Prasna Upanishad

Verse 1

Sukesas' Bharadvaga and Saivya Satyakama, and Saurydyawin® Gargya, and Kausalya‘ Asvala- yana, and Bhargava Vaidarbhi®, and Kabandhin Katydyana, these were devoted to Brahman, firm in Brahman, seeking for the Highest Brahman. They thought that the venerable Pippalada could tell them all that, and they therefore took fuel in their hands (like and approached him.

Verse 2

That Azshi said to them: ‘Stay here a year longer, with penance, abstinence, and faith; then you may ask questions according to your pleasure, and if we know them, we shall tell you all.’

Verse 3

Then*® Kabandhin Katyayana approached him and asked: ‘Sir, from whence may these creatures be born?’ Sukesas seems better than Sukesan, and he is so called in the sixth in Mill Bharadvaga, Saivya, Gargya, Asvalayana, Bhargava, and KAtyé- yana are, according to Sankara, names of gotras or families. Sfiryasyapatyam Sauryah, tadapatyam Saurydyanih. Dirghah sulopas khAndasa iti eva Sauryayawi. Kausalyo namata’, kosalayam bhavo Vaidarbhi is explained as vidarbhe4 prabhava/, or Vidarbheshu prabhavaf. Vidarbha, a country, south of the Vindhya mountains, with Kumdina as its capital. Vaidarbha, a king of the Vidarbhas, is mentioned in the Ait. Brahm. Vaidarbhi is a patronymic of Vidarbha. See After the year was over.

Verse 4

He replied: Pragdpati (the lord of was desirous of creatures He performed penance?, and having performed penance, he pro- duces a pair, matter and spirit think- ing that they together should produce creatures for him in many ways. The sun is spirit, matter is the moon. All this, what has body and what has no body, is matter, and therefore body indeed is matter.

Verse 6

Now Aditya, the sun, when he rises, goes toward the East, and thus receives the Eastern spirits into his rays. And when he illuminates the South, the West, the North, the Zenith, the Nadir, the intermediate quarters, and everything, he thus receives all spirits into his rays.

Verse 7

Thus he rises, as Vaisvanara, (belonging to all assuming all forms, as spirit, as fire. This has been said in the following verse: (They him who assumes all forms, the golden who knows all things, who ascends highest, alone in his splendour, and warms us; the thousand- rayed, who abides in a hundred places, the spirit of all creatures, the Sun, rises.

Verse 9

The year indeed is Pragdpati, and there are two paths thereof, the Southern and the Northern. Now those who here believe in sacrifices and pious gifts as work done, gain the moon only as their Or he meditated; see Upanishads, vol. i, Sankara explains, or rather obscures, this by saying that the sun is breath, or the eater, or Agni, while matter is the food, Set wMaitr, Up. Harizam is explained as rasmimantam, or as harati sarveshim praninam ayfmshi bhauman rasan iti harimah. I prefer to take it in the sense of yellow, or golden. world, and return again. Therefore the ishis who desire offspring, go to the South, and that path of the Fathers is matter

Verse 10

But those who have sought the Self by penance, abstinence, faith, and knowledge, gain by the Northern path Aditya, the sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From thence they do not return, for itis the end. ‘Thus says the Sloka!:

Verse 11

Some call him the father with five feet (the five and with twelve shapes (the twelve the giver of rain in the highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in the lower half, in the chariot? with seven wheels and six spokes.

Verse 12

The month is its dark half is matter, its bright half spirit. Therefore some Azshis perform sacrifice in the bright half, others in the

Verse 13

Day and Night® are Pragdpati; its day is spirit, its night matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to unite in love by night is right.

Verse 14

Food is Pragdpati. Hence proceeds seed, and from it these creatures are born.

Verse 15

Those therefore who observe this rule of Pragdpati (as laid down in produce a pair, and to them belongs this Brahma-world here*. But Rig-veda I, We ought to read upare vikakshamam. Saptagakre, rathe. The seven wheels are explained as the rays or horses of the sun; or as half-years, seasons, months, half- months, days, nights, and muhfirtas. ’ Taken as one, as a Nychthemeron. In the moon, reached by the path of the Fathers. those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and

Verse 16

To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked, nothing false, and no guile.’

Verse 1

Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked him: ‘Sir, How many gods? keep what has thus been created, how many manifest this?, and who is the best of

Verse 2

He replied: ‘The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their contend and say: We (each of support this body and 34. Then PrAza (breath, spirit, as the best, said to them: Be not deceived, I alone, dividing myself fivefold, support this body and keep it.

Verse 4

They were incredulous; so he, from pride, did as if he were going out from above. Thereupon,? Devah, powers, organs, senses. Their respective power. This is Sankara’s explanation, in which baza is taken to mean the same as sarira, body. But there seems to be no authority for such a meaning, and Anandagiri tries in vain to find an etymological excuse for it. Baza or Vama generally means an arrow, or, parti- cularly in Brahmama writings, a harp with many strings. do not see how an arrow could be used as an appropriate simile here, but a harp might, if we take in the sense of holding the frame of the instrument, and vidharaydmadZ in the sense of stretch- ing and thereby modulating it. On this dispute of the organs of sense, see Up.; KAand. Up. vol. i, as he went out, all the others went out, and as he returned, all the others returned. As bees go out when their queen! goes out, and return when she returns, thus speech, mind, eye, and ear; and, being satisfied, they praise Praza, saying:

Verse 5

He is Agni he shines as Sfrya he is Parganya the powerful he is he is the earth, he is matter, he is is what is and what is not, and what

Verse 6

As spokes in the nave of a wheel, everything is fixed in Prawa, the verses of the Azg-veda, Yagur- veda, Sdma-veda the sacrifice, the Kshatriyas, and

Verse 7

As Pragapati (lord of thou movest about in the womb, thou indeed art born again. To thee, the Praza, these creatures bring offerings, to thee-who dwellest with the other prazas (the

Verse 8

Thou art the best carrier for the Gods, thou art the first offering® to the Fathers. Thou art the true work of the Azshis*, of the Atharvangiras.

Verse 9

Prdza, thou art Indra by thy light, thou art Rudra, as a protector; thou movest in the sky, thou art the sun, the lord of lights.

Verse 10

When thou showerest down rain, then, Praza, these creatures of thine are delighted’, hoping that there will be food, as much as they desire.? In Sanskrit it is madhukararaga, king of the bees. When a sraddha is offered to the Pitrzs. ’ Explained as the eye and the other organs of sense which the chief Praza supports; but it is probably an old verse, here applied to a special purpose. Another reading is prazate, they breathe.

Verse 11

Thou art a Vrdtya!, Prama, the only Ashi’, the consumer of everything, the good lord. We are the givers of what thou hast to consume, thou, Maitarisva?, art our father.

Verse 12

Make propitious that body of thine which dwells in speech, in the ear, in the eye, and which pervades the mind; do not go away!

Verse 13

All this is in the power of Praza, whatever exists in the three heavens. Protect us like a mother her sons, and give us happiness and wisdom.’

Verse 1

Then Kausalya Asvalayana asked: ‘Sir, whence is that Prdva born? How does it come into this body? And how does it abide, after it has divided itself? How does it go out? How does it support what is without‘, and how what is

Verse 2

He replied: You ask questions more difficult, but you are very fond of Brahman, therefore I shall tell it you.

Verse 3

This is born of the Self. Like the shadow thrown on a man, this (the is? A person for whom the the sacramental and initiatory rites, have not been performed. Sankara says that, as he was the first born, there was no one to perform them for him, and that he is called Vratya, because he was pure by nature. This is all very? Agni is said to be the Rishi of the Atharvamas. Instead of the irregular vocative Matarisva, there is another reading, thou art the father of MAtarisvan, the wind, and therefore of the whole world. All creatures and the gods. spread out over it (the By the work of the mind? does it come into this body.

Verse 4

As a king commands officials, saying to them: Rule these villages or those, so does that PrAa dispose the other prazas, each for their

Verse 5

The Apana (the in the organs of excretion and generation; the Praza himself dwells in eye and ear, passing through mouth and nose. In the middle is the Samana? (the on- it carries what has been sacrificed as food equally (over the and the seven lights proceed from it.

Verse 6

The Self‘ is in the heart. There are the ror arteries, and in each of them there are a hundred (smaller and for each of these branches there are In these the Vydna (the back-? Over Brahman, the Self, the parama purusha, the akshara, the satya. The praza being called a shadow, is thereby implied to be unreal Sankara.? Manokrvta is explained as an Arsha sandhi. It means the good or evil deeds, which are the work of the mind. ’ I keep to the usual translation of Samana byon-breathing, though it is here explained in a different sense. Samana is here supposed to be between and apana, and to distribute the food equally, samam, over the body. The seven lights are explained as the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, and the mouth. Here the or Givatma. A hundred times would give us 10,100, and each multiplied by 72,000 would give us a sum total of 727,200,000 veins, or, if we add the principal veins, 727,210,201. Anandagiri makes the sum total, sofis, lakshas, six thousands, two hundred and one, where the six of the thousands seems to be a mistake for dasasa- hasram. In the Upanishad we read of 72,000 arteries, likewise in See also Up.

Verse 7

Through one of them, the Udana (the out- leads upwards to the good world by good work, to the bad world by bad work, to the world of men by both.

Verse 8

The sun rises as the external Prava, for it assists the Prava in the eye’. The deity that exists in the earth, is there in support of man’s Apana The ether between (sun and is the Samana the air is Vyana Light is the Udana and there- fore he whose light has gone out comes to a new birth with his senses absorbed in the mind.

Verse 10

Whatever his thought (at the time of with that he goes back to Praza, and the Prama, united with light’, together with the self (the leads on to the world, as deserved.

Verse 11

He who, thus knowing, knows Prdaza, his offspring does not perish, and he becomes immortal. Thus says the Sloka: He who has known the origin’, the entry, the place, the fivefold distribution, and the internal state* of the Praza, obtains immortality, yes, obtains Ahand. Up. comm.; Kaush. Up. Kasha? Without the sun the eye could not see.? With Udana, the out-breathing. This refers to the questions asked in verse and answered in the verses which follow. The adhyatma, as opposed to the vahya, mentioned in verse Ayati instead of yati is explained by 44andasam hrasvatvam.

Verse 1

Then Saurydyavin Gargya asked: ‘Sir, What are they that sleep in this man, and what are they that are awake in him? What power is it that sees dreams? Whose is the happiness? On what do all these depend?’

Verse 2

He replied: GArgya, As all the rays of the sun, when it sets, are gathered up in that disc of light, and as they, when the sun rises again and again, come forth, so is all this (all the gathered up in the highest faculty the mind. Therefore at that time that man does not hear, see, smell, taste, touch, he does not speak, he does not take, does not enjoy, does not evacuate, does not move about. He sleeps, that is what people say.

Verse 3

The fires of the prazas are, as it were*, awake in that town (the The Apdna is the Garha- patya fire, the Vyana the fire; and because it is taken out of the Garhapatya fire, which is fire for taking out’, therefore the Praza is the See note to verse We ought to read aynaya iva. ’ Pramayana, pramtyate ’smad iti pravayano garhapatyo ’gnif. The comparison between the pravas and the fires or altars is not very clear. As to the fires or altars, there is the Garhapatya, placed in the South-west, the household fire, which is always kept burning, from which the fire taken to the other altars. The Anvaharyapagana, commonly called the Dakshina fire, placed in the South, used chiefly for oblations to the forefathers. The Ahavantya fire, placed in the East, and used for sacrifices to the Now the Apna is identified with the Garhapatya fire, no reason being given except afterwards, when it is said that the Praza is the Ahavanfya fire, being taken out of the Garhapatya, here called

Verse 4

Because it carries equally these two oblations, the out-breathing and the in-breathing, the Samana is he (the Hotvz The mind is the sacri- ficer, the Udana is the reward of the sacrifice, and it leads the sacrificer every day (in deep to

Verse 5

There that god? (the enjoys in sleep greatness. What has been seen, he? sees again; what has been heard, he hears again; what has been enjoyed in different countries and quarters, he enjoys again; what has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, enjoyed and not enjoyed, he sees it all; he, being all, sees.

Verse 6

And when he is overpowered by light*, then that god sees no dreams, and at that time that happiness arises in his body.

Verse 7

And, friend, as birds go to a tree to roost, thus all this rests in the Highest Atman,—

Verse 8

The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtile elements, the air and its subtile elements, the ether and its subtile elements; the eye and what can be pramzayana, in the same manner as the prama proceeds in sleep from the apana. The Vydana is identified with the Dakshinagni, the Southern fire, because it issues from the heart through an aperture on the right. The name of the Hotr? priest must be supplied. He is sup- posed to carry two oblations equally to the Ahavaniya, and in the same way the Vyana combines the two breathings, the in and out? The givatman under the guise of manas. The Sanskrit word is deva, god, used in the sense of an invisible power, but as a masculine. The commentator uses manodevah, I generally translate deva, if used in this sense, by faculty, but the context required a masculine. See verse In the state of profound sleep or sushupti. seen, the ear and what can be heard, the nose and what can be smelled, the taste and what can be tasted, the skin and what can be touched, the voice and what can be spoken, the hands and what can be grasped, the feet and what can be walked, the mind and what can be perceived, intellect and what can be conceived, personality and what can be personified, thought and what can be thought, light and what can be lighted up, the Praza and what is to be supported by it.

Verse 9

For he it is who sees, hears, smells, tastes, perceives, conceives, acts, he whose essence is know- ledge!, the person, and he dwells in the highest,

Verse 10

He who knows that indestructible being, obtains (what the highest and indestructible, he without a shadow, without a body, without colour, bright,— yes, friend, he who knows it, becomes all-knowing, becomes all. On this there is this Sloka: He, friend, who knows that indestructible being wherein the true knower, the vital spirits together with all the powers and the elements rest, he, being all-knowing, has pene-

Verse 1

Then Saivya Satyakama asked him: ‘Sir, ifsome one among men should meditate here until death on the syllable Om, what would he obtain by it?’

Verse 2

He replied: Satyakama, the syllable Om (A is the highest and also the other Brahman; Buddhi and the rest are the instruments of knowledge, but there is the knower, the person, in the Highest Self. therefore he who knows it arrives by the same means! at one of the two.

Verse 3

If he meditate on one MAtra (the then, being enlightened by that only, he arrives quickly at the earth*®, The lead him to the world of men, and being endowed there with penance, abstinence, and faith, he enjoys greatness.

Verse 4

If he meditate witht two Matras (A he arrives at the Manas°, and is led up by the Yagus- verses to the sky, to the Soma-world. Having enjoyed greatness in the Soma-world, he returns again.

Verse 5

Again, he who meditates with this syllable of three’ Matras, on the Highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. And as a snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil. He is led up by the Sdman-verses to the Brahma- world®; and from him, full of life (Hirazyagarbha, the lord of the he learns® to see the all-pervading, the Highest Person. And there are these two Slokas:

Verse 6

The three Matras (A if employed separate, and only joined one to another, are mortal?;: Ayatanena, alambanena. Vakaspatinaivakaramatram ityeva vyakhydtam. Sampadyate prApnoti ganmeti seshaf. Srutau tretiya dvitfyarthe. Literally the mind, but here meant for the moon, as before. It is clear that manasi belongs to sampadyate, not, as the Dipika and Roer think, to dhydyita. Some take it for The world of Hiranyagarbhad, called the Satyaloka. On a later addition, bringing in the Om as consisting of three Matras and a half, see Weber, Ind. Stud. I, Roer, Because in their separate form, A, they do not mean the Highest Brahman. but in acts, external, internal, or intermediate, if well performed, the sage trembles not?.

Verse 7

Through the he arrives at this world, through the Yagus-verses at the sky, through the Saman-verses at that which the poets arrives at this by means of the the wise arrives at that which is at rest, free from decay, from death, from Highest.’

Verse 1

Then Sukesas Bharadvaga asked him, saying: ‘Sir, Hirazyanabha, the prince of KosalA?, came to me and asked this question: Do you know the person of sixteen parts, Bharadvaga? I said to the prince: I do not know him; if I knew him, how should I not tell you? Surely, he who speaks what is untrue withers away to the very root; therefore I will not say what is untrue. Then he mounted his chariot and went away silently. Now I ask you, where is that person?’

Verse 2

He replied: Friend, that person is here within the body, he in whom these parts arise.

Verse 3

He reflected: What is it by whose departure I shall depart, and by whose staying I shall stay?

Verse 4

He sent forth Praza from The three acts are explained as waking, slumbering, and deep sleep; or as three kinds of pronunciation, tara-mandra-madhyama. They are probably meant for Yoga exercises in which the three Matras of Om are used as one word, and as an emblem of the? Sankara explains Kausalya by Kosalayam bhavak. Ananda- tirtha gives the same explanation. Kosala is the capital, generally called Ayodhya. There is no authority for the palatal Sankara explains praza by sarvapramzo Hiramyagarbha (sarva- Prava Sraddha ether, air, light, water, earth, sense, mind, food; from food came vigour, penance, hymns, sacrifice, the worlds, and in the worlds the

Verse 5

As these flowing rivers* that go towards the ocean, when they have reached the ocean, sink into it, their name and form are broken, and people speak of the ocean only, exactly thus these sixteen parts of the spectator that go towards the person when they have reached the person, sink into him, their name and form are broken, and people speak of the person only, and he becomes without parts and immortal. On this there is this verse:

Verse 6

That person who is to be known, he in whom these parts rest, like spokes in the nave of a wheel, you know him, lest death should hurt you.’

Verse 7

Then he said to them: ‘So far do I know this Highest Brahman, there is nothing higher than it.’

Verse 8

And they praising him, said: You, indeed, are our father, you who carry us from our ignorance to the other shore.’ Adoration to the highest Adoration to the highest Rshis! Tat sat. HariZ, Om! " Faith is supposed to make all beings act rightly. Nama stands here for name and form. See before, Mund. Up. Khand. Up.