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The Upanishads, Part 1

By Max Müller

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III, 1, 1

THIRD ÂRANYAKA 1.
FIRST ADHYÂYA.
FIRST KHANDA.
1. Next follows the Upanishad of the Samhitâ 2.

2. The former half is the earth, the latter half the heaven, their union the air 3, thus says Mândukeya; their union is the ether, thus did Mâkshavya teach it.

3. That air is not considered 4 independent 5, therefore I do not agree with his (Mandûka's) son.

4. Verily, the two are the same, therefore air is considered independent, thus says Âgastya. For it is the same, whether they say air or ether 1.

5. So far with reference to deities (mythologically); now with reference to the body (physiologically):

6. The former half is speech, the latter half is mind, their union breath (prâna), thus says Sûravîra 2 Mândukeya.

7. But his eldest son said: The former half is mind, the latter half speech. For we first conceive with the mind indeed 3, and then we utter with speech. Therefore the former half is indeed mind, the latter half speech, but their union is really breath.

8. Verily, it is the same with both, the father (Mândukeya) and the son 4.

9. This (meditation as here described), joined 5 with mind, speech, and breath, is (like) a chariot drawn by two horses and one horse between them (prashtivâhana).

10. And he who thus knows this union, becomes united with offspring, cattle, fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He lives his full age.

11. Now all this comes from the Mândukeyas.

Footnotes
247:1 This last portion of the Upanishad is found in the MS. discovered by Dr. Bühler in Kashmir, and described by him in the journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, p. 36. I have collated it, so far as it was possible to read it, many lines being either broken off altogether, or almost entirely obliterated.

247:2 Samhitâ is the sacred text in which all letters are closely joined. The joining together of two letters is called their samhitâ; the first letter of a joined group the pûrvarûpa (n.), the second the uttararûpa. For instance, in agnim île the m is pûrvarûpa, the î uttararûpa, and mî their samhitâ or union.

247:3 As in worshipping the Sâlagrâma stone, we really worship Vishnu, so we ought to perceive the earth, the heaven, and the air when we pronounce the first and the second letters of a group, and that group itself.

247:4 Mene has here been taken as 3rd pers. sing. perf. passive. The commentator, however, explains it as an active verb, niskitavân.

247:5 Because it is included in the ether, not the ether in the air. Comm.