33. This fire (the Garhapatya-fire) with five bricks is the year. And its five bricks are spring, summer, rainy season, autumn, winter; and by them the fire has a head, two sides, a centre, and a tail. This earth (the Garhapatya-fire) here is the first sacrificial pile for Pragapati, who knows the Purusha (the Virag). It presented the sacrificer to Vayu, (the wind) by lifting him with the hands to the sky. That Vayu is Prana (Hiranyagarbha).

Prana is Agni (the Dakshinagni-fire), and its bricks are the five vital breaths, Prana, Vyana, Apana, Samana, Udana; and by them the fire has a head, two sides, a centre, and a tail. This sky (the Dakshinagni-fire) here is the second sacrificial pile for Pragapati, who knows the Purusha. It presented the sacrificer to Indra, by lifting him with the hands to heaven. That Indra is Aditya, the sun.

That (Indra) is the Agni (the Ahavaniya-fire), and its bricks are the Rik, the Yagush, the Saman, the Atharvangirasas, the Itihasa, and the Purana; and by them the fire has a head, two sides, a tail, and a centre. This heaven (Ahavaniya-fire) is the third sacrificial pile for Pragapati, who knows the

[paragraph continues] Purusha. With the hands it makes a present of the sacrificer to the Knower of the Self (Pragapati); then the Knower of the Self, lifting him up, presented him to Brahman. In him he becomes full of happiness and joy.

34. The earth is the Garhapatya-fire, the sky the Dakshina-fire, the heaven the Ahavaniya-fire; and therefore they are also the Pavamana (pure), the Pavaka (purifying), and the Suki (bright) . By this (by the three deities, Pavamana, Pavaka, and Suki) the sacrifice (of the three fires, the Garhapatya, Dakshina, and Ahavaniya) is manifested. And because the digestive fire also is a compound of the Pavamana, Pavaka, and Suki, therefore that fire is to receive oblations, is to be laid with bricks, is to be praised, and to be meditated on. The sacrificer, when he has seized the oblation, wishes to perform his meditation of the deity:

'The gold-coloured bird abides in the heart, and in the sun--a diver bird, a swan, strong in splendour; him we worship in the fire.'

Having recited the verse, he discovers its meaning, viz. the adorable splendour of Savitri (sun) is to be meditated on by him who, abiding within his mind, meditates thereon. Here he attains the place of rest for the mind, he holds it within his own Self. On this there are the following verses:

(1) As a fire without fuel becomes quiet in its

place , thus do the thoughts, when all activity ceases, become quiet in their place.

(2) Even in a mind which loves the truth and has gone to rest in itself there arise, when it is deluded by the objects of sense, wrongs resulting from former acts .

(3) For thoughts alone cause the round of births ; let a man strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinks, that he is: this is the old secret .