Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
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

Page 1348

VII KANDA, 3 ADHYÂYA, I BRÂHMANA, 9. 343
formance of the (Soma) sacrifice and the performance of the fire (altar) for the purpose of unity of performance, thinking, Uniform shall be this performance!'
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5. And, again, why he interlinks them,-Agni (the fire-altar) is the body, and the (Soma) sacrifice is the vital air he thus places the vital air in the midst of the body, and hence that vital air is in the middle of the body.
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6. And, again, why he interlinks them,-Agni is the body, and the (Soma) sacrifice is the vital sap: he thus supplies the body with vital sap, and hence this body is supplied with vital sap from end to end. He then returns to the site of the Âhavaniya.
7. Now some sweep with the palâsa branch on both occasions', saying, 'Surely, on both occasions he builds (an altar). Let him, however, not do so; for by (building) the Gârhapatya he settles, and by the Ahavaniya he rises upwards: therefore let him
not do so.
8. And only on the Gârhapatya (site) he throws saline soil, not on the Âhavaniya; for the Gârhapatya is this (terrestrial) world, and saline soil means cattle he thus bestows cattle on this world, whence there are cattle in this world.
9. And only on the Âhavaniya (site) he places a lotus leaf, not on the Gârhapatya; for the lotus leaf means water, and the Ahavaniya the sky: he thus places the waters (vapours) in the sky. On both he
and at the same time doing all that is necessary for the building of the fire-altar, on which the Soma-offering itself is ultimately to be performed.
1 Viz. in consecrating the site of the Âhavanîya, as well as that of the Gârhapatya altar (see VII, 1, 1, 1).
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