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82
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
layer. It is the layer of the vital airs: inasmuch as they laid down the vital airs', it is the layer of the vital airs. Hence, whatsoever one may know, that comes to be included in the ancestry, in the kinship 2 of this layer. He then lays down two Lokamprinâs (space-filling bricks) in that corner 3: the significance of these (will be explained) farther on *. He throws loose soil thereon: the significance of this (will be explained) farther on ".
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THE FIFTH LAYER.
FIFTH ADHYAYA. FIRST BRAHMANA.
1. He lays down the fifth layer. For now, having laid down the fourth layer, the gods mounted it,— having completed what is above the air, and below the sky, they mounted it.
2. They spake, 'Meditate ye (ketay)!' whereby, doubtless, they meant to say, 'Seek ye a layer (kiti)! Seek ye from hence upwards!' Whilst meditating, they saw that fifth layer, the far-shining heaven: that world pleased them.
3. They desired, 'Would that we could make that world foeless, undisturbed!' They spake, 'Think ye upon this, how we shall make this world
1 See VIII, 4, I, 5.
Or, in the (symbolic) meaning. The literal reading of the clause is, Thereby this layer of his becomes possessed of an ancestry and kinship (or mystic sense).'
• Viz. in the north-east corner, or on the left shoulder, whence, in two turns, the available spaces of the altar are filled up. In laying down the Lokamprinâs of the first three layers he started from the south-east, the south-west, and the north-west corners respectively. Cf. p. 22, note 1; p. 41, note 1; p. 58, note 1. See VIII, 7, 3, 1 seq.
• See VIII, 7, 2, 4 seq.
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