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98
BRIHADARANYAKA-UPANISHAD.
said : Verily, he is the best of us, he who, whether moving or not, does not tire and does not perish. Well, let all of us assume his form.' Thereupon they all assumed his form, and therefore they are called after him 'breaths' (spirits).
In whatever family there is a man who knows this, they call that family after his name. And he who strives with one who knows this, withers away and finally dies. So far with regard to the body,
22. Now with regard to the deities.
Agni (fire) held, I shall burn; Âditya (the sun) held, I shall warm ; Kandramas (the moon) held, I shall shine; and thus also the other deities, each according to the deity. And as it was with the central breath among the breaths, so it was with Vâyu, the wind among those deities. The other deities fade, not Vâyu. Vâyu is the deity that never sets.
23. And here there is this Sloka :
He from whom the sun rises, and into whom it sets' (he verily rises from the breath, and sets in the breath)
Him the Devas made the law, he only is to-day, and he to-morrow also' (whatever these Devas determined then, that they perform to-day also ?).
Therefore let a man perform one observance only, let him breathe up and let him breathe down, that the evil death may not reach him. And when he performs it, let him try to finish it. Then he obtains through it union and oneness with that deity (with prâna).
1 The prâna-vrata and vâyu-vrata. Comm.
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