________________
362
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
ye shall eat it!' Hence whenever they find anything, whether in season or out of season, they eat it.
5. Thereupon-so they say—the Asuras also straightway' approached him. To them he gave darkness (tamas) and illusion (mâyà): for there is indeed what is called the illusion of the Asuras. Those creatures, it is true, have perished; but creatures still subsist here in the very manner which Pragâpati ordained unto them.
6. Neither the gods, nor the fathers, nor beasts transgress (this ordinance); some of the men alone transgress it. Hence whatever man grows fat, he grows fat in unrighteousness, since he totters and is unable to walk because of his having grown fat by doing wrong. One should therefore eat only in the evening and morning; and whosoever, knowing this, eats only in the evening and morning, reaches the full measure of life; and whatever he speaks, that is (true); because he observes that divine truth. For, verily, that is Brahmanic lustre (tegas), when one knows to keep His (Pragàpati's) law.
7. Now that (lustre) indeed belongs to him who presents (food) to the fathers once a month. When that (moon) is not seen either in the east or in the west, then he presents (food) to them; for that moon doubtless is king Soma, the food of the gods. Now during that night (of new moon) it fails them, and when it fails, he presents (food to them), and thereby establishes concord (between the gods and fathers). But were he to present (food) to them when it is not failing, he would indeed cause a quarrel between the gods and fathers: hence he presents
Sasvat='repeatedly,' Comm.; sasvad api, 'endlich auch (at last also),' St. Petersb. Dict.
Digitized by Google
