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AITAREYA-ARANYAKA.
234
7. Brahman (as hidden beneath prâna) is called the A; and the I (ego) is gone there (the worshipper should know that he is uktha and prâna).
8. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Brihatt verses, and of that hymn, perfect with a thousand Brihatt verses, there are 36,000 syllables. So many are also the thousands of days of human life1. By means of the syllable of life (the a) alone (which is contained in that thousand of hymns) does a man obtain the day of life (the mahâvrata day, which completes the number of the days in the Gavâmayana sacrifice), and by means of the day of life (he obtains) the syllable of life.
9. Now there is a chariot of the god (prâna) destroying all desires (for the worlds of Indra, the moon, the earth, all of which lie below the place of Hiranyagarbha). Its front part (the point of the two shafts of the carriage where the yoke is fastened) is speech, its wheels the ears, the horses the eyes, the driver the mind. Prâna (breath) mounts that chariot (and on it, i. e. by means of meditating on Prâna, he reaches Hiranyagarbha).
10. This has been said by a Rishi (Rv. X, 39, 12):11. 'Come hither on that which is quicker than mind,' and (Rv. VIII, 73, 2) 'Come hither on that which is quicker than the twinkling of an eye,' yea, the twinkling of an eye.
1 Cf. II, 2, 4, 4.
The commentator remarks that the worship and meditation on the uktha as prâna, as here taught, is different from the prâzavidyâ, the knowledge of prâna, taught in the Khandogya, the Brihadaranyaka, &c., where prâna or life is represented as the object of meditation, without any reference to the uktha or other portions of the Mahavrata ceremony. He enjoins that the meditation on
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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 |