Upnishad

SR No.: 007670
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

Page 250

VIII PRAPATHAKA, 9 KHANDA, 2.
137
self (the body) alone is to be served, and that he who worships the self and serves the self, gains both worlds, this and the next.
5. Therefore they call even now a man who does not give alms here, who has no faith, and offers no sacrifices, an Asura, for this is the doctrine (upanishad) of the Asuras. They deck out the body of the dead with perfumes, flowers, and fine raiment by way of ornament, and think they will thus conquer that world 1.
Ninth KHANDA. 1. But Indra, before he had returned to the Devas, saw this difficulty. As this self (the shadow in the water) 2 is well adorned, when the body is well adorned, well dressed, when the body is well dressed, well cleaned, if the body is well cleaned, that self will also be blind, if the body is blind, lame, if the body is lame 3, crippled, if the body is crippled, and will perish in fact as soon as the body perishes. Therefore I see no good in this (doctrine).
2. Taking fuel in his hand he came again as a pupil to Pragâpati. Pragâpati said to him : Maghavat (Indra), as you went away with Virokana, satisfied in your heart, for what purpose did you come back?'
1 This evidently refers to the customs and teaching of tribes not entirely conforming to the Brahmanic system. Whether the adorning of the dead body implies burial instead of burning, seems doubtful.
The commentator remarks that though both Indra and Virokana had mistaken the true import of what Pragâ pati said, yet while Virokana took the body to be the Self, Indra thought that the Self was the shadow of the body.
Srâma, lame, is explained by the commentator as one-eyed, ekanetra.
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