Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 555

I ADHYAYA, 4 BRÂHMANA, 3.
Fourth BRÂHMANA 1. 1. In the beginning this was Self alone, in the shape of a person (purusha). He looking round saw nothing but his Self. He first said, “This is I;' therefore he became I by name. Therefore even now, if a man is asked, he first says, “This is I,' and then pronounces the other name which he may have. And because before (půrva) all this, he (the Self) burnt down (ush) all evils, therefore he was a person (pur-usha). Verily he who knows this, burns down every one who tries to be before him.
2. He feared, and therefore any one who is lonely fears. He thought, 'As there is nothing but myself, why should I fear?' Thence his fear passed away. For what should he have feared ? Verily fear arises from a second only.
3. But he felt no delight. Therefore a man who is lonely feels no delight. He wished for a second. He was so large as man and wife together. He then made this his Self to fall in two (pat), and thence arose husband (pati) and wife (patni). Therefore Yâgñavalkya said : We two are thus (each of us) like half a shell 3.' Therefore the void which was
.
1 Called Purushavidhabrâhmana (Mâdhyandina-sâkhâ, p. 1050). See Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. I, p. 24.
3 The Comm. explains svah by âtmanah, of himself. But see Boehtlingk, Sanskrit Chrestomathie, p. 357.
3 Roer translates : 'Therefore was this only one half of himself, as a split pea is of a whole.' Brigala is a half of anything. Muir (Orig. Sansk. Texts, vol. I, p. 25) translates : Yâgñavalkya has said that this one's self is like the half of a split pea.' I have translated the sentence according to Professor Boehtlingk's conjecture (Chrestomathie, 2nd ed. p. 357), though the singular after the dual (svak) is irregular.
Digitized by Google