇṭha's (Viṣṇu's) heaven. That city is here, this

lotus-flower (Chānd. 8,1,1), consisting wholly of intelligence,

that is why it is just like a flash of the lightning (Kena. 29-30).

So pious was Devaki's son,

So pious was Madhusūdana,

as it is said, [because he perceived] him who dwells in all

beings, one, Nārāyaṇa, the cause, the a,1 the highest Brahman in

the Om sound.

He who studies this Atharvaśiras,2—if he studies it in the

morning, then he annihilates the sins committed at night, if he

studies it in the evening, then he annihilates the sins committed

in the day; if he studies it at midday, facing the sun, then he is

freed of the five major sins and the five minor sins, participates

in the merit which is the goal of all Vedas, and attains

communion with Nārāyaṇa,—attains communion with Nārāyaṇa.

1. Other editions available to me read akāraṇam 'causeless' which is

certainly better than akāram which Deussen seems to have read.—GBP.

2. Here appellative : "the main part of the Atharvaveda." One Ms.

reads atharvāṅgirasam (Jacob, Concordance, s.v.)

ĀTMABODHA UPANIṢAD1

NṚSIMHA-PŪRVA-TĀPANĪYA UPANIṢAD

Tapanam is the burning, pain-suffering, ascetic self-sacrifice, Nṛsiṁha-tapanam the ascetic self-surrender to Nṛsiṁha, therefore Nṛsiṁha-tāpanīya-Upaniṣad "the esoteric doctrine concerning the ascetic surrender to Nṛsiṁha." It consists of two halves, one more exoteric (Nṛsiṁha-pūrva-tāpanīya-Upaniṣad), which is dedicated to the earlier elementary surrender to Nṛsiṁha, and one more esoteric (Nṛsiṁhottara-tāpanīya-Upaniṣad), which is dedicated to the later, higher surrender; the former consists of five parts, the latter of a single main part; both are together considered as six Upaniṣads.

While the Upaniṣadic doctrine had reached to the recognition of one Brahman-Ātman, the monistic tendency, which is found in every religion, led to it so that the popular religious thought and worship also gained two chronologically or spatially different peaks in India (just as in Greece it centred around Zeus in the post-Homeric time), the one in Śiva (Mahādeva-Īśvara) who had arisen out of the Vedic Rudra and Agni, the other in the old-Vedic sun-god Viṣṇu, who again was worshipped in various forms, particularly as Nṛsiṁha, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa (which were united as different Avatāras of one Viṣṇu by a later age). Whereas both the last-named gods [Rāma, Kṛṣṇa] seem to have arisen through a deification of human, historical persons, Nṛsiṁha, the 'Man-lion', i.e. 'divine lion' (nṛ "man, hero, god"; cf. e.g. Rgv 4, 25, 4 : Indrāya nare naryāya, ṛtamāya ṛṇām), is originally probably only "the powerful divine hero" into which the solar power was personified. (That the form as half-man half-lion should have nothing to do with the Assyrian or any other imagination whatever, is probably the simple explanation of the name.) In this form as Nṛsiṁha (Narasimha, occasionally also Nārasimha, cf. Nara, and beside it Nārāyaṇa) Viṣṇu was worshipped by a pretty exclusive and therefore, as it appears, little spread sect, whose symbolical book is the present Upaniṣad in its both parts; they can be conveniently distinguished (with Weber) as the exoteric and the esoteric part; both swear allegiance to the Nṛsiṁha faith and both remain thereby under the influence of the Upaniṣadic doctrine; the difference can be described most briefly by saying that, in the first part the Upaniṣadic doctrine is put in the service of the Nṛsiṁha faith (philosophia ancillatur theologiae), in the second part the Nṛsiṁha faith is put in the service of the Upaniṣadic doctrine (theologia ancillatur philosophiae).

The first part (Nṛsiṁha-pūrva-tāpanīya), with which we are concerned first, teaches the worship of Viṣṇu through a sacred formula composed in the Anuṣṭubh metre whereby, however, the worship aims more at the formula than at the god and it plays a similar role, only it is carried further wide than the role played by, say, Vyāhṛtis, the Sāvitrī (cf. e.g. Maitr. 6, 6-7) in other texts, and by the holy sound Om in so many Ātharvaṇa

SIXTY UPANIṢADS OF THE VEDA

810

Upanisads. As in the Om-sound, similarly in the Nṛsiṁha formula also the

whole Veda is comprised; it is the Mantrarāja, the ‘king of formulas’,

which was of service in the world-creation (1, 1), it deals with all worlds

and all Vedas (1, 2), is identical with the four moras of the Om-sound

(2, 1); like Brahman, it has the Māyā as its creative power (śakti), and the

Ākāśa as the semen (vījam), i.e. as the starting point of creation (“from

this Ātman the Ākāśa is born, from the Ākāśa the wind” etc. Taitt. 2, 1),

and the incessant repetition and artistic writing down (worn as an amulet)

of this formula assures superabundant reward. Just as a prince does not

appear without the retinue, so this Mantrarāja has three (1, 3) or subse-

quently (4, 1-2) four Aṅga-mantras ‘limb-formulas’ or ‘sub-formulas’ in his

retinue, to which, as a further corona, is added, corresponding to the 32

syllables of the royal formula, one more crowd of 32 formulas (4.3). As it is

necessary to have the Mantrarāja always before the eyes for an under-

standing to both the Nṛsiṁha texts, we will introduce it along with the

four Aṅgamantras here in advance, in text and translation.

The Mantrarāja.

Ugram vīram, mahā-Viṣṇum,

Jvalantaṁ, sarvatomukhaṁ

Nṛsiṁhaṁ, bhiṣaṇaṁ, bhadraṁ,

Mṛtyu-mṛtyuṁ namamy aham.

The terrible, mighty, great, Viṣṇu,

Burning in all the directions,

As Man-lion, fearful and gracious,

As the death of deaths, I adore him.

The four Aṅgamantras.

I. The Praṇava.

Om !

II. The Sāvitrī :

Ghṛṇih, sūrya, Ādityah,

the glow, the sun, Āditya.

III. The Lakṣmī-yajus (also Yajur-lakṣmī).

The beauty-formula.

Om ! bhūr lakṣmīr, bhuvar lakṣmīḥ,

suvah kālakarṇī, tan no

mahālakṣmīḥ pracodayāt

Nṛsiṁha-Pūrva-Tāpanīya Upaniṣad

Om ! earth luck and atmosphere luck,

And heaven luck, black-eared,—

So may the great luck promote us !

IV. The Nṛsiṁha-gāyatrī.

Om ! Nṛsiṁhāya vidmahe,

vajranakhāya dhīmahi,

tan noḥ siṁhaḥ pracodayāt.

Om ! Let us think, well aware

Of Nṛsiṁha, the lightning-nailed,

May the Lion promote our thought.

NṚSIMHA-PŪRVA-TĀPANĪYA UPANIṢAD

The auspicious let us hear with ears, o gods,

The auspicious let us see with eyes, o holies,

With firm limbs, praising, able-bodied,

Let's reach the God-ordained span of life ! (Ṛgv. 1.89.8).

May Indra, the highly renowned, grant us well-being,

Well-being god Pūṣan, the lord of all riches,

Well-being Tārkṣya, whose felly remains undamaged,

May Bṛhaspati, too, grant well-being to us (Rv. 1.89,6).

Om, peace ! Om, peace ! Om, peace !

1. 1

[Prajāpati created the world by means of the Nṛsiṁha formula.]

Om !

"Verily this world was water, wavering. There Prajāpati was

born alone on a lotus-leaf. In his mind (manas) a desire (kāma)

arose : `I will create this world !' Therefore what a man aspires

after in his mind, he speaks it out with the speech, accomplishes

it with his activity. On this is this verse (Ṛgv. 10,129,4):

"There arose out of it desire first,

It was the first outpouring of mind's semen.—

The being's roots in the non-being found

The searching wise in the urge of heart."

It comes to him, what he aspires after [who knows thus]! —He

(Prajāpati) practised penance; after practising penance" (from

the beginning upto here=Taitt. Ār. I, 23, Gesh. d. Phil. I, 196),

he saw this Mantrarāja (royal formula) relative to Nṛsiṁha and

composed in the Anuṣṭubh metre; with `it he created the whole

world, whatever exists. Therefore they say: this whole world is

Anuṣṭubh, whatever exists. "From the Anuṣṭubh, indeed, are

born these creatures, having been born they live by the

Anuṣṭubh, and departing, they again go back into the Anuṣṭubh"

(according to Taitt. 3, 1-6). On this is this (verse): "The

Anuṣṭubh is the first, and the Anuṣṭubh is the last; for the

Anuṣṭubh is Speech; (the creatures) depart by the Speech, and they are born by the Speech"; and it is indeed said: "The Anuṣṭubh is the highest of all the metres" (Taitt. Saṃh. 5,4,12,1).

1.2

[The four lines of the formula deal with the four world-regions with all their contents, and the four Vedas also.]

The earth with its oceans, its mountains, its seven islands,—that one should know as the first line of that song [the Mantrarāja].

The atmosphere, as populated by the bands of Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Apsaras',—that one should know as the second line of the song.

The heaven, as populated by the Vasus, the Rudras, the Ādityas, and all gods, - that one should know as the third line of the song.

The undefiled, self-essence of the Brahman, dwelling "in the highest space" (Taitt. 2 1),—that one should know as the fourth line of the song.

He who knows this, attains immortality.

The four Vedas, Ṛg-, Yajur-, Sāma and Atharvaveda, with their Aṅgas (Gesch. d. Phil. I, 51) and Śākhās (Gesch. d. Phil. I, 65), —they are the four lines.

What is the meditation [of this song], what its divinity, what its limbs, what their divinities, what its metre, what its poet,1 thus [one shall ask oneself incessantly.]

1.3

[Introductory over the first three of the four limb-formulas of the royal formula.]

Thus said Prajāpati: Verily, he who knows that beauty-anointed, octo-syllabic line of the Savitar formula as a limb (an Aṅgamantrā) of that song, is anointed with beauty.

All the Vedas have the Praṇava [the holy Om-sound] as the beginning; if he knows this Praṇava also as a limb [as Aṅgamantrā] of that song, he conquers the three worlds.

1. Probably Prajāpati is to be understood as the poet.

Nrsimha-Pūrva-Tāpanīya Upaniṣad

There is a sacrificial formula, the great Lakṣmī (luck) consisting of twentyfour syllables; if he knows this also as a limb of that song, he becomes rich in life, fame, honour, knowledge and mastery.

Therefore one should know this song along with its limbs [the Aṅgamantras]; and he who knows it, attains immortality.

The teachers do not permit the Savitar-formula, the holy sound and the Lakṣmī-formula to a woman, to a Śūdra. One should know well the thirtytwo-syllabic song, and he who knows it, attains immortality,—but if a woman or a Śūdra knows the Savitar-formula, the Lakṣmī-formula, the Praṇava, he goes downwards after death. Therefore one should never proclaim these to them ! If one proclaims these to them, the teacher goes downwards after death.

1.4

[After a repeated identification of the formula with the highest divinities, the first two syllables of each of its four lines are inculcated.]

Thus spoke Prajāpati :

Agni, verily, the Vedas, this universe and all beings, the vital breaths and organs, animals, food, the immortal, the supreme ruler, the self-ruler, the far-and-wide-ruler,—this one should know as the first line of the song.

The sun in the form of Ṛc, Yajus, Sāman and Atharvan, ‘the golden man within the sun’ (Chānd. 1,6,6),—this one should know as the second line of the song.

He who rules over plants, the lord of the stars, the Soma,—this one should know as the third line of the song.

“It is Brahmán, Śiva, Hari, Indra, Agni, the eternal, the supreme lord” (Taitt. Ār. 10,11,12; also Mahānārāyaṇa-Up., 11th Anuvāka, verse 12, above),—this one should know as the fourth line of the song.

And he who knows it, attains immortality.

Om ! One should know ugram as the initial song of the first line, jvalan- as that of the second, nṛsim- as that of the third, mrtyu- as that of the fourth.

And he who knows it, attains immortality.

816

Sixty Upaniṣads

Therefore one should not proclaim this song everywhere; if one wants to impart it, one should impart it only to one's son, if he is desirous of learning it, or otherwise to a pupil.

1.5

[The second pair of syllables of each of the four lines, with a preceding and following glorification of the formula.]

The Man-lion who rests in the milk-ocean, 'the highest step' (Rv.1,22,20) meditated upon by the Yogins, one should know it as the song.

And one who knows it, attains immortality.

One should know vīram as the end-song of the first half of the first line,-tam sa- as that of the second, -ham bhī- as that of the third,-mtyum as that of the fourth.

And one who knows this, attains immortality.

Therefore he who has learnt this song from the mouth of some teacher is liberated from the Saṃsāra thereby, helps liberate, strives for liberation; he who mutters it has a vision of God in this very body of his. Therefore this is the gate of liberation in the Kali age, none else attains liberation. Therefore one should know the song with its limbs. He who knows it strives for liberation.

1.6

[The third pair of syllables, along with glorification.]

Om !

"As law, truth, supreme Brahman,

The Man-lion-formed, black-brown Puruṣa.

"The chaste, with eyes odd" (Taitt. Ār. 10,12; Mahānār-Up., 12th Anuvāka, above).

The black-and-red Śaṅkara,

the husband of Umā, the lord of animals, the wielder of bow, of infinite brilliance [I invoke, he who is] "the master of all knowledge, the lord of all beings, Brahman as the over-lord, the over-lord of Brahman" (Taitt. Ār. 10,47), the one to be praised according to the Yajurveda,—this one should know as the song.

Nṛsiṁha-Pūrva-Tāpantya Upaniṣad

And one who knows it attains immortality.

One should know mahā- as the initial song of the final half of the first line,-rvato- as that of the second, -sanam as that of the third, namā- as that of the fourth.

And one who knows it attains immortality.

Therefore this song is the supreme Brahman, which consists of being, intelligence and bliss;1 he who knows it as such becomes immortal here itself. Therefore one should know the song along with its limbs.

And one who knows it attains immortality.

1.7

[The fourth pair of syllables of each of the four lines, along with glorification. Preliminary to the interweaving of the Om-sound.]

"With this, verily [i.e. with the thousand-year sacrifice in the original passage] the all-creators created the world; since they created all, so they are called all-creators. Everything originates after them, and they [those who perform a hundred-year sacrifice or those who teach it] (Taitt. Br. 3,12,9,8) attained a common life and a common world with Brahman,—therefore one should know this song along with its limbs.

And one who knows it attains immortality.

One should know -Viṣṇum as the final song of the first line, -mukham as that of the second, bhadram as that of the third, -myaham as that of the fourth.

And one who knows it attains immortality.

He himself [Prajāpati] has manifested all this. Relative to the Ātman, to the Brahman, one should know the worship with that Anuṣṭubh.

And one who knows it attains immortality.

And if one, whether a woman [only the Aṅgamantras were forbidden to women at 1,3 above, not the Mantrarāja] or a man, desires to stay here on the earth, the [Mantrarāja] grants to him mastery over everything, and wherever he may die, there

1. Sat-cid-ānanda; this could (apart from Taitt. 2, 1) possibly be the first occurrence of the celebrated formula.

818

Sixty Upaniṣads

the God (of the Mantrarāja) imparts to him at the end of his

life the highest, delivering Brahman, by which, (already)

immortal, he then attains to immortality. Therefore one mutters

this [Brahman in the form of the Om sound] at intervals in the

song; therefore this limb of the song is Prajāpati, and therefore

one who knows it as such becomes this limb of the song,

becomes Prajāpati.

Thus reads the great Upaniṣad. And one who knows this

great Upaniṣad, he becomes, when he has performed the pre-

patory worship, the great Viṣṇu,—the great Viṣṇu.

Second Upaniṣad

[After a myth about the delivering power of the Nrsimha formula

(patterned upon Pañcav. Br. 22, 12; cf. above, Chānd-Up., fourth Khaṇḍa)

there follows the identification of its four lines with the four moras of the

Om-sound, in which the corresponding passage of the Atharvaśikhā

Upaniṣad (above) is borrowed verbatim and adapted to serve the purpose of

our Upaniṣad.]

Om !

Once upon a time the gods were afraid of death, sins and

the Saṃsāra. They took their refuge in Prajāpati. He admini-

stered to them this royal formula addressed to Narasiṃha and

composed in the Anuṣṭubh metre. With that they conquered

death, surmounted sins, surmounted the Saṃsāra. Therefore

one who is afraid of death, sins and the Saṃsāra should grasp

this royal formula addressed to Narasiṃha and composed in the

Anuṣṭubh metre. He then conquers death, surmounts sins, and

surmounts the Saṃsāra.

Of this Praṇava [Om-sound], verily,1 “the first mora, the

earth, is the a- sound. It is, consisting of verses, the Rgveda, it

is Brahman, the Vasus, the Gāyatrī, the Gārhapatya fire”,—

this is the first line [of the royal formula].

“Its second mora, the atmosphere, is the u- sound. It is, con-

sisting of sacrificial formulas, the Yajurveda, it is Viṣṇu, the

Rudras, the Triṣṭubh, the Dakṣiṇa fire”,—this is the second

line.

1. All the passages enclosed in the quotation marks are taken verbatim

from the Atharvaśikhā above.

Nṛsimha-Pūrva-Tāpanīya Upaniṣad

"Its third mora, the heaven, is the m- sound. It is, consisting

of songs, the Sāmaveda, it is Rudra, the Ādityas, the Jagatī, the

Āhavanīya fire",—This is the third line.

"The fourth, the half-mora, which is at the end of the syllable,

is the Soma world, the Om-sound [for this the Atharvaśikhā

reads : is the broken down m- sound]. It is, consisting of the

Atharvan songs, the Atharvaveda, it is the fire of universal

destruction, the Maruts, the Virāj, the highest wise, the

resplendent",—this is the fourth line of the song.

2.2

[The Nṛsimha formula as the king of formulas (mantrarāja) has five

attributes, viz. heart, head, hair-tuft, armour and missile, to which the four

lines of the formula with the Praṇava as the fifth correspond. They are

interwoven in the following, and so also the worlds which they symbolise.]

The first line is octo-syllabic, and the three [remaining] lines

[also] are octo-syllabic; thus thirtytwo syllables result; the

Anuṣṭubh, verily, is thirty-two-syllabic; by the Anuṣṭubh the

whole world has been created and by the Anuṣṭubh it is

reabsorbed again.

That same [Mantrarāja] has five attributes [añgāni : heart,

head, hair-tuft, armour and missile]; the four lines correspond

to the four attributes and the whole [of the formula] furnished

with the Praṇava corresponds to the fifth. Of the five [formulas

formed from the attributes]: om to the heart namaḥ, om to the

head svāhā, om to the hair-tuft vaṣaṭ, om to the armour huṃ, om

to the missile phaṭ, the first is combined with the first line

[ugram viraṁ mahāviṣṇum, om̉ hṛdayāya namaḥ], the second with

the second [jvalantam் sarvatomukham̉ om̉ śirase svāhā], the

third with the third [nṛsimhaṁ bhiṣaṇam̉ bhadram, om̉ śikhāyai

vaṣaṭ], the fourth with the fourth [mṛtyumṛtyum namāmy aham̉,

om̉ kavacāya huṃ] and the fifth with the fifth [om̉ ugram̉

viram mahāviṣṇum jvalantam̉ sarvatomukham̉ nṛsimhaṁ bhiṣaṇam̉

bhadram̉ mṛtyumṛtyum namāmy aham̉, om̉ astrāya phaṭ]; because

these worlds are interwoven into one another, therefore the con-

stituents [of the lines and formulas] also are interwoven into

one another.—"Om! This syllable is the whole world" (Māṇḍ.1);

therefore the sound Om has a place before and after each

syllable

[of

the

above

five

combinations.

Thus

:

om

u

om,

om

gram

om,

om

vi

om,

om

ram

om

and

so

on];

the

syllables

are

to

be

thus

designed

(drawn),

as

the

Brahman-knowers

teach.

2.3

[Enumeration

of

the

eleven

words

of

the

formula,

along

with

glorification.]

In

this

[Mantrarāja],

one

should

know,

at

the

first

place

stands

ugram—and

one

who

knows

this

attains

immortality,—

at

the

second

place

viram,

at

the

third

mahāviṣṇum,

at

the

fourth

jvalantam,

at

the

fifth

sarvatomukham,

at

the

seventh

bhiṣaṇam,

at

the

eighth

bhadram,

at

the

ninth

mrtyumrtyum,

at

the

tenth

namāmi,

at

the

eleventh

aham.

One

who

knows

this

attains

immortality.

The

Anuṣṭubh

has

eleven

words,

by

the

Anuṣṭubh

this

whole

world

has

been

created,

and

by

the

Anuṣṭubh

everything

is

reabsorbed

again.

Therefore

one

should

understand

this

whole

world

as

of

the

nature

of

Anuṣṭubh;

and

one

who

knows

this

attains

immortality.

2.4

[The

eleven

words

of

the

formula

are

explained

etymologically

and

these

explanations

are

embellished

with

Vedic

citations,

which

often

have

very

little

connection

with

the

matter

in

hand.

Atharvaśiras

4

(above)

seems

to

have

been

in

the

mind

as

the

model.]

It

came

to

pass

that

the

gods

said

to

Prajāpati:

Now

why

is

it

said

ugram?

—And

Prajāpati

said:

Because

by

his

majesty

he

lifts

up

(udgrhṇāti)

all

worlds,

all

gods,

all

selves,

all

beings,

creates

continually,

expands

and

causes

to

live,

while

he

is

caused

to

be

elevated

and

is

elevated,—

Praise

the

celebrated

young

car-warrior;

Who

like

a

fierce

lion

terribly

attacks;

Be

gracious

to

the

singer,

highly-praised

lion

!

Let

your

troops

fell

someone

other

than

us

!

(Rgv.

2,33,11,

free)—

therefore

it

is

said

ugram.

Nṛsiṁha-Pūrva-Tāpanīya Upaniṣad

821

Now why is it said vīram?—Because by his majesty he puts to

rest all worlds, all gods, all selves, all beings (stand away from

them, vīramati), creates continually, expands and causes to

live,—

Through which a hero, energetic, virtuous,

Presser, the friend of gods is born (Rgv. 3,4,9),

therefore it is said vīram.

Now why is it said mahāviṣṇum?—[Because it is he,] who

permeates all worlds and causes them to permeate him, like oil

with regard to the lump of ground sesamum interwoven

lengthwise and crosswise by it, mutually is permeated by them,—

He, than whom no higher one exists,

Who has entered into all the beings,

Yea, beyond whom nothing else exists,

Prajāpati, endowed with offspring,

Pervades the three world-lights of sixteen parts,—

(Vāj. Saṁh. 8,36, free, cf. Gesch. d. Phil. I, 191).

therefore it is said mahāviṣṇum.

Now why is it said jvalantam?—Because by his majesty he

inflames all worlds, all gods, all selves, all beings, causes to flame,

is inflamed, causes himself to inflame,—

1

"Mover,1 stimulator, bright, shining, illuminator, flaming, in-

flammer, burning, kindling, scorching, glittering, sparkling,

pretty, embellishing, beautiful (Taitt. Br. 3,10,1,2),—therefore

it is said jvalantam.

Now why is it said sarvatomukham?— Because even without

sense organs he sees everywhere, hears everywhere, goes every-

where, takes everywhere, and going everywhere stays every-

where,—

"The one, who formerly became the world,

From whom was born the protector of the universe,

1. The passage contains only an enumeration of the fifteen hours of

the days of the second half of the month, as Weber, Ind. Stud. IX, 94

observes.