Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Upanishads, Part 1
By Max Müller
I, 3, 8
EIGHTH KHANDA.
1. He extends (these verses) by (interpolating) the sound 4. Verily, breath (prâna) is sound. Therefore every breath when it sounds, sounds loud, as it were.
2. The verse (VIII, 69, 2) nadam va odatînâm, &c., is by its syllables an Ushnih 5, by its feet an Anushtubh 6. Ushnih is life, Anushtubh, speech. He thus places life and speech in him (the sacrificer.)
3. By repeating the first verse three times, they become twenty-five. The trunk is the twenty-fifth, and Pragâpati is the twenty-fifth. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk as the twenty-fifth. Now this day consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five: it becomes the same through the same. Therefore the two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five. This is the twenty-fifth with regard to the body.
4. Next, with regard to the deities: The eye, the ear, the mind, speech, and breath, these five deities (powers) have entered into that person (purusha), and that person entered into the five deities. He is wholly pervaded there with his limbs to the very hairs and nails. Therefore all beings to the very insects are born as pervaded (by the deities or senses) 1.
5. This has been declared by a Rishi (Rv. X, 4, 8):--
6. 'A thousandfold are these fifteen hymns;'--for five arise from ten 2.
7. 'As large as heaven and earth, so large is it;'--verily, the self (gîvâtman) is as large as heaven and earth.
8. 'A thousandfold are the thousand powers 3;'-- by saying this the poet pleases the hymns (the senses), and magnifies them.
9. 'As far as Brahman reaches, so far reaches speech;'--wherever there is Brahman, there is a word; and wherever there is a word, there is Brahman, this was intended.
10. The first of the hymns among all those hymns has nine verses. Verily, there are nine prânas (openings), and it serves for their benefit.
11. Then follows a hymn of six verses. Verily, the seasons are six, and it serves to obtain them.
12. Then follows a hymn of five verses. Verily' the Pa?kti consists of five feet. Verily, Pa?kti is food, and it serves for the gaining of proper food.
13. Then follows a tristich. Three are these threefold worlds, and it serves to conquer them.
14. These verses become Brihatîs 1, that metre being immortal, leading to the world of the Devas. That body of verses is the trunk (of the bird represented by the whole sastra), and thus it is. He who knows this comes by this way (by making the verses the trunk of the bird) near to the immortal Self, yea, to the immortal Self 2.
Footnotes
184:4 Cf. I, 3, 5, 1.
184:5 Each pâda has seven syllables, the third only six; but a seventh syllable is gained by pronouncing the y as i. Comm.
184:6 Because it has four pâdas.
185:1 The commentator takes this in a different sense, explaining atra, there, as the body pervaded by the person, yet afterwards stating that all beings are born, pervaded by the senses.
185:2 The commentator explains ukthâ, hymns, as members or organs. They are the five, and they spring from the ten, i. e. from the five elements (earth, water, fire, wind, and ether), forming part of the father and mother each, and therefore called ten, or a decade. Dasatah is explained by bhûtadasakât.
185:3 The application of the senses to a thousand different objects.
186:1 Each foot of the Trishtubh has eleven syllables, to which seven are added from the Nada hymn. This gives eighteen syllables for each pâda. Two pâdas therefore give thirty-six syllables, and this is a Brihatî. In this manner the twenty-three verses of the hymns yield forty-six Brihatîs. Comm.
186:2 He obtains a birth among the gods by means of this Mahâvrata ceremonial, if performed with meditation and a right understanding of its hidden meaning.
