18. 'When the old water that stood round the roots of trees is dried up (after about the month of Pausha, January to February [*2c]) he should not read; nor (at any time) in the morning or in the afternoon, when the shadows meet (he should begin at sunrise so soon as the shadows divide, and end in the evening before they fall together). Nor should he read [*3c] when a cloud has risen; and when there is an unseasonable rain (after the months of Sravana and Bhadrapada, August and September [*4c]) 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.

19. '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.'

Footnotes

^264:4 One of the sons of Harita, who was dark. Comm.

^264:5 Brahmana, in the sense of Upanishad, this secret doctrine or explanation. It forms an appendix, like the svishtakrit at the end of a sacrifice. 'Iva,' which the commentator explains as restrictive or useless, may mean, something like a Brahmana.

^265:1 The letters n and sh refer most likely to the rules of natva and shatva, i. e. the changing of n and s into n and sh.

^265:2 If we know whenever n and s should be changed to n and sh in the Samhita.

^265:3 The Kavasheyas said that, after they had arrived at the highest knowledge of Brahman (through the various forms of meditation and worship that lead to it and that have been described in the Upanishad) no further meditation and no further sacrifice could be 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.

^266:1 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 (brahmakarin [*2a]), so that no one except a regular pupil (antevasin) could possibly gain access to it. Nor can there be any doubt that we ought to take the words asamvatsaravasin and apravaktri 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.'