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The Upanishads, Part 1

By Max Müller

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IV, 1

FOURTH PRAPÂTHAKA.
FIRST KHANDA 2.
1. There lived once upon a time Gânasruti Pautrâyana (the great-grandson of Ganasruta), who was a pious giver, bestowing much wealth upon the people, and always keeping open house. He built places of refuge everywhere, wishing that people should everywhere eat of his food.

2. Once in the night some Hamsas (flamingoes) flew over his house, and one flamingo said to another: 'Hey, Bhallâksha, Bhallâksha (short-sighted friend). The light (glory) of Gânasruti Pautrâyana has spread like the sky. Do not go near, that it may not burn thee.'

3. The other answered him: 'How can you speak of him, being what he is (a râganya, noble), as if he were like Raikva with the car 1?'

4. The first replied: 'How is it with this Raikva with the car of whom thou speakest?'

The other answered: 'As (in a game of dice) all the lower casts 2 belong to him who has conquered with the Krita cast, so whatever good deeds other people perform, belong to that Raikva. He who knows what he knows, he is thus spoken of by me.'

5. Gânasruti Pautrâyana overheard this conversation, and as soon as he had risen in the morning, he said to his. door-keeper (kshattri): 'Friend, dost thou speak of (me, as if I were) Raikva with the car?'

He replied: 'How is it with this Raikva, with the car?'

6. The king said: 'As (in a game of dice), all the lower casts belong to him who has conquered with the Krita cast, so whatever good deeds other people perform, belong to that Raikva. He who knows what he knows, he is thus spoken of by me.'

7. The door-keeper went to look for Raikva, but returned saying, 'I found him not.' Then the king said: 'Alas! where a Brâhmana should be searched for (in the solitude of the forest), there go for him.'

8. The door-keeper came to a man who was lying beneath a car and scratching his sores 1. He addressed him, and said: 'Sir, are you Raikva with the car? '

He answered: 'Here I am.'

Then the door-keeper returned, and said: 'I have found him.'

Footnotes
55:2 Vâyu (air) and Prâna (breath) had before been represented as feet of Brahman, as the second pair. Now they are represented as Brahman, and as to be meditated on as such. This is the teaching of Raikva. The language of this chapter is very obscure, and I am not satisfied with the translation.

56:1 Sayugvan is explained as possessed of a car with yoked horses or oxen. Could it have meant originally, 'yoke-fellow, equal,' as in Rig-veda X, 130, 4? Anquetil renders it by 'semper cum se ipso camelum solutum habens.'

56:2 Instead of adhareyâh, we must read adhare 'yâh.

57:1 It is curious that in a hymn of the Atharva-veda (V, 22, 5, 8) takman, apparently a disease of the skin, is relegated to the Mahâvrishas, where Raikva dwelt. Roth, Zur Literatur des Veda, p. 36.