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310.
SATAPATHA-BRÂHMANA.
the Brahmans who have studied and teach sacred lore. With oblations one gratifies the gods, and with gifts to the priests the human gods, the Brâhmans who have studied and teach sacred lore. Both these kinds of gods, when gratified, place him in a state of bliss (sudha)?
7. Even as seed is poured into the womb, so the officiating . priests place the sacrificer in the (heavenly) world ?, when he now makes gifts to those who, he hopes, will make him go thither. Such, then, is the manner) of gifts to priests.
8. Now the gods and the Asuras, both of them sprung from Pragâpati, were contending with each other. They were both soulless, for they were mortal, and he who is mortal is soulless. Among these two (classes of beings) who were mortal, Agni alone was immortal; and it was through him, the immortal, that they both lived. Now whichsoever (of the gods) they (the Asuras) slew, he, indeed, was so (slain).
9. Thereupon the gods were left inferior. They went on praising and practising austerities, hoping that they might be able to overcome their enemies, the mortal Asuras. They beheld this immortal Agnyâdheya (consecrated fire).
10. They said, 'Come, let us place that immortal element in our innermost soul! When we have placed that immortal element in our innermost soul, and become immortal and unconquerable, we shall overcome our conquerable, mortal enemies.'
1 That is, they convey him to the celestial world,' as reads the otherwise identical passage in IV, 3, 4, 4.
9 The Kanva text has svarge loke.'
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