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AITAREYA-ARANYAKA.
12. The hymn is the forehead, as before in the case of heaven. The object of its praise is the eye, and the eighty verses (of the hymn) are food, for by means of food he obtains everything
13. The eighty verses (of the hymn) are alike food with reference to the gods as well as with reference to man. For all these beings breathe and live by means of food indeed. By food (given in alms, &c.) he conquers this world, by food (given in sacrifice) he conquers the other. Therefore the eighty verses (of the hymn) are alike food, with reference to the gods as well as with reference to man.
14. All this that is food, and all this that consumes food, is only the earth, for from the earth arises all whatever there is.
15. And all that goes hence (dies on earth), heaven consumes it all; and all that goes thence (returns from heaven to a new life) the earth consumes it all.
16. That earth is thus both food and consumer.
He also (the true worshipper who meditates on himself as being the uktha) is both consumer and consumed (subject and object ). No one possesses that which he does not eat, or the things which do not eat him?
. As a master who lives by his servants, while his servants live by him. Comm.
. I have translated these paragraphs, as much as possible, according to the commentator. I doubt whether, either in the original or in the interpretation of the commentator, they yield any very definite sense. They are vague speculations, vague, at least, to us, though intended by the Brahmans to give a deeper meaning to certain ceremonial observances connected with the Mahâvrata. The uktha, or hymn, which is to be meditated on, as connected with the sacrifice, is part of the Mahâvrata, an important ceremony, to be
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