required. Instead of the morning and evening stoma they offer breath in speech, whenever they speak, or speech in breath, when they are silent or asleep. When speech begins, breathing ceases ; when breathing begins, speech ceases.
1 The strict prohibition uttered at the end of the third Aranyaka, not to divulge a knowledge of the Samhita-upanishad (Ait. Ar. III, 1-2), as here explained, is peculiar. It would have seemed self-evident that, like the rest of the sruti or sacred literature, the Aranyaka too, and every portion of it, could have been learnt from the mouth of a teacher only, and according to rule (niyamena), i. e. by a pupil performing all the duties of a student (brahmaéarin ”), so that no one except a regular pupil (antevdsin) could possibly gain access to it. Nor can there be any doubt that we ought to take the words asamvatsaravdsin and apravaktr7 as limitations, and to translate, ‘Let no one tell these Samhitas to any pupil who has not at least been a year with his master, and who does not mean to become a teacher in turn.’
That this is the right view is confirmed by similar injunctions given at the end of the fifth Aranmyaka. Here we have first some rules as to who is qualified to recite the Mahavrata. No one is permitted to do so, who has not passed through the Diksha, the initiation for the Agnishfoma. If the Mah4vrata is performed as a Sattra, the sacrificer is a Hotr? priest, and he naturally has passed through that ceremony. But if the Mah4vrata is performed as an Ekaha or Ahina ceremony, anybody might be the sacrificer, and therefore it was necessary to say that no one who is adikshita, un- initiated, should recite it for another person; nor should he do so,
: Apastamba-stitras, translated by Biihler, p. 18.
111 Aranyaka, 2 Adhyaya, 6 Khanda. 267
when the Mahavrata is performed without (or with) an altar, or if it does not last one year. In saying, however, that one should not recite the Mah4vrata for another person, parents and teachers are not to be understood as included, because what is done for them, is done for ourselves.
After these restrictions as to the recitation of the Mah4vrata, follow other restrictions as to the teaching of it, and here we read, as at the end of the Upanishad :
4. ‘Let no one teach this day, the Mah4vrata, to one who is not a regular pupil (antevasin), and has been so for one year, cer- tainly not to one who has not been so for one year; nor to one who is not a brahmafdrin and does not study the same Veda’, certainly not to one who does not study the same Veda; nor to one who does not come to him.
5. ‘Let the teaching not be more than saying it once or twice, twice only.
6. ‘One man should tell it to one man, so says GAtukarnya.
7. ‘Not to a child, nor to a man in his third stage of life.
8. ‘The teacher and pupil should not stand, nor walk, nor lie down, nor sit on a couch; but they should both sit on. the ground.
9. ‘The pupil should not lean backward while learning, nor lean forward. He should not be covered with too much clothing, nor assume the postures of a devotee, but without using any of the apparel of a devotee, simply elevate his knees. Nor should he learn, when he has eaten flesh, when he has seen blood, or a corpse, or when he has done an unlawful thing?; when he has anointed his eyes, oiled or rubbed his body, when he has been shaved or bathed, put colour on, or ornamented himself with flower- wreaths, when he has been writing or effacing his writing °*.
10. ‘Nor should he finish the reading in one day, so says Gatu- karnya, while according to Galava, he should finish it in one day. Agnivesyayana holds that he should finish all before the Trzkasitis*, and then rest in another place finishing it.
rr. ‘And in the place where he reads this, he should not read
1 See Gautama-siitras XIV, 21, and Bithler’s note.
2 NAavratyam 4kramya is explained by the commentator by ukkhish/adyakramana.
’ This, if rightly translated, would seem to be the earliest mention of actual writing in Sanskrit literature.
* See Ait. Ar. I, 4, 3, 1-4.
268 AITAREVA-ARANVAKA.
anything else, though he may read this (the Mahavrata) where he has read something else.
12. ‘No one should bathe and become a snataka’ who does not read this, Even if he has read many other things, he should not become a snataka if he has not read this.
13. ‘Nor should he forget it, and even if he should forget aay thing else, he should not forget this.
14. ‘No, he should never forget this.
15. ‘If he does not forget this, it will be enough for himself (or for acquiring a knowledge of the Self ).
16. ‘It is enough, let him know this to be true.
17. ‘Let him who knows this not communicate, nor dine, nor amuse himself with any one who does not know it.’
Then follow some more rules as to the reading of the Veda in general:
18. ‘When the old water that stood round the roots of trees is dried up (after about the month of Pausha, January to February’) he should not read; nor (at any time) in the morning or in the after- noon, when the shadows meet (he should begin at sunrise so soon as the shadows divide, and end in the evening before they fall to- gether). Nor should he read * when a cloud has risen; and when there is an unseasonable rain (after the months of Sravaza and Bha- drapada, August and September*) he should stop his Vedic reading for three nights. Nor should he at that time tell stories, not even during the night, nor should he glory in his knowledge.
1g. ‘ This (the Veda thus learnt and studied) is the name of that Great Being; and he who thus knows the name of that Great Being, he becomes Brahman, yea, he becomes Brahman,’ —
. Apastamba-sitras, translated by Biihler, p. 92 (I, 2, 30, 4). a Apastamba-stitras, translated by Biihler, p. 33 (I, 3, 9, 2).
: Apastamba-sitras, translated by Biihler, p. 44 (I, 3, 11, 31). * Apastamba-sfitras, translated by Biihler, p. 33 (I, 3, 9, 1).
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KAUSHITAKI-UPANISHAD.
First ADHYAYA.
1. ArTRA Gangydyani', forsooth, wishing to per-
form a sacrifice, chose Arumi (Uddalaka 2, to be his
chief priest). But Arumi sent his son, Svetaketu,
and said: ‘Perform the sacrifice for him. When
Svetaketu® had arrived, Xitra asked him: ‘Son of
Gautama‘, is there a hidden place in the world
where you are able to place me, or is it the other
way, and are you going to place me in the world
to which it (that other way) leads®?’
2 Cf. Kh. Up. V, 11, 2; Brth. Ar. VI, 2, 1.
CL AR Up. NV, 3; VI, z 4 Brith. Ar. VI, 2, 4.
5 The question put by Xitra to Svetaketu is very obscure, and was probably from the first intended to be obscure in its very wording. What Xitra wished to ask we can gather from other passages in the Upanishads, where we see another royal sage, Pra- vahana Gaivali(KA. Up. V, 3; Brzh. Ar. VI, 2), enlightening Sveta- ketu on the future life. That future life is reached by two roads;
272 KAUSHITAKI-UPANISHAD.
He answered and said: ‘I do not know this.
But, let me ask the master.’ Having approached
his father, he asked: ‘Thus has Xitra asked me;
how shall I answer ?’
one, the Devapatha, leading to the world of Brahman (the con- ditioned), beyond which there lies one other stage only, represented by knowledge of and identity with the unconditioned Brahman ; the other leading to the world of the fathers, and from thence, after the reward of good works has been consumed, back to a new round of mundane existence. There is a third road for creatures which live and die, worms, insects, and creeping things, but they are of little consequence. Now it is quite clear that the knowledge which king Xitra possesses, and which Svetaketu does not possess, is that of the two roads after death, sometimes called the right and the left, or the southern and northern roads. These roads are fully described in the KAandogya-upanishad and in the Brzhad-adramyaka, with certain variations, yet on the whole with the same purpose. The northern or left road, called also the path of the Devas, passes on from light and day to the bright half of the moon; the southern or right road, called also the path of the fathers, passes on from smoke and night to the dark half -of the moon. Both roads therefore meet in the moon, but diverge after- wards. While the northern road passes by the six months when the sun moves towards the north, through the sun, (moon,) and the lightning to the world of Brahman, the southern passes by the six months when the sun moves towards the south, to. the world of the fathers, the ether, and the moon. The great difference, however, between the two roads is, that while those who travel on the former do not return again to a new life on earth, but reach in the end a true knowledge of the unconditioned Brahman, those who pass on to the world of the fathers and the moon return to earth to be born again and again.
The question therefore which Kitra addresses to Svetaketu can refer to these two roads only, and though the text is very corrupt, and was so evidently even at the time when the commentary was written, we must try to restore it in accordance with the teaching imparted by Xitra in what follows. I propose to read: Gautamasya putra, asti samvretam loke yasmin m& dhasyasy anyatamo vadhva tasya (or yasya) ma loke dhasyasi, ‘Is there a hidden place in the world where you (by your sacrificing and teaching) are able to
I Adhyaya, 2. 273
Aruai said: ‘I also do not know this. Only after
having learnt the proper portion of the Veda in
Kitra’s own dwelling, shall we obtain what others
give us (knowledge). Come, we will both go.’
Having said this he took fuel in his hand (like
a pupil), and approached Xitra GAngydyani, say-
ing: ‘May I come near to you?’ He replied:
‘You are worthy of Brahman, O Gautama, because »
you were not led away by pride. Come hither, I
shall make you know clearly.’
2. And Xitra said: All who depart from this
world (or this body) go to the moon*. In the former,
(the bright) half, the moon delights in their spirits ;
in the other, (the dark) half, the moon sends them on
place me, or is it the other way, and will you place me in the world to which it leads?’ Even thus the text is by no means satisfactory, but it is better than anyam aho vadhva, adopted by the commentator and explained by him: Is there a hidden place in that world in which you will place me as another, ie. as different from the whole world or identical with the whole world, and, if as dif- ferent, then having bound me (vadhvi=baddhva) and made me a different person? We may read anyataro for anyatamo vadhva. The commentator sums up the question as referring to a hidden or not hidden place, where Xitra should be placed as another person or not another person, as bound or not bound; or, as Professor Cowell renders it, ‘O son of Gautama, is there any secret place in the world where thou canst set me unconnected, having fixed me there (as wood united with glue); or is there some other place where thou canst set me?’ The speculations on the fate of the soul after death seem to have been peculiar to the royal families of India, while the Brahmans dwelt more on what may be called the shorter cut, a knowledge of Brahman as the true Self. To know, with them, was to be, and, after the dissolution of the body, they looked forward to baie state emancipation, without any further wanderings.
1 Worthy to know Brahman, or, as the commentator, who reads brahmargha, thinks, to be honoured like Brahman.
2 Both roads lead to the moon, and diverge afterwards.
274 KAUSHITAKI-UPANISHAD.
to be born again’. Verily, the moon is the door of
the Svarga world (the heavenly world). Now, if a
man objects to the moon (if one is not satisfied with
life there) the moon sets him free” But if a man
does not object, then the moon sends him down as
rain upon this earth. And according to his deeds
and according to his knowledge he is born again
here as a worm, or as an insect, or as a fish, or as a
bird, or as a lion, or as a boar, or as a serpent, or
as a tiger, or as a man, or as something else in dif-
ferent places*. When he has thus returned to the
earth, some one (a sage) asks: ‘Who art thou?’
And he should answer: ‘ From the wise moon, who
orders the seasons*, when it is born consisting of
fifteen parts, from the moon who is the home of our
ancestors, the seed was brought. This seed, even
me, they (the gods mentioned in the Pafidagnividya °)
gathered up in an active man, and through an active