17. The god who is in the fire, the god who is in the water, the god who has entered into the whole world, the god who is in plants, the god who is in trees, adoration be to that god, adoration!

Footnotes

^238:1 The seven introductory verses are taken from hymns addressed to Savitri as the rising sun. They have been so twisted by Sankara, in order to make them applicable to the teachings of the Yoga philosophy, as to become almost nonsensical. I have given a few specimens of Sankara's renderings in the notes, but have translated the verses, as much as possible, in their original character. As they are merely introductory, I do not understand why the collector of the Upanishad should have seen in them anything but an invocation of Savitri.

These verses are taken from various Samhitas. The first yunganah prathamam is from Taitt. Samh. IV, 1, 1, 1, 1; Vag. Samh. XI, 1; see also Sat. Br. VI, 3, 1, 12. The Taittiriya-text agrees with the Upanishad, the Vagasaneyi-text has dhiyam for dhiyah, and agneh for agnim. Both texts take tatvaya as a participle of tan, while the Upanishad reads tattvaya, as a dative of tattva, truth. I have translated the verse in its natural sense. Sankara, in explaining the Upanishad, translates: 'At the beginning of our meditation, joining the mind with the Highest Self, also the other pranas, or the knowledge of outward things, for the sake of truth, Savitri, out of the knowledge of outward things, brought Agni, after having discovered his brightness, above the earth, in this body.' He explains it: 'May Savitri, taking our thoughts away from outward things, in order to concentrate them on the Highest Self, produce in our speech and in our other senses that power which can lighten all objects, which proceeds from Agni and from the other favourable deities.' He adds that 'by the favour of Savitri, Yoga may be obtained.'