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The Upanishads, Part II

By Max Müller

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Brihadâranyaka Upanishad III,2

SECOND BRÂHMANA 1.
1. Then Gâratkârava Ârtabhâga 2 asked. 'Yâgñavalkya,' he said, 'how many Grahas are there, and how many Atigrahas 3?'

'Eight Grahas,' he replied,' and eight Atigrahas.'

'And what are these eight Grahas and eight Atigrahas?'

2. 'Prâna (breath) is one Graha, and that is seized by Apâna (down-breathing) as the Atigrâha 4, for one smells with the Apâna.'

3. 'Speech (vâk) is one Graha, and that is seized by name (nâman) as the Atigrâha, for with speech one pronounces names.

4. 'The tongue is one Graha, and that is seized by taste as the Atigrâha, for with the tongue one perceives tastes.'

5. 'The eye is one Graha, and that is seized by form as the Atigrâha, for with the eye one sees forms.'

6. 'The ear is one Graha, and that is seized by sound as the Atigrâha, for with the ear one hears sounds.'

7. 'The mind is one Graha, and that is seized by desire as the Atigrâha, for with the mind one desires desires.'

8. 'The arms are one Graha, and these are seized by work as the Atigrâha, for with the arms one works work.'

9. 'The skin is one Graha, and that is seized by touch as the Atigrâha, for with the skin one perceives touch. These are the eight Grahas and the eight Atigrahas.'

10. 'Yâgñavalkya,' he said, 'everything is the food of death. What then is the deity to whom death is food?'

'Fire (agni) is death, and that is the food of water. Death is conquered again.'

11. 'Yâgñavalkya,' he said, 'when such a person (a sage) dies, do the vital breaths (prânas) move out of him or no?'

'No,' replied Yâgñavalkya; 'they are gathered up in him, he swells, he is inflated, and thus inflated the dead lies at rest.'

12. 'Yâgñavalkya,' he said, 'when such a man dies, what does not leave him?'

'The name,' he replied; 'for the name is endless, the Visvedevas are endless, and by it he gains the endless world.'

13. 'Yâgñavalkya,' he said,' when the speech of this dead person enters into the fire 1, breath into the air, the eye into the sun, the mind into the moon, the hearing into space, into the earth the body, into the ether the self, into the shrubs the hairs of the body, into the trees the hairs of the head, when the blood and the seed are deposited in the water, where is then that person?'

Yâgñavalkya said: 'Take my hand, my friend. We two alone shall know of this; let this question of ours not be (discussed) in public.' Then these two went out and argued, and what they said was karman (work), what they praised was karman 1, viz. that a man becomes good by good work, and bad by bad work. After that Gâratkârava Ârtabhâga held his peace.

Footnotes
125:1 Mâdhyandina text, p. 1069.

125:2 A descendant of Ritabhâga of the family of Garatkâru.

125:3 Graha is probably meant originally in its usual sacrificial sense, as a vessel for offering oblations. But its secondary meaning, in which it is here taken, is a taker, a grasper, i.e. an organ of sense, while atigraha is intended for that which is grasped, i.e. an object of sense.

125:4 Here the â is long, khândasatvât.

126:1 The commentator explains purusha here by asamyagdarsin, one who does not know the whole truth. See also Deussen, Vedânta, p. 405, and p. 399, note.

127:1 What is intended is that the samsâra continues by means of karman, while karman by itself never leads to moksha.