________________
V ADHYAYA, 5 BRAHMANA, 2.
glorious first-born as the true Brahman; for Brahman is the true.
191
FIFTH BRAHMANA.
water.
1. In the beginning this (world) was Water produced the true1, and the true is Brahman. Brahman produced Pragâpati2, Pragâpati the Devas (gods). The Devas adore the true (satyam) alone. This satyam consists of three syllables. One syllable is sa, another t(i), the third yam. The first and last syllables are true, in the middle there is the untrue *. This untrue is on both sides enclosed by the true, and thus the true preponderates. The untrue does not hurt him who knows this.
3
2. Now what is the true, that is the Aditya (the sun), the person that dwells in yonder orb, and the person in the right eye. These two rest on each other, the former resting with his rays in the latter, the latter with his prânas (senses) in the former. When the latter is on the point of departing this life, he sees that orb as white only, and those rays (of the sun) do not return to him.
conquered by Brahman. If he conquers the world, how much more his enemy!' It would be better, however, if we could take gita in the sense of vasîkrita or dânta, because we could then go on with ya evam veda.
1 Here explained by the commentator as Pûtrâtmaka Hiranyagarbha. "Here explained as Virâg.
3 Satyam is often pronounced satiam, as trisyllabic. Sankara, however, takes the second syllable as t only, and explains the i after it as an anubandha. The Kânva text gives the three syllables as sa, ti, am, which seems preferable; cf. Khând. Up.VIII, 3, 5; Taitt. Up. II, 6.
This is explained by a mere play on the letters, sa and ya having nothing in common with mrityu, death, whereas t occurs in mrityu and anrita. Dvivedaganga takes sa and am as true, because they occur in satya and amrita, and not in mrityu, while ti is untrue, because the t occurs in mrityu and anrita.
Digitized by
Google