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KHÂNDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
SECOND KHANDA? 1. Whent he Devas and Asuras ? struggled together, both of the race of Pragâpati, the Devas took the udgitha 3 (Om), thinking they would vanquish the Asuras with it.
2. They meditated on the udgftha: (Om) as the breath (scent) in the nose“, but the Asuras pierced it (the breath) with evil. Therefore we smell by the breath in the nose both what is goodsmelling and what is bad-smelling. For the breath was pierced by evil.
3. Then they meditated on the udgitha (Om) as speech, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. Therefore we speak both truth and falsehood. For speech is pierced by evil.
4. Then they meditated on the udgftha (Om) as the eye, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. There
likely, however, it refers to this very upanishad, i.e. to the udgîthavidyâ, the doctrine of the secret meaning of Om, as here explained.
A very similar story is told in the Brihad-aranyaka I, 1, 3, 1. But though the coincidences between the two are considerable, amounting sometimes to verbal identity, the purport of the two seems to be different. See Vedanta-sätra III, 3, 6.
? Devas and Asuras, gods and demons, are here explained by the commentator as the good and evil inclinations of man; Pragåpati as man in general.
• Udgitha stands, according to the commentator, for the sacri'ficial act to be performed by the Udgâtri, the Sâma-veda priest, with the udgîtha hymns; and as these sacrificial acts always form part of the Gyotish/oma &c., these great Soma-sacrifices are really intended. In the second place, however, the commentator takes udgîtha in the sense of Udgâtri, the performer of the udgîtha, which is or was by the Devas thought to be the breath in the nose. I have preferred to take udgîtha in the sense of Om, and all that is implied by it.
• They asked that breath should recite the udgîtha. Comm.
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| SR No. | 007670 |
| Book Title | Upnishad |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Max Muller |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1879 |
| Total Pages | 1835 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 35 MB |