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The Upanishads, Part 1

By Max Müller

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II, 3, 8

EIGHTH KHANDA.
1. Here (with regard to obtaining Hiranyagarbha) there are these Slokas:

2. The fivefold body into which the indestructible (prâna, breath) enters, that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true (the highest Brahman) follows after, in that body (of the worshipper) all gods 1 become one.

3. That body into which goes the indestructible (the breath) which we have joined (in meditation), proceeding from the indestructible (the highest Brahman), that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true follows after, in that body all gods become one.

4. After separating themselves from the Yes and No of language, and of all that is hard and cruel, poets have discovered (what they sought for); dependent on names they rejoiced in what had been revealed 2.

5. That in which the poets rejoiced (the revealed nature of prâna, breath), in it the gods exist all joined together. Having driven away evil by means of that Brahman (which is hidden in prâna), the enlightened man goes to the Svarga world (becomes one with Hiranyagarbha 3, the universal spirit).

6. No one wishing to describe him (prâna, breath) by speech, describes him by calling him 'woman,' 'neither woman nor man,' or 'man' (all such names applying only to the material body, and not to prâna or breath).

7. Brahman (as hidden beneath prâna) is called the A; and the I (ego) is gone there (the worshipper should know that he is uktha and prâna).

8. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Brihatî verses, and of that hymn, perfect with a thousand Brihad verses, there are 36,000 syllables. So many are also the thousands of days of human life 1. By means of the syllable of life (the a) alone (which is contained in that thousand of hymns) does a man obtain the day of life (the mahâvrata day, which completes the number of the days in the Gavâmayana, sacrifice), and by means of the day of life (he obtains) the syllable of life.

9. Now there is a chariot of the god (prâna) destroying all desires (for the worlds of Indra, the moon, the earth, all of which lie below the place of Hiranyagarbha). Its front part (the point of the two shafts of the carriage where the yoke is fastened) is speech, its wheels the cars, the horses the eyes, the driver the mind. Prâna (breath) mounts that chariot (and on it, i. e. by means of meditating on Prâna, he reaches Hiranyagarbha).

10. This has been said by a Rishi (Rv. X, 39, 12):--

11. 'Come hither on that which is quicker than mind,' and (Rv. VIII, 73, 2) 'Come hither on that which is quicker than the twinkling of an eye,' yea, the twinkling of an eye 2.

Footnotes
232:1 The last line on page 246 should, I think, be the penultimate line of page 247.

232:2 The body consists of six elements, and is hence called shâtkausika. Of these, three having a white appearance (fat, bone, and marrow), come from the sun and from man; three having a. red appearance, come from fire and from the woman.

232:3 It is well therefore to shake off this body, and by meditating on the uktha to obtain identity with Hiranyagarbha. Comm.

233:1 The worshipper identifies himself by meditation with prâna, breath, which comprehends all gods. These gods (Agni and the rest) appear in the forms of speech, &c. Comm.

233:2 The prâna, breath, and their identity with it through meditation or worship. Comm.

233:3 Sarvâhammânî hiranyagarbha iti sruteh. Comm.

234:1 Cf. 11, 2, 4, 4.

234:2 The commentator remarks that the worship and meditation on the uktha as prâna, as here taught, is different from the prânavidyâ, the knowledge of prâna, taught in the Khândogya, the Brihadâranyaka, &c., where prâna or life is represented as the object of meditation, without any reference to the uktha or other portions of the Mahâvrata ceremony. He enjoins that the meditation on p. 235 the uktha as prâna should be continued till the desired result, the identification of the worshipper with prâna, is realised, and that it should afterwards be repeated until death, because otherwise the impression might vanish, and the reward of becoming a god, and going to the gods, be lost. Nor is the worship to be confined to the time of the sacrifice, the Mahâvrata, only, but it has to be repeated mentally during life. There are neither certain postures required for it, nor certain times and places. At the time of death, however, he who has become perfect in this meditation on uktha, as the emblem of prâna, will have his reward. Up to a certain point his fate will be the same as that of other people. The activity of the senses will be absorbed in the mind, the activity of the mind in breath, breath in the activity of life, life with breath in the five elements, fire, &c., and these five elements will be absorbed up to their seed in the Paramâtman or Highest Self. This ends the old birth. But then the subtile body, having been absorbed in the Highest Self, rises again in the lotus of the heart, and passing out by the channel of the head, reaches a ray of the sun, whether by day or by night, and goes at the northern or southern course of the sun to the road of Arkis or light. That Arkis, light, and other powers carry him on, and led by these he reaches the Brahma-loka, where he creates to himself every kind of enjoyment, according to his wish. He may create for himself a material body and enjoy all sorts of pleasures, as if in a state of waking, or he may, without such a body, enjoy all pleasures in mind only, as if in a dream. And as he creates these various bodies according to his wish, he creates also living souls in each, endowed with the internal organs of mind, and moves about in them, as he pleases. In fact this world is the same for the devotee (yogin) and for the Highest Self, except that creative power belongs truly to the latter only. At last the devotee gains the highest knowledge, that of the Highest Self in himself, and then, at the dissolution of the Brahma-loka, he obtains complete freedom with Brahman.