Upanishads (Müller) — II, 3, 7

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The Upanishads, Part 1 (SBE01), by Max Müller, [1879], at sacred-texts.com

SEVENTH KHANDA.

1. 1.This (nishkevalya-sastra) becomes perfect as a thousand of Brihatîs. It is glory (the glorious Brahman, not the absolute Brahman), it is Indra. Indra is the lord of all beings. He who thus knows Indra as the lord of all beings, departs from this world by loosening the bonds of life 1--so said Mahidâsa Aitareya. Having departed he becomes Indra (or Hiranyagarbha) and shines in those worlds 2.

1. 1.And with regard to this they say: 'If a man obtains the other world in this form (by meditating on the prâna, breath, which is the uktha, the hymn of the mahâvrata), then in what form does he obtain this world 1?'

1. 1.Here the blood of the woman is a form of Agni (fire); therefore no one should despise it. And the seed of the man is a form of Âditya (sun); therefore no one should despise it. This self (the woman) gives her self (skin, blood, and flesh) to that self (fat, bone, and marrow), and that self (man) gives his self (fat, bone, and marrow) to this self (skin, blood, and flesh). Thus 2 these two grow together. In this form (belonging to the woman and to fire) he goes to that world (belonging to the man and the sun), and in that form (belonging to man and the sun) he goes to this world (belonging to the woman and to fire 3).

Footnotes

231:1 The commentator explains visrasâ by 'merging his manhood in the identity with all,' and doing this while still alive. Visras is the gradual loosening of the body, the decay of old age, but here it has the meaning of vairâgya rather, the shaking off of all that ties the Self to this body or this life.

231:2 The fourteen worlds in the egg of Brahman. Comm. Some hold that he who enters on this path, and becomes deity, does not p. 232 arrive at final liberation. Others, however, show that this identification with the uktha, and through it with the prâna (breath) and Hiranyagarbha, is provisional only, and intended to prepare the mind of the worshipper for the reception of the highest knowledge of Brahman.

Next: II, 3, 8