* He is the same Kshatriya sage who appeared in I, 8, 1, silencing the Brahmans,
V Prapathaka, 3 Khanda, 6. 77
‘Do you know how they return again?’ ‘No Sir,’ he replied.
‘Do you know where the path of Devas and the path of the fathers diverge?’ ‘No, Sir,’ he replied.
3. ‘Do you know why that world! never becomes full?” ‘No, Sir,’ he replied.
‘Do you know why in the fifth libation water is called Man??’ ‘No, Sir,’ he replied.
4. ‘Then why did you say (you had been) in-
structed ? How could anybody who did not know
these things say that he had been instructed ?’
Then the boy went back sorrowful to the place of his
father, and said: ‘Though you had not instructed
me, Sir, you said you had instructed me.
5. ‘That fellow of a Raganya asked me five
questions, and I could not answer one of them.’
The father said: ‘As you have told me these
questions of his, | do not know any one of them *.
If I knew these questions, how should I not have
told you*?’
6. Then Gautama went to the king's place, and
when he had come to him, the king offered him
proper respect. In the morning the king went out
on his way to the assembly®. The king said to him:
1 That of the fathers. Comm.
2 Or, according to others, why the water has a human voice ; purushavaéah in Brzh, Ar. XIV, 9, 3.
* I doubt whether the elliptical construction of these sentences is properly filled out by the commentator. In the Brzhadaranyaka the construction is much easier. ‘You know me well enough to know that whatever I know, I told you.’
* I read avedishyam, though both the text and commentary give avadishyam. Still viditavan asmi points to an_ original avedishyam, and a parallel passage,. VI, 1, 7, confirms this emendation.
® Cf. KA. Up. V, r1, 5.
78 KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
‘Sir, Gautama, ask a boon of such things as men
possess. He replied: ‘Such things as men possess
may remain with you. Tell me the speech which
you addressed to the boy.’
7. The king was perplexed, and commanded
him, saying: ‘Stay with me some time.’ Then he
said: ‘As (to what) you have said to me, Gautama,
this knowledge did not go to any Brahmawa before
you, and therefore this teaching belonged in all
the worlds to the Kshatra class alone. Then he
began :
FourtH KHawpa}!.
‘1. ‘The altar (on which the sacrifice is supposed
to be offered) is that world (heaven), O Gautama ;
its fuel is the sun itself, the smoke his rays, the
light the day, the coals the moon, the sparks the
stars.
2. ‘On that altar the Devas (or prazas, repre-
sented by Agni, &c.) offer the sraddhé libation
(consisting of water). From that oblation rises
Soma, the king? (the moon).
FirtH KHAwpa.
1. ‘The altar is Parganya (the god of rain), O
Gautama; its fuel is the air’ itself, the .smoke
the cloud, the light the lightning, the coals the
thunderbolt, the sparks the thunderings °.
1 He answers the last question, why water in the fifth libation is called Man, first.
* The sacrificers themselves rise through their oblations to heaven, and attain as their reward a Soma-like nature.
* Hraduni, generally explained by hail, but here by stanayitnu- sabd4h, rumblings.
V Prapathaka, 9 Khanda, 2. 79
2. ‘On that altar the Devas offer Soma, the king (the moon). From that oblation rises rain},
SixtH KHAnDA.
1. ‘The altar is the earth, O Gautama; its. fuel
is the year itself, the smoke the ether, the light
the night, the coals the quarters, the sparks the
intermediate quarters.
2. ‘On that altar the Devas (prdmas) offer rain. From that oblation rises food (corn, &c.)
SEVENTH KHAWDA.
1. ‘The altar is man, O Gautama; its fuel
speech itself, the smoke the breath, the light the
tongue, the coals the eye, the sparks the ear.
2. ‘On that altar the Devas (prazas) offer food. From that oblation rises seed.
E1GHTH KHANDA.
1. ‘ The altar is woman, O Gautama?. 2. ‘On that altar the Devas (pravas) offer seed. From that oblation rises the germ.
NintH KHANDA.
1. ‘For this reason is water in the fifth oblation
called Man. This germ, covered in the womb, having
dwelt there ten months, or more or less, is born.
2. ‘When born, he lives whatever the length of
his life may be. When he has departed, his friends
carry him, as appointed, to the fire (of the funeral
pile) from whence he came, from whence he sprang.
1 The water, which had assumed the nature of Soma, now becomes rain,
2 Tasya upastha eva samid, yad upamantrayate sa dhimo, yonir arkir, yad anta/ karoti te ’ng4ra abhinanda vishphulinga/.
80 KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
1. ‘Those who know this! (even though they
still be gvzhasthas, householders) and those who in
the forest follow faith and austerities (the vdna-
prasthas, and of the parivragakas those who do not
yet know the Highest Brahman) go ® to light (aréis),
from light to day, from day to the light half of the
moon, from the light half of the moon to the six
months when the sun goes to the north, from the
six months when the sun goes to the north to the
year, from the year to the sun, from the sun to the
moon, from the moon to the lightning. There ts
a person not human ’,—
2. ‘He leads them to Brahman (the conditioned Brahman). This is the path of the Devas.
3. ‘But they who living in a village practise (a life
_ of) sacrifices, works of public utility, and alms, they
go to the smoke, from smoke to night, from night
to the dark half of the moon, from the dark half of
the moon to the six months when the sun goes to
the south. But they do not reach the year.
4. ‘From the months they go to the world of the
fathers, from the world of the fathers to the ether,
from the ether to the moon. That is Soma, the
king. Here they are loved (eaten) by the Devas,
yes, the Devas love (eat) them *.
NG SS:
* The doctrine of the five fires, and our being born in them, i.e. in heaven, rain, earth, man, and woman.
Yh ee Oey, 25, B. _ * Instead of manava, human, or amanava, not human, the Brzh. Ar. reads m4nasa, mental, or created by manas, mind.
* This passage has been translatéd, ‘They are the food of the gods. The gods do eat it.’ And this is indeed the literal meaning of the words. But bhag (to enjoy) and bhaksh (to eat) are often
V Prapathaka, Io Khanda, 6. 81
5: ‘Having dwelt there, till their (good) works
are consumed, they return again that way as they
came}, to the ether, from the ether to the air. Then
the sacrificer, having become air, becomes smoke,
having become smoke, he becomes mist,
6. ‘Having become mist, he becomes a cloud,
having become a cloud, he rains down. Then he
is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, sesamum
and beans. From thence the escape is beset with
most difficulties. For whoever the persons may be
that eat the food, and beget offspring, he hence-
forth becomes like unto them.
used by theosophical writers in India, in the more general sense of cherishing or loving, and anna in the sense of an object of desire, love, and protection. The commentators, however, as the use of bhaksh in this sense is exceptional, or as it has no support in the use of the ancients, warn us here against a possible mis- understanding. If those, they say, who have performed sacrifices enter at last into the essence of Soma, the moon, and are eaten by the Devas, by Indra, &c., what-is the use of their good works? No, they reply, they are not really eaten. Food (anna) means only what is helpful and delightful; it is not meant that they are eaten by morsels, but that they form the delight of the Devas. Thus we hear it said that men, women, and cattle are food for kings. And if it is said that women are loved by men, they are, in being loved, themselves loving. Thus these men also, being loved by the Devas, are happy and rejoice with the Devas. Their body, in order to be able to rejoice in the moon, becomes of a watery substance, as it was said before, that the water, called the Sraddha libation, when offered in heaven, as in the fire of the altar, becomes Soma, the king (KA. Up. V, 4, 1). That water becomes, after various changes, the body of those who have performed good works, and when a man is dead and his body burnt (4. Up. V, g, 2), the water rises from the body upwards with the smoke, and carries him to the moon, where, in that body, he ‘enjoys the fruits of his good works, as long as they last. When they are consumed, like the oil in a lamp, he has to return to a new round of existences, ? But only to a certain point.
82 KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
7. ‘Those whose conduct has been good, will
quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brah-
mavza, or a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose
conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil
birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or a Kazdala.
8. ‘On neither of these two ways those small crea-
tures (flies, worms, &c.) are continually returning of
whom it may be said, Live and die. Theirs is a
third place.
‘Therefore that world never becomes full’ (cf. V5°3s. 2):
1 In this manner all the five questions have been answered. First, why in the fifth oblation water is called man; secondly, to what place men go after death, some by the path of the Devas, others by the path of the fathers, others again by neither of these paths; thirdly, how they return, some returning to Brahman, others returning to the earth; fourthly, where the paths of the Devas and the fathers diverge, viz. when from the half-year the path of the Devas goes on to the year, while that of the fathers branches off to the world of the fathers; fifthly, why that world, the other world, does never become full, viz. because men either go on to Brahman or return again to this world.
Many questions are raised among Indian philosophers on the exact meaning of certain passages occurring in the preceding para- graphs, First, as to who is admitted to the path of the Devas? Householders, who know the secret doctrine of the five fires or the five libations of the Agnihotra, as described above, while other householders, who only perform the ordinary sacrifices, with- out a knowledge of their secret meaning, go by the path of the fathers. Secondly, those who have retired to the forest, and whose worship there consists in faith and austerities, i.e. Vanaprasthas and Parivragakas, before they arrive at a knowledge of the true Brahman, The question then arises, whether religious students also enter the path of the Devas? This is affirmed, because Purdmas and Sm~rttis assert it, or because our text, if properly understood, does not exclude it. Those, on the contrary, who know not only a conditioned, but the highest unconditioned Brah- man, do not proceed on the path of the Devas, but obtain Brahman immediately.
Again, there is much difference of opinion whether, after a man
V Prapathaka, Io Khanda, 9. 83
‘Hence let a man take care to himself! And thus
it is said in the following Sloka ? :—
9. ‘A man who steals gold, who drinks spirits,
has been in the moon, consuming his works, he can be born again. Birth is the result of former works, and if former works are alto- ‘gether consumed, there can be no new birth. This, however, is shown to be an erroneous view, because, besides the good sacrificial works, the fruits of which are consumed in the moon, there are other works which have to be enjoyed or expiated, as the case may be, in a new existence.