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144
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
(esoterically), for the gods love the mystic. They (the vital airs), being kindled, created seven separate persons ? (purusha).
3. They said, 'Surely, being thus, we shall not be able to generate : let us make these seven persons one Person!' They made those seven persons one Person: they compressed two of them into) what is above the navel, and two of them (into) what is below the navel; (one) person was (one) wing (or side), (one) person was the other) wing, and one person was the base (i.e. the feet).
4. And what excellence, what life-sap (rasa) there was in those seven persons, that they concentrated above, that became his head. And because (in it) they concentrated the excellence (srl), therefore it is (called) the head (siras). It was thereto that the breaths resorted (sri): therefore also it is the head (siras). And because the breaths did so resort (sri) thereto, therefore also the breaths (vital airs, and their organs) are elements of excellence (sri). And because they resorted to the whole (system) therefore (this is called) body (sartra).
5. That same Person became Pragapati (lord of generation). And that Person which became
Pragậpati is this very Agni (fire-altar), who is now í (to be) built.
6. He verily is composed of seven persons, for this Person (Agni) is composed of seven persons ,
1 That is, living beings or souls, individualities, which, in their combined form, are here imagined to take the shape of a bird. Muir's rendering, 'males,' can scarcely commend itself.
Literally, those two.' • The fire-altar is usually constructed so as to measure seven
Digitized by Google
| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1890 |
| Total Pages | 2695 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 47 MB |