Satapatha Bramhana Part 02

SR No.: 007678
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1885
Total Pages: 2521
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 44 MB

Page 1470

BE, XXXII.
wĂN SANG.
379
and that of elaeococcus wood have the same meaning. Hence, for a father they used the black staff of bamboo ; and for a mother, the square-cut staff, an elaeococcus branch
9. Some one may say, 'What is meant by (using) the staff?' and the answer is :—When a filial son mourns for a parent, he wails and weeps without regard to the number of times ; his endurances are hard for three years; his body becomes ill and his limbs emaciated ; and so he uses a staff to support his infirmity.
10. Thus, while his father is alive he does not dare to use a staff, because his honoured father is still living. Walking in the hall, he does not use the staff ;-refraining from doing so in the place where his honoured father is. Nor does he walk hastily in the hall,—to show that he is not hurried. Such is the mind of the filial son, the real expression of human feeling, the proper method of propriety and righteousness. It does not come down from heaven, it does not come forth from the earth; it is simply the expression of the human feelings.
' On Book XIII, 1, 3 the Khien-lung editors say, that the staff of old men was carried with the root up, and the other end down; but the opposite was the case with the mourner's staff. In breaking off a branch from the elaeococcus, the part which has been torn from the stem is cut square and smooth with a knife. The round stem of the bamboo cane is said by Khăn Hảo to symbolise heaven, and so is carried for a father; and the square cut end of the dryandria branch, to symbolise earth, and so is used for a mother. But this fanciful explanation seems to be contrary to what is said in the conclusion of the next paragraph.
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