him know the hearer. Let no man try to find out the tastes of food, let him know the knower of tastes. Let no man try to find out what action is, let him know the agent. Let no man try to find out what pleasure and pain are, let him know the knower of pleasure and pain. Let no man try to find out what happiness, joy, and offspring are, let him know the knower of happiness, joy, and offspring. Let no man try to find out what movement is, let him know the mover. Let no man try to find out what mind is, let him know the thinker. These ten objects (what is spoken, smelled, seen, &c.) have reference to pragna (self-consciousness), the ten subjects (speech, the senses, mind) have reference to objects. If there were no objects, there would be no subjects; and if there were no subjects, there would be no objects. For on either side alone nothing could be achieved. But that (the self of pragna, consciousness, and prana, life) is not many, (but one.) For as in a car the circumference of a wheel is placed on the spokes, and the spokes on the nave, thus are these objects (circumference) placed on the subjects (spokes), and the subjects on the prana. And that prana (breath, the living and breathing power) indeed is the self of pragna (the self-conscious self), blessed, imperishable, immortal. He does not increase by a good action, nor decrease by a bad action. For he (the self of prana and pragna) makes him, whom he wishes to lead up from these worlds, do a good deed; and the same makes him, whom he wishes to lead down from these worlds, do a bad deed . And he is the guardian of the world, he is

the king of the world, he is the lord of the universe,--and he is my (Indra's) self, thus let it be known, yea, thus let it be known!

Footnotes

^293:1 The object now is to explain the true Brahma-vidya, while the first and second chapters are only introductory, treating of the worship of the couch (paryankopasana) and of the worship of prana.

^293:2 This refers to heroic deeds performed by Indra, as represented in the hymns of the Rig-veda. See Rig-veda V, 34, 4, and Sayana's commentary; Ait. Brahm. VII, 28. Weber, Indische Studien I, 410-418, has tried to discover an original physical meaning in the heroic deeds ascribed to Indra. A curious remark is made by the commentator, who says that the skulls of the Arunmukhas were turned into the thorns of the desert (karira) which remain to this day,--a very common phase in popular tradition.

^294:1 Professor Cowell compares Taittiriya-Samhita III, 1, 1, nasya nitam na haro vyeti.

^294:2 Pranas, in the plural, is supposed to stand for the five senses as modifications of breath. It would be better if we could read pranasya nihsreyasam. See before, II, 14.

^295:1 Uktha, hymn, is artificially derived from ut-thapayati, to raise up, and hence uktha, hymn, is to be meditated on as prana, breath, which likewise raises up the body. See Ait. Ar. II, 1, 15.