THIRD ADHYAYA .

1. Pratardana, forsooth, the son of Divodasa (king of Kasi), came by means of fighting and strength to the beloved abode of Indra. Indra said to him 'Pratardana, let me give you a boon to choose.' And Pratardana answered: 'Do you yourself choose that boon for me which you deem most beneficial for a man.' Indra said to him: 'No one who chooses, chooses for another; choose thyself,' Then Pratardana replied: 'Then that boon to choose is no boon for me.'

Then, however, Indra did not swerve from the truth, for Indra is truth. Indra said to him: 'Know me only; that is what I deem most beneficial for man, that he should know me. I slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri; I delivered the Arunmukhas, the devotees, to the wolves (salavrika); breaking many treaties, I killed the people of Prahlada in heaven, the people of Puloma in the sky, the people of Kalakanga on earth . And not one hair of me was harmed there. And he who knows me thus, by no deed of his is his life harmed, not by the murder of

his mother, not by the murder of his father, not by theft, not by the killing of a Brahman. If he is going to commit a sin, the bloom does not depart from his face.'

2. Indra said: 'I am prana, meditate on me as the conscious self (pragnatman), as life, as immortality. Life is prana, prana is life. Immortality is prana, prana is immortality. As long as prana dwells in this body, so long surely there is life. By prana he obtains immortality in the other world, by knowledge true conception. He who meditates on me as life and immortality, gains his full life in this world, and obtains in the Svarga world immortality and indestructibility.'

(Pratardana said): 'Some maintain here, that the pranas become one, for (otherwise) no one could at the same time make known a name by speech, see a form with the eye, hear a sound with the car, think a thought with the mind. After having become one, the pranas perceive all these together, one by one. While speech speaks, all pranas speak after it. While the eye sees, all pranas see after it. While the car hears, all pranas hear after it. While the mind thinks, all pranas think after it. While the prana breathes, all pranas breathe after it.'

'Thus it is indeed,' said Indra, 'but nevertheless there is a pre-eminence among the pranas .

3. Man lives deprived of speech, for we see dumb people. Man lives deprived of sight, for we see