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 2558

284
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
6. When those (Udgâtris) chant (the stotra), and when he (the Hotri) recites (the sastra) afterwards, then he (the Adhvaryu) offers that (vital fluid, in the form of Soma) unto him (AgniPragâpati) at the Vashat-call; and thus this vital fluid enters him. For, indeed, they do not see it to be the Great Rite that lies there being praised, nor the Great Litany, but it is Agni alone they see; for Agni is the self (body), and thus those two, the Rik and the Sâman, enter him in the form of the vital fluid; and thus they both enter (join) the Yagus.
7. Now, that Agni (fire-altar) consists of pairsthe first layer and the second, and the third and fourth; and of the fifth layer the fire which is placed on the built (altar) is the mate. And, indeed, this body consists of pairs.
8. The thumbs (and great toes, 'angushtha,' m.) are males, and the fingers and toes ('anguli,' f.) females; the ears ('karna,' m.) are males, and the eyebrows (bhrû,' f.) females; the lips ('oshtha,' m.) are males, and the nostrils ('nâsikâ, f.) females; the teeth ('danta,' m.) are males, and the tongue ('gihvâ,' f.) is a female: indeed the whole (body) consists of pairs, and with this body, consisting of pairs, that (vital fluid) enters this Agni (the fire-altar), consisting of pairs 1.
9. This, then, is the entering therein;-even thus, indeed, he (Agni) consists of pairs 2; but in this
making his responses whilst standing on a plank, and the Hotri's assistants being seated on bundles of grass.
1 Or, with this body as a mate it thus enters this Agni, its mate; literally, with this body forming one of a (productive) pair, it thus enters this Agni, forming one (i. e. the other) of a pair.
That is, he has in him the generative energy. Apparently
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