self-control. Placing the manas in Āṭmā, one should think of nothing else. Then causing the union of prāṇa and apāna, he concentrates his aim upon the whole universe being of the nature of Āṭma. Then comes the state of turyāṭīṭa (viz., that state beyond the fourth). Then everything appears as bliss. He is beyond the pairs (of happiness and pains, etc.). He stays here as long as he should wear his body. Then he attains the nature of Paramāṭmā and attains emancipation through this means. This alone is the means of knowing Āṭmā.

When vāyu (breath) which enters the great hole associated with a hall where four roads meet gets into the half of the well-placed triangle, 1 then is Achyuṭa (the indestructible) seen. Above the aforesaid triangle, one should meditate on the five bīja (seed) letters of (the elements) pṛṭhivī, etc., as also on the five prāṇas, the colour of the bījas and their position. The letter य 2 is the bīja of prāṇa and resembles the blue cloud. The letter र is the bīja of agni, is of apāna and resembles the sun. The letter ल is the bīja of pṛṭhivī, is of vyāna and resembles banḍhūka flower. The letter व is the bīja of jīva (or vayu), is of udāna and is of the colour of the conch. The letter ह is the bīja of ākāś, is of samāna, and is of the colour of crystal. Prāṇa stays in the heart, navel, nose, ear, foot, finger, and other places, travels through the seventy-two thousand nādis, stays in the twenty-eight crores of hair-pores and is yet the same everywhere. It is that which is called jīva. One should perform the three, expiration, etc., with a firm will and great control: and drawing in everything (with the breath) in slow degrees, he should bind prāṇa and apāna in the cave of the lotus of the heart and utter praṇava, having contracted his throat and the genital organ. From the Mūlāḍhāra (to the head) is the Sushumnā resembling the shining thread of the lotus. The nāḍa is located in the Vīṇāḍaṇda, (spinal column); that sound from its middle resembles (that of) the conch, etc. When it goes to the hole of the ākāś, it resembles that of the peacock. In the middle of the cave of the

skull between the four doors shines Āṭmā, like the sun in the sky. Between the two bows in the Brahma-hole, one should see Purusha with śakṭi as his own Āṭmā. Then his manas is absorbed there. That man attains kaivalya who understands the gems, moonlight, nāḍa, binḍu, and the seat of Maheśvara (the great Lord).

Thus is the Upanishaḍ.

Footnotes

202:1 The Upanishaḍ of the seed of meditation.

202:2 Of the heart.

204:1 The black mark on the breast standing for mūlaprakṛṭi and the garland for the five elements.

205:1 In other places, it is ten.

210:1 Probably it refers to the triangle of the initiates.

210:2 There seems to be some mistake in the original.

Next: 25. Hamsa-Upanishaḍ of Śukla-Yajurveḍa

Hinduism