Prapathaka 6

6.1 Now, Prapathaka 6. This one bears the Self in two forms: as this life-breath and as that sun. These are its two paths, inward and outward; with day and night the two alternate. That sun is the outer Self; the life-breath is the inner Self. Thus the movement of the inner Self may be inferred from the movement of the outer Self. So it is said. But a knower whose evil has been swept away, who governs the senses, whose mind is clear, who is rooted in that and has turned his gaze inward—he may infer the movement of the outer Self from the movement of the inner Self. So it is said. And the golden Person within the sun, who looks upon this earth from his golden station, is the very one who dwells within the lotus of the heart and eats food.

6.2 And the one who dwells within the lotus of the heart and eats food is that solar fire abiding in heaven, invisible, called Time, which eats all beings as its food. What is this lotus, and of what is it made? This space itself is that lotus; its four directions and four intermediate directions are arranged as its petals. The life-breath and the sun move about here within. One should worship these with the syllable Om, with the sacred utterances, and with the Sāvitrī prayer.

6.3 Brahman has two forms: the formed and the formless. What is formed is untrue; what is formless is true. That is Brahman; that is light. That light is the sun. This sun came to have Om as its Self. It unfolded itself threefold: Om has three sound-measures. “By these, all this is woven through and through—and I am it.” So it is said. “The sun is this Om.” Meditating in this way, one should bring the Self into union.

6.4 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “The high chant is the sacred syllable; the sacred syllable is the high chant.” That sun is the high chant, and it is the sacred syllable. So it is said: “The high chant, called the sacred syllable, the guide, whose form is light, free of sleep, free of age, free of death, three-footed, three-lettered, and also to be known as fivefold, is hidden in the secret chamber.” So it is said. Brahman has its root above and three feet; its branches are space, wind, fire, water, earth, and the rest. This single tree, called the sacred fig, is Brahman. That sun is its radiance, and this is also the radiance of the syllable Om. Therefore one should worship it unceasingly with Om. This alone awakens one to it. So it is said: “This very syllable is holy; this very syllable is supreme. Knowing this very syllable, whatever one desires becomes one's own.”

6.5 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “Om is its body endowed with sound. It bears gender as female, male, and neuter. It bears light as fire, wind, and sun. It bears sovereignty as Brahmā, Rudra, and Vishnu. It bears mouths as the householder's fire, the southern fire, and the offering fire. It bears knowledge as the Rig, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas. It bears worlds as earth, atmosphere, and heaven. It bears time as what has been, what is coming to be, and what will be. It bears burning power as life-breath, fire, and sun. It bears nourishment as food, water, and moon. It bears consciousness as understanding, mind, and the sense of I. It bears life-breath as the life-breath, the downward breath, and the pervading breath.” Therefore, with the utterance Om, all these are praised, worshiped, and offered up. So it is said: “Truly, Satyakāma, this syllable Om is both the higher and the lower Brahman.”

6.6 Now, this was unuttered. Prajāpati, who is truth, practiced austerity and pronounced: “Earth, atmosphere, heaven.” This body of Prajāpati, consisting of the worlds, is his most substantial body. Heaven is its head, atmosphere its navel, earth its feet, and the sun its eye. For the greater part of a person depends on the eye: through the eye one moves among objects. The eye is truth, for the person who abides in the eye moves among all things. Therefore one should worship with “Earth, atmosphere, heaven.” By this, Prajāpati is worshiped as the Self of all, as the eye of all. So it is said: “This is Prajāpati's all-bearing body. All this is hidden within it, and it is hidden within all this.” Therefore one should worship it.

6.7 “That desirable radiance of Savitṛ”: that sun is Savitṛ. Those who speak of Brahman say that one who desires the Self should choose him above all. Then, “We meditate on the god's splendor”: Savitṛ is the god, and “We contemplate what is called his splendor,” say those who speak of Brahman. Then, “May he stir our thoughts”: thoughts are our powers of understanding; “May he stir these powers of ours,” say those who speak of Brahman. And as for “splendor”: the star hidden in that sun, the pupil in the eye, is what is called splendor. It is splendor because it moves by its rays; it is splendor because it burns. Those who speak of Brahman call it Rudra. The syllable bha means that he illumines these worlds; ra means that he delights these beings; ga means that these creatures go into him and come out from him. Because of this illuminating, delighting, and going, he is called splendor, bharga. He is Sūrya because he is continually being born; Savitṛ because he impels; Āditya because he takes; the purifier because he purifies; and the waters because he nourishes. So it is said: “He is the Self of the Self, the guide, called immortal, the conscious one, the thinker, the mover, the one who sends forth, the giver of joy, the doer, the speaker, the taster, the smeller, the seer, the hearer; he also touches, the all-pervading one who has entered the body.” So it is said. Where consciousness has become dual, there one hears, sees, smells, tastes, and touches: the Self knows everything. Where consciousness has become nondual, released from effect, cause, and action, beyond expression, beyond comparison, beyond description—what is that? It cannot be spoken.

6.8 This indeed is the Self: Īśāna, Śambhu, Bhava, Rudra, Prajāpati, the maker of all, Hiraṇyagarbha, truth, life-breath, the swan, the ruler, Vishnu, Nārāyaṇa, Arka, Savitṛ, Dhātṛ, Vidhātṛ, the sovereign, Indra, Indu. This is the one who burns, veiled like fire by fire, by the thousand-eyed golden egg. He is the one to be known, the one to be sought. Having granted every being freedom from fear, having gone into the forest and put the objects of the senses outside, one should discover him within one's own body. “The tawny one of every form, who knows all births, the final refuge, the one burning light—the thousand-rayed one, appearing a hundred ways, the life-breath of creatures: this sun rises.”

6.9 Therefore, knowing this twofold Self, one meditates upon the Self alone and sacrifices within the Self alone. Meditation is the mind established in practice, praised by the wise. Whatever is foul in the mind, defiled by leftovers, one should purify with this. One recites the prayer: “Whatever is left over or tainted by leftovers, whatever has been given by an evildoer or comes from the impurity of death or birth—may Vasu's purifier, fire, and the rays of Savitṛ purify my food, and whatever else I have done wrong.” First one encircles the food with water. With five invocations one offers it: “To the life-breath, svāhā! To the downward breath, svāhā! To the pervading breath, svāhā! To the balancing breath, svāhā! To the upward breath, svāhā!” Then, restraining speech, one eats what remains. Afterward one encircles it again with water. Having rinsed the mouth, sacrificing to the Self, one should meditate upon the Self with the two verses beginning “The life-breath is fire” and “You are all”: “The life-breath is fire, the supreme Self, dwelling with the five winds. Pleased, may it please all, the eater of all. You are all; you are the fire in all people. All that is born is sustained by you. May every offering enter you, and all creatures, there where you are the immortal in all.” Thus, by this rite, one does not again become food.

6.10 Something further must be known: the next development of this sacrifice to the Self, concerning food and the eater of food. Its explanation is this. The conscious Person, dwelling within primal matter, is the eater; he eats the food that comes from nature. This elemental Self is his food, and primal matter produces it. Thus what is to be eaten has three qualities; the eater is the Person within. Here is the evidence called direct observation: since animals arise from seed, seed is their food. This also explains how primal matter is food. Therefore the Person is the eater, and nature is what is eaten; dwelling within it, he eats. Food derived from nature, changing through the distinctions of the three qualities, is the distinguishing body, beginning with the great principle and ending with the particular elements. This also explains the fourteenfold path. This world, called pleasure, pain, and delusion, has become food. A seed's flavor cannot be enjoyed until it has brought forth. It too becomes food in its three stages—childhood, youth, and old age—because it changes. In this way one perceives the food-character of primal matter when it has become manifest. There, understanding and the rest become flavors: resolve, intention, and the sense of I. Then the objects of the senses become five flavors, as do all the actions of the senses and all the actions of the life-breaths. Thus the manifest is food, and the unmanifest is food. Its eater is without qualities, and his consciousness is established by his being the eater. Just as fire is the gods' eater of food, and Soma is food, so one who knows this eats food by fire. This elemental Self is called Soma, and the Person is called fire, since it is said, “Their mouth is the unmanifest.” Through the mouth of the unmanifest, the Person eats what has three qualities. One who knows this is a renunciant, a yogi, and a sacrificer to the Self. And just as no one in an empty house touches women who have entered it, so one who does not touch the objects of the senses that have entered is a renunciant, a yogi, and a sacrificer to the Self.

6.11 Food is the supreme form of this Self, for this life-breath is made of food. If one does not eat, one cannot think, hear, touch, see, speak, smell, or taste, and one lets go of the life-breaths. So it is said. But if one eats, filled with life-breath one becomes a thinker, a hearer, one who touches, a speaker, a taster, a smeller, a seer. So it is said: “From food are born all creatures that dwell upon the earth. By food alone they live, and into it they pass at last.”

6.12 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “All these beings fly forth day after day, seeking to seize food. The sun takes food with its rays, and by it the sun burns. Fed with food, these life-breaths cook. Fire blazes up with food. All this was fashioned by Brahman in its desire for food.” Therefore one should worship food as the Self. So it is said: “From food beings are born; once born, they grow by food. It is eaten, and it eats beings: therefore it is called food.”

6.13 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “This food is the body of the blessed Vishnu called the bearer of all. Life-breath is the essence of food; mind, of life-breath; knowledge, of mind; joy, of knowledge.” One who knows this possesses food, life-breath, mind, knowledge, and joy. As many beings as there are here eating food, within every one of them the knower of this eats food. “Food alone is ageless; food is held to win affection. Food is the life-breath of animals; food is the eldest; food is held to be the healer.”

6.14 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “Food is the womb of all this, time the womb of food, and the sun the womb of time.” Its form is the twelvefold year, gathered from units of time beginning with the blink of an eye. Half of it belongs to fire, half to Varuṇa. The fiery half begins with Maghā and reaches the middle of Śraviṣṭhā in forward order; the lunar half, in reverse order, begins with the Serpent's mansion and ends at the middle of Śraviṣṭhā. Within it, each has its own nine divisions, with its manner of movement. Because time is subtle, this is its measure; by this it is measured. Without a measure, what is measurable cannot be apprehended. What is measured, when set apart, itself becomes a measure, to make itself understood. So it is said: “As many as are the divisions of time, through so many that sun moves. For one who worships time as Brahman, time retreats far into the distance.” So it is said: “From time beings flow, and through time they come to growth. In time they go to rest. Time is form, itself formless.”

6.15 Brahman has two forms: time and the timeless. What is before the sun is timeless—timeless. What begins with the sun is time, with parts. The form of what has parts is the year. From the year these creatures are born; through the year those born here grow; in the year they come to rest. Therefore the year is Prajāpati, time, food, Brahman's dwelling, and the Self. So it is said: “Time ripens all beings within the great Self. But one who knows that in which time itself is ripened knows the Veda.”

6.16 This embodied time is an ocean, the king of creatures. The one who dwells within it is called Savitṛ, for from him are brought forth the moon, the constellations, the planets, the year, and the rest; from these comes all this. Whatever good or evil is seen here in the world comes from these. Therefore Brahman has the sun as its Self. One should worship the sun under the name of time. Some say, “The sun is Brahman.” So it is said: “The offering priest, the eater, the offering, the prayer, the sacrifice, Vishnu, Prajāpati, all, the Lord, the witness—whoever he may be, he is the one who shines in that disk.”

6.17 In the beginning this was Brahman: one, boundless—boundless toward the east, boundless toward the south, boundless toward the west, boundless toward the north, above and below, boundless on every side. No directions, east or otherwise, can be assigned to it, nor across, below, or above. This supreme Self cannot be inferred, measured, reasoned out, or conceived. Its Self is space. When everything perishes, this one alone keeps watch. From this space it awakens this whole world, which is consciousness alone; by it alone this world is contemplated, and into it this world sinks to rest. Its shining form is what burns in that sun, in the smokeless fire, and in the belly as the more vivid light that cooks food. So it is said: “The one in fire, the one here in the heart, and the one there in the sun are one.” One who knows this enters the oneness of the One.

6.18 The method of putting this into practice is this: control of the life-breath, withdrawal of the senses, meditation, concentration, inquiry, and absorption. These are called the six limbs of yoga. When, through this, the seer sees the golden-colored maker, the Lord, the Person, the womb of Brahman, then, knowing, leaving behind both good and evil, one makes everything one in the supreme, imperishable reality. So it is said: “As beasts and birds never settle on a mountain blazing with fire, so faults never settle on one who knows Brahman.”

6.19 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “When the knower has restrained the mind from outward things, and the objects of the senses with it, and has gathered them into the life-breath, one should then remain without intentions. For the living being called life-breath has arisen here from that which is without life-breath. Therefore one should hold the life-breath in that which is called the fourth.” So it is said: “There is that which is without mind, within the mind, inconceivable, secret, supreme. There one should lay the mind to rest: that is the distinguishing sign, resting on nothing.”

6.20 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “Beyond this comes concentration: the tongue's tip pressed against the palate. By restraining speech, mind, and life-breath, one sees Brahman through inquiry. As mind comes to an end, one sees through oneself the shining Self, smaller than the small. Seeing the Self through oneself, one becomes without a self; without a self, beyond reckoning, without a womb, to be contemplated. This is the mark of release, the highest secret.” So it is said: “Through the clarity of mind one destroys action, good and evil. Clear in self, established in the Self, one tastes unfailing happiness.”

6.21 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “The channel Suṣumnā runs upward, carrying life-breath, interrupted within the palate. Through it, with life-breath, Om, and mind joined, one should ascend. Turning the tip back over the palate and disengaging the senses, greatness should behold greatness. Then one enters the condition without a self. Without a self, one has no share in pleasure and pain; one gains aloneness.” So it is said: “First establish the higher; then restrain the wind. Cross to the farther shore by the boundless; afterward join it at the crown.”

6.22 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “Two Brahmans are to be contemplated: sound and the soundless. Through sound alone the soundless is revealed. Here the sound is Om. Ascending through it, one finds rest in the soundless.” This, it is said, is the way, immortality, union with that, repose. As a spider climbs its thread and finds open space, so the meditator, ascending through Om, gains sovereignty. Other teachers of sound take another course: joining the thumbs to the ears, they listen to the sound of the space within the heart. Sevenfold are its likenesses: rivers, a little bell, a bronze wheel, frogs, a crying bird, rain, a voice speaking where no wind blows. Passing beyond their separate marks, they sink into the higher Brahman, soundless, unmanifest. There their natures are no longer separate, no longer discernible, as diverse flavors become one honey. So it is said: “Two Brahmans must be known: Brahman as sound, and that which is beyond. Immersed in Brahman as sound, one reaches the highest Brahman.”

6.23 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “Sound is this syllable Om. Beyond it lies the peaceful, soundless, fearless, sorrowless, joyful, fulfilled, steadfast, unmoving, immortal, unfailing, enduring, named Vishnu. Worship that to pass beyond all.” So it is said: “That god, higher and lower, bears the name Om. Soundless, become empty, one should practice at the place of the crown.”

6.24 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “The body is the bow, Om the arrow, mind its point. Piercing that which bears darkness as its mark, it reaches darkness pervaded by what is not dark. Piercing what is pervaded, one sees Brahman beyond darkness, flashing like the circle of a whirling firebrand, sun-colored, full of vigor—the radiance in that sun, in the moon, in fire, in lightning. Seeing it, one enters immortality.” So it is said: “Meditation is set upon the highest reality within and upon its targets. Through this, undifferentiated awareness enters distinction. When mind has dissolved, the happiness witnessed by the Self alone is Brahman: immortal, bright. This is the way; this is the world.”

6.25 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “The senses are withdrawn as in sleep; with an understanding utterly pure, as in a dream, one sees through the aperture of the senses, not subject to their power, the guide called the sacred syllable, whose form is light, free of sleep, free of age, free of death and sorrow. One too becomes that guide, called the sacred syllable, light in form, free of sleep, age, death, and sorrow.” So it is said: “Because one joins the life-breath and Om, from which all comes forth manifold—or because they are joined—it is remembered as yoga. The oneness of life-breath and mind, and of the senses likewise, the surrender of every state of being: this is called yoga.”

6.26 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “As a fowler raises creatures moving in water by an engine of thread and offers them to the fire within his belly, so one raises these life-breaths through Om and offers them to the fire free of affliction. Thus it is heated, like the earth. As heated ground, with clarified butter, flames at the touch of grass and wood, so that which is called breathless flames at the touch of life-breath. This flaming is Brahman's form, Vishnu's highest station, Rudra's very Rudrahood. Dividing itself beyond measure, it fills these worlds.” So it is said: “As sparks rise from fire and rays from the sun, so from that one the life-breaths and the rest rise here, again and again, each in order.”

6.27 Elsewhere, too, it is said: “The warmth of the body is the radiance of the highest, immortal, bodiless Brahman. This is its clarified butter. Though manifest, it is laid in the sky. With single-pointed attention they open the space within the heart, so that it becomes as its light. Soon one enters its nature, as an iron ball laid in earth soon enters the nature of earth. The iron ball, settled into an earthen state, is no longer mastered by fire, smiths, and the rest. In this way mind vanishes, together with its support.” So it is said: “The sheath of space within the heart is bliss, the highest dwelling. From it are our own being and yoga, and the radiance of fire and sun.”

6.29 Elsewhere, too, it is said:“Pass beyond the elements, the senses, and their objects. Take up the bow, renunciation its string, constancy its staff; with an arrow made of freedom from the sense of I, strike down the first guard at Brahman's door. Delusion is his crown, thirst and envy his earrings; drowsiness and attachment are his staff, self-importance his commander. With a bow strung with anger, its staff greed, and an arrow wrought of desire, he strikes down these beings. Slay him. On the raft of Om cross the space within the heart. When the inner space is revealed, enter Brahman's hall as a seeker of ore slowly enters the pit he has dug. Then, through the teaching handed down by a teacher, open Brahman's sheath with its four nets.“Pure, purified, empty, peaceful, without life-breath, without a self, boundless, inexhaustible, steadfast, everlasting, unborn, sovereign, one stands in one's own greatness. Standing in that greatness, one sees the wheel of wandering as a wheel that does not turn.” So it is said:“For the embodied one who practices six months, who is ever free,boundless, supreme, secret, perfected yoga unfolds.Never for the embodied one pierced by passion and darkness, fiercely inflamed,clinging to sons, wife, and household.” 6.28Having spoken thus, Śākāyanya was within the heart. The king bowed before him and heard: “King, through this knowledge of Brahman, Prajāpati's sons have mounted the path of Brahman.” Through the practice of yoga one gains contentment, endurance of opposites, and peace. This most secret teaching is not to be told to one who is neither son nor pupil, nor to one without peace. Give it to one devoted to this alone, endowed with every good quality.

6.30 Om. Pure in a pure place, established in clarity, let one study the true, speak the true, meditate on the true, sacrifice to the true. Then, finding repose in true Brahman, which desires truth, with the bonds of action's fruit severed, without expectation, seeing others as oneself, without fear or desire, one enters inexhaustible, measureless happiness and abides. Desirelessness is the highest treasure drawn from the highest store. The Person filled with all desires, marked by resolve, intention, and the sense of I, is bound; the opposite is free. Some say: “Through nature's diversity a quality takes the form of resolve and enters bondage to self. Release comes through the wasting away of resolve's faults.” Through mind one sees; through mind one hears. Desire, intention, doubt, faith, unfaith, constancy, inconstancy, shame, understanding, fear—all these are mind alone. Swept by streams of qualities, defiled, unsteady, restless, plundered, desirous, distracted, one assumes the sense of I. Thinking “I am that; this is mine,” one binds oneself by oneself, like a bird in a net. Thus the Person marked by resolve, intention, and the sense of I is bound; the opposite is free. Stand, therefore, without resolve, without intention, without the sense of I. This is the mark of release, the road to Brahman, the opening in the door: through it one passes beyond this darkness. Here all desires are gathered into rest. They give this verse: “When the five powers of knowing stand still with mind, and understanding makes no movement, that is called the highest way.” Having spoken thus, Śākāyanya was within the heart. The king bowed before him, rendered due service, and fulfilled what was to be done. He took the wind's northward path. There is no passage here by a crooked course. This is the road to Brahman: breaking the sun's door, they issue upward. They give these verses: “Boundless are the rays of the one who stands like a lamp in the heart—white and black, brown and blue, tawny and pale red. One among them stands upward: breaking through the sun's disk and passing beyond Brahmā's world, they follow it to the highest way. The other hundred rays that stand upward lead to the proper dwellings of the companies of gods. The many-colored rays below, gentle in their shining, bear one helplessly around here to taste the fruits of action.” Therefore that blessed sun is the cause of creation, heaven, and release.

6.31 “What is the nature of these senses in their movement? Who brings them forth here; who governs them?” he asks. The answer is: “The Self is their nature, for the Self brings them forth. The water-born and the sun-born are named rays; through five rays it consumes the objects.” Which Self? The one described as pure, purified, empty, peaceful, and the rest, to be apprehended by its own marks. The mark of the unmarked is the warmth that enters fire and the most gracious essence of water, some say. Others say speech, hearing, sight, mind, life-breath. Others say understanding, constancy, memory, insight. These are its own, as shoots belong to seed, or smoke, flame, and sparks to fire. They give this verse: “As sparks rise from fire and rays from the sun, so from that one the life-breaths and the rest rise here, again and again, each in order.”

6.32 From this Self rise all life-breaths, all worlds, all Vedas, all gods, all beings. Its secret teaching is “the truth of truth.” As separate clouds of smoke issue from fire heaped with damp fuel, so the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, Atharva-Aṅgiras, history, ancient lore, learning, Upanishads, verses, sūtras, further explanations, explanations—all these are the breathing of this great being. All these beings are its own.

6.33 This fire, the year, has five bricks: spring, summer, the rains, autumn, winter. With head, two wings, tail, and back, this fire takes the form of a person. This is Prajāpati's first piled altar. With its hands it raises the sacrificer to the middle region and yields him to the wind. Wind is life-breath; life-breath is fire. Its bricks are life-breath, pervading breath, downward breath, balancing breath, upward breath. With head, two wings, back, and tail, this fire takes the form of a person. The middle region is Prajāpati's second piled altar. With its hands it raises the sacrificer to heaven and yields him to Indra. That sun is Indra; that is this fire. Its bricks are the Rig, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva-Aṅgiras, and history and ancient lore. With head, two wings, tail, and back, this fire takes the form of a person. Heaven is Prajāpati's third piled altar. With its hands it makes an offering of the sacrificer to the knower of the Self. As the knower of the Self raises him and yields him to Brahman, there he becomes blissful, rejoicing.

6.34 Earth is the householder's fire, the middle region the southern fire, heaven the offering fire. From these arise Pavamāna, Pāvaka, Śuci. Through this the sacrifice is revealed, for the belly's fire is their union. Therefore fire is to be worshiped with sacrifice, built up, praised, contemplated. Taking the offering, the sacrificer longs to contemplate the deity: “The golden bird stands in the heart and in the sun—the diving bird, the swan, the bull of radiance. To him we sacrifice in this fire.” He also considers the prayer's meaning. “That desirable splendor of Savitṛ” is his contemplation. The meditator within the understanding follows the place where mind is peaceful and lays it in the Self alone. These verses follow: 1 As fire, without fuel, subsides into its source, so mind, its movements spent, subsides into its source. 2 For mind at rest in its source and desiring truth, the sense objects that bewilder it are false, following the rule of action. 3 Mind itself is the round of existence: strive to cleanse it. As one's mind is, so one becomes. This is the eternal secret. 4 Through the clarity of mind one destroys action, good and evil. Clear in self, established in the Self, one tastes unfailing happiness. 5 If the mind of a creature were as fastened to Brahman as it is to the field of sense, who would remain bound? 6 Mind is declared twofold, pure and impure: impure through contact with desire, pure when desire is absent. 7 Make mind utterly still, free from sinking and distraction. When it enters the condition beyond mind, that is the highest place. 8 Hold mind in the heart until it ceases. This is knowledge and release; all else is the spreading out of books. 9 The happiness arising when mind, washed of stain through absorption, rests in the Self cannot be told in words. It is grasped directly by the inward faculty. 10 Water in water, fire in fire, space in space cannot be distinguished. One whose mind has entered within in this way is fully released. 11 Mind alone is the cause of human bondage and release: clinging to objects, it binds; without objects, it frees. For those who offer no fire sacrifice, build no fire altar, and contemplate ignorance, remembrance of the space that is Brahman's station is therefore unfitting. Therefore fire is to be worshiped with sacrifice, built up, praised, contemplated.

6.35 Homage to fire, dwelling on earth, mindful of the world: grant this sacrificer a world. Homage to wind, dwelling in the middle region, mindful of the world: grant this sacrificer a world. Homage to the sun, dwelling in heaven, mindful of the world: grant this sacrificer a world. Homage to Brahman, dwelling in all, mindful of all: grant this sacrificer all. A golden vessel covers the face of truth. Uncover it, Pūṣan, for Vishnu, whose law is truth. The Person there in the sun—that am I. This is the true law, the sun's very sunhood: the bright Person without a mark. What lies in the sun's midst is but a portion of the radiance within space, and it is in the eye and in fire. This is Brahman, immortality, splendor, the true law. What lies in the sun's midst is but a portion of the radiance within space: the immortal one, whose sprouts are Soma and these life-breaths. This is Brahman, immortality, splendor, the true law. What lies in the sun's midst is but a portion of the radiance within space. There the sacrificial utterance shines: “Om. Waters, light, essence, immortality, Brahman; earth, atmosphere, heaven. Om.” The pure swan, eight-footed, three-threaded, minute, undying—with two conditions, blind and kindled by radiance, the all-seeing sees. What lies in the sun's midst is but a portion of the radiance within space. Rising, it becomes a ray. This is awareness, the true law, the sacrificial utterance, austerity, fire, wind, life-breath, water, moon, brightness, immortality, the field of Brahman, the luminous ocean. In that alone the sacrificers dissolve like salt. This is oneness with Brahman; here all desires are gathered into rest. They give these verses: “Like streams of rays, stirred by a subtle wind, that one flashes within the gods. One who knows this is a knower, a knower of duality; from here one would have a single dwelling and be of that very Self. They rise without ceasing like drops, like lightning, like flames of cloud in the highest sky. Those flames of glory, shaped by their support, are like the matted locks of fire, whose path is black.”

6.36 These are the two forms of Brahman's light: the peaceful and the flourishing. Space is the support of the peaceful; food here is the support of the flourishing. Therefore sacrifice within the altar with prayers, plants, clarified butter, flesh, sacrificial cakes, boiled rice, and the rest. With the remaining food and drink, too, sacrifice in the mouth, regarding the mouth as the offering fire—for the increase of radiance, the conquest of holy worlds, immortality. They give this teaching: “Let one desiring heaven offer the fire sacrifice. Through the Agniṣṭoma one wins Yama's realm; through the Uktha, Soma's realm; through the Ṣoḍaśin, the sun's realm; through the Atirātra, sovereignty; through a rite ending after a thousand years, Prajāpati's realm.” As a lamp endures through the joining of wick, vessel, and oil, so these two, the Self and the bright one, endure through the use of what lies within the egg.

6.37 Therefore worship this boundless radiance with Om. Threefold it is spoken of: in fire, in the sun, in life-breath. The channel named Abundant Food carries the offering in fire to the sun. From it the essence flows and rains down the high chant. Through that arise these life-breaths, and from the life-breaths, creatures. They give this teaching: “The offering cast into fire is carried to the sun. Through its rays the sun rains it down. From that comes food; from food, the birth of beings.” So it is said: “An offering rightly cast into fire reaches the sun. From the sun arises rain; from rain, food; from food, creatures.”

Offering the fire sacrifice, one breaks the net of greed. Cutting through delusion, neither praising anger nor dwelling on desire, one breaks Brahman's sheath with its four nets and passes into the highest space. Piercing the solar, lunar, fiery, and clear spheres, purified, one beholds within clarity the abode beyond all, named Vishnu: unmoving, immortal, unfailing, enduring, endowed with true desire and all knowledge, sovereign consciousness standing in its own greatness. They give this verse: “In the sun's midst stands the moon; in the moon's midst, fire. In radiance's midst stands clarity; in clarity's midst, the unfailing one.” Contemplating that which is thumb-sized within the body's span, smaller than the small, one passes to the highest. Here all desires are gathered into rest. They give this verse: “Thumb-sized, span-sized, body-sized, like a lamp's burning radiance, in two or three forms: praised as Brahman, the great god entered the worlds. Om. Homage to Brahman. Homage.” 6.38 Here ends the sixth Prapathaka.

6.1 Now, the sixth Prapathaka. The Self maintains itself in two forms: this life-breath and that sun. It has two paths, inside and outside. These alternate with day and night. That sun is the outer Self; life-breath is the inner Self. So the movement of the inner Self can be inferred from the movement of the outer Self. This is what is said. But someone who knows, who is free of evil, who controls the senses, whose mind is clear, who is devoted to that Self, and who has turned his eyes inward can infer the movement of the outer Self from the movement of the inner Self. This too is what is said. The golden person inside the sun, who looks at this earth from his golden dwelling, is the very one who lives inside the lotus of the heart and eats food.

6.2 The one who lives inside the lotus of the heart and eats food is the fire that lives in heaven. It belongs to the sun, is called time, and cannot be seen. It eats all beings as food. What is this lotus? What is it made of? The lotus is this space. Its four main directions and four intermediate directions are arranged as petals. The life-breath and the sun move here within it. One should worship these with the syllable Om, the sacred utterances, and the Sāvitrī verse.

6.3 Brahman has two forms: one with a shape and one without a shape. What has a shape is not real; what has no shape is real. That is Brahman. That is light. That light is the sun. It came to have the syllable Om as its nature. It divided itself into three: Om has three units of sound. “Through these all this is woven lengthwise and crosswise; I am this.” This is what is said. One should meditate on the sun in this way, as Om, and bring the Self into union.

6.4 Elsewhere it is also said: “The udgītha, the raised chant, is the praṇava, the sound Om; and the praṇava is the udgītha.” That sun is the udgītha, and it is the praṇava. This is what is said: “The udgītha, called the praṇava, is the guide. Its form is light. It is free of sleep, aging, and death. It has three feet and three syllables. It is also to be known in five forms and is hidden in the cave of the heart.” This is also said: “Brahman has its root above and has three feet. Its branches are space, wind, fire, water, earth, and the rest. It is the single tree called the sacred fig.” This is Brahman. Its radiance is that sun, and that radiance also belongs to the syllable Om. Therefore one should constantly worship it by means of Om. Om alone brings an understanding of it. This is what is said: “This very syllable is sacred; this very syllable is supreme. When someone knows this very syllable, whatever that person wants becomes theirs.”

6.5 Elsewhere it is also said: “Its body has sound: it is Om. It has gender: feminine, masculine, and neuter. It has brightness: fire, wind, and sun. It has rulers: Brahmā, Rudra, and Vishnu. It has mouths: the household fire, the southern fire, and the offering fire. It has knowledge: the Ṛg, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas. It has worlds: earth, middle space, and heaven. It has time: past, present, and future. It has heat: life-breath, fire, and sun. It has nourishment: food, water, and moon. It has awareness: understanding, mind, and the sense of ‘I.’ It has breaths: life-breath, downward breath, and circulating breath.” So, when Om is spoken, these forms are praised, worshiped, and given offerings. This is what is said: “Satyakāma, this syllable Om is both the higher and the lower Brahman.”

6.6 This world had not yet been spoken. Prajāpati, who is truth, practiced intense discipline and then spoke: “Earth, middle space, heaven.” This body of Prajāpati, consisting of the worlds, is his most solid body. Heaven is its head, middle space its navel, earth its feet, and the sun its eye. A person's broad reach depends on the eye, for through the eye a person moves among objects. The eye is truth. The person who lives in the eye moves among all objects. Therefore one should worship with the words “Earth, middle space, heaven.” In this way Prajāpati is worshiped as the Self of all and as the eye of all. This is what is said: “This is Prajāpati's body that supports everything. Everything here is contained in it, and it is contained in everything here.” Therefore one should worship it.

6.7 “That of Savitṛ which is worth choosing”: that sun is Savitṛ. Those who teach Brahman say that someone who wants the Self should choose him in this way. “We meditate on the god's radiance”: Savitṛ is the god, and those who teach Brahman say, “We contemplate what is called his radiance.” “May he inspire our thoughts”: thoughts are acts of understanding, and those who teach Brahman say, “May he inspire ours.” As for “radiance,” the star placed within that sun is also in the eye and is called radiance. It moves by means of rays, and so it is called radiance. Because it burns things up, it is called radiance; those who teach Brahman call it Rudra. The syllable bha means that it lights up these worlds; ra means that it gives color to these beings; ga means that these creatures go into it and come out of it. Because of this bha-ra-ga, it is called bharga, radiance. It is called Sūrya because it is constantly being brought forth; Savitṛ because it brings forth; Āditya because it takes in; the Purifier because it purifies; and Water because it nourishes. This is what is said: “It is the Self of the self, the leader, the one called immortal, the perceiver, thinker, mover, excreter, giver of pleasure, doer, speaker, taster, smeller, seer, and hearer. It also touches. Though it is everywhere, it lives within the body.” This is also said: “Where awareness has become dual, one hears, sees, smells, tastes, and touches. The Self knows everything. But where awareness has become nondual, free of effect, cause, and action, beyond description, without comparison or any defining account—what is that? It cannot be put into words.”

6.8 This very Self is Īśāna, Śambhu, Bhava, Rudra, Prajāpati, the creator of all, Hiraṇyagarbha, truth, life-breath, the swan, the teacher, Vishnu, Nārāyaṇa, Arka, Savitṛ, the maker, the arranger, the sovereign, Indra, and Indu. It burns like fire covered by fire, enclosed in a golden egg with a thousand eyes. One must seek to know it and search for it. After giving every being freedom from fear, one should go into the forest, put aside the objects of the senses, and discover it within one's own body. “Taking every form, yellow-brown, Jātavedas, the final refuge, the one burning light; with a thousand rays, present in a hundred ways, the life-breath of creatures—this sun rises.”

6.9 So someone who knows this has both forms as his Self. He meditates on the Self alone and sacrifices to the Self alone. Meditation is the mind engaged in practice, the mind praised by the learned. If the mind is foul and contaminated by leftovers, he should cleanse it with this. He recites the formula: “Whatever is left over, whatever has been touched by leftovers, whatever has been given by a wrongdoer or comes from a household made impure by a death or a birth—may Vasu's purifier, fire, and the rays of Savitṛ cleanse my food and whatever other wrong I have done.” He first surrounds the food with water. Then he makes five offerings: “An offering to the life-breath! An offering to the downward breath! An offering to the circulating breath! An offering to the balancing breath! An offering to the rising breath!” Next he eats what remains, keeping silent. Afterward he surrounds it with water once more. When he has rinsed his mouth, as someone sacrificing to the Self, he should meditate on the Self with these two verses, beginning “Life-breath is fire” and “You are all”: “Life-breath is fire, the highest Self, joined to the five winds. May it be satisfied and satisfy the whole universe, since it eats the whole universe. You are all. You are Vaiśvānara. Everything that comes into being is supported by you. May all offerings enter you, and all creatures, there where you are immortal in all.” In this way, by following this procedure, he does not become something to be eaten again.

6.10 There is something further to know: the next development of this sacrifice to the Self concerns food and its eater. This is its explanation. The conscious person lives within primal matter. He is the eater and eats the food that belongs to nature. This elemental self is his food; primal matter makes it. So what is eaten has the three qualities, while the person inside is the eater. Here is the evidence called direct observation: animals come from seed, so seed is what is eaten. This also explains why primal matter is food. Therefore the person is the eater, nature is what is eaten, and he eats while living within it. The food belonging to nature is a manifestation extending from the great principle down to the particular elements, because it develops through the differences between the three qualities. This also explains the fourteenfold path. This world, which has become food, is known as pleasure, pain, and delusion. The taste of a seed cannot be grasped until it produces a new being. That being too becomes food in its three stages—childhood, youth, and old age—because it changes. In this way primal matter is apprehended when it becomes manifest. Within it, understanding and the rest become tastes: decision, intention, and the sense of ‘I.’ Then the five objects of the senses become tastes, as do all activities of the senses and all activities of the life-breaths. So both the manifest and the unmanifest are food. Their eater is without qualities. His awareness is established by the fact that he eats. Just as fire is the eater among the gods and Soma is food, someone who knows this eats food through fire alone. This elemental self is called Soma, while the person is called fire. Because it is said that he has the unmanifest as his mouth, the person eats what has the three qualities through the unmanifest as his mouth. Someone who knows this is a renunciant, a practitioner of yoga, and one who sacrifices to the Self. Women filled with desire may enter an empty house, but no one there touches them. In the same way, someone who does not touch the objects of the senses that come in is a renunciant, a practitioner of yoga, and one who sacrifices to the Self.

6.11 Food is the highest form of this Self, for this life-breath consists of food. If a person does not eat, he cannot think, hear, touch, see, speak, smell, or taste, and he lets go of his life-breaths. This is what is said. But if he eats, he becomes full of life-breath and can think, hear, touch, speak, taste, smell, and see. This is what is said: “From food are born all the creatures that live on earth. By food they live, and into it they finally return.”

6.12 Elsewhere it is also said: “All these beings rush about day after day, trying to get food. The sun takes in food with its rays, and it burns because of that food. These life-breaths, soaked with food, cook it. Fire blazes because of food. Brahman designed this world out of a desire for food. Therefore one should worship food as the Self.” This is what is said: “From food beings are born. Once born, they grow through food. It is eaten, and it eats beings. That is why it is called food.”

6.13 Elsewhere it is also said: “This food is the body of the blessed Vishnu called the Supporter of All. Life-breath is the essence of food; mind is the essence of life-breath; understanding is the essence of mind; joy is the essence of understanding.” Someone who knows this has food, life-breath, mind, understanding, and joy. Someone who knows this lives within all the beings here that eat food, and eats food in them all. “Food alone is ageless; food is known to bring people together. Food is the life-breath of animals; food is known as the firstborn and the healer.”

6.14 Elsewhere it is also said: “Food is the source of all this. Time is the source of food, and the sun is the source of time.” Its form is the year with its twelve parts, built up from units of time beginning with a blink of the eye. Half of it belongs to fire and half to Varuṇa. The fiery half runs in forward order from Maghā to the midpoint of Śraviṣṭhā. The lunar half runs in reverse order from Sārpa to the midpoint of Śraviṣṭhā. Each of these has nine divisions of its own, arranged according to its movement. These very small divisions are the measure, for time is measured by them. Without a measure, what is measured cannot be known. What is measured can itself become a measure when considered separately, to make itself known. This is what is said: “Through as many divisions as time has, through that many this sun moves. If someone worships time as Brahman, time withdraws very far from that person.” This is also said: “From time beings flow, and through time they grow. In time they also come to their end. Time is a form that has no form.”

6.15 Brahman has two forms: time and the timeless. What comes before the sun is timeless, outside time. What begins with the sun is time, which has divisions. The form of time with divisions is the year. These creatures are born from the year. Once born, they grow through the year, and into the year they disappear. Therefore the year is Prajāpati, time, food, the home of Brahman, and the Self. This is what is said: “Time cooks all beings within the great Self. But there is that in which time itself is cooked; whoever knows it knows the Veda.”

6.16 This time has bodily form. It is the ocean that rules all creatures. Present there, it is called Savitṛ. From it come the moon, constellations, planets, years, and the rest. From these comes everything here. Whatever good or bad is seen here in the world comes from these. So Brahman has the sun as its Self. One should worship the sun under the name of time. Some say, “The sun is Brahman.” This is what is said: “The offering priest, the eater, the offering, the sacred formula, the sacrifice, Vishnu, Prajāpati—he is all these, whoever he may be, the lord and witness who shines in that disk.”

6.17 In the beginning this was Brahman: one, infinite to the east, infinite to the south, infinite to the west, infinite to the north, infinite above and below, infinite everywhere. Directions such as east do not apply to it, nor does across, down, or up. This highest Self cannot be guessed at or measured, reasoned out or thought of. Its nature is space. When everything is destroyed, it alone stays awake. From this space it awakens all this, which consists of consciousness alone. Through this alone this world is conceived, and into this it disappears. Its shining form is what burns in that sun, in smokeless fire, and as the even brighter light in the stomach that digests food. This is what is said: “The one in fire, the one here in the heart, and the one there in the sun are one and the same.” Someone who knows this reaches the oneness of the One.

6.18 This is the method of putting it into practice: control of breathing, withdrawal of the senses, meditation, concentration, reflection, and complete absorption. These are called the six parts of yoga. When, through this, the seer sees the gold-colored creator and ruler, the person who is Brahman's source, then, knowing, he leaves behind both good and evil deeds and unites everything in the highest, imperishable reality. This is what is said: “Just as animals and birds do not take shelter on a burning mountain, faults never find shelter in someone who knows Brahman.”

6.19 Elsewhere it is also said: “When someone who knows has restrained the outward-moving mind and the objects of the senses, and has gathered them into the life-breath, he should remain without forming intentions. The living being called life-breath arose here from what has no life-breath. Therefore one should hold the life-breath in what is called the fourth state.” This is what is said: “What has no thought lies at the center of thought. It is beyond thought, hidden, and highest. One should place the mind there. That is the sign that depends on nothing.”

6.20 Elsewhere it is also said: “Beyond this comes concentration: pressing the tip of the tongue against the palate and restraining speech, mind, and life-breath. Through inquiry one sees Brahman. When the mind has ceased, one sees, through oneself, the Self, shining and smaller than the small. Having seen the Self through oneself, one becomes without a self. Through being without a self, one is beyond reckoning, without a source of birth, to be contemplated. This marks liberation. This is the highest secret.” As it is said: “Through the mind's clarity one destroys action, both good and bad. With a clear self, established in the Self, one enjoys happiness that does not end.”

6.21 Elsewhere it is also said: “There is an upward channel called Suṣumnā, which carries the life-breath and is interrupted inside the palate. Through it, with life-breath, Om, and mind joined together, one should rise upward. Turning the tip back above the palate and disengaging the senses, greatness should look upon greatness. Then one becomes without a self. Through being without a self, one no longer shares in pleasure and pain; one reaches being alone.” As it is said: “First establish the higher one; then hold the breath. Cross to the other shore by means of the boundless, and afterward bring it into union at the crown of the head.”

6.22 Elsewhere it is also said: “There are two forms of Brahman to meditate on: sound and what is without sound. Through sound alone, what is without sound is revealed. Here the sound is Om. Rising upward through it, one comes to rest in what has no sound.” It is said that this is the way, this is immortality, union with that, and release. Just as a spider climbs upward on its thread and reaches open space, so the meditator rises through Om and reaches independence. Others who teach sound proceed differently. By joining their thumbs to their ears, they hear the sound in the space inside the heart. It has seven comparisons: rivers, a small bell, a bronze wheel, frogs, a calling bird, rain, and a voice speaking in a place without wind. Passing beyond its separate characteristics, they come to rest in the higher Brahman, without sound and unmanifest. There their qualities are no longer separate, and they cannot be told apart, just as different flavors become honey. As it is said: “Two forms of Brahman must be known: Brahman as sound and what is beyond it. Someone thoroughly versed in Brahman as sound reaches the higher Brahman.”

6.23 Elsewhere it is also said: “Sound is this syllable Om. What is beyond it is peaceful, silent, free from fear and sorrow, joyful, satisfied, firm, unmoving, immortal, unfailing, and constant, called Vishnu. One should worship it to go beyond everything.” As it is said: “That god, higher and lower, is named Om. Without sound, having become empty, one should then practice at the place at the crown of the head.”

6.24 Elsewhere it is also said: “The body is the bow; Om is the arrow, and the mind is its point. Piercing what is marked by darkness, it reaches darkness pervaded by what is not darkness. Piercing what is pervaded, one sees Brahman beyond darkness, flashing like the circle made by a moving firebrand, the color of the sun, full of power. It shines in that sun, in the moon, in fire, and in lightning. Having seen it, one reaches immortality.” As it is said: “Meditation is placed in the highest reality within and in its targets. From this, undifferentiated awareness reaches distinction. When the mind has dissolved, the happiness to which the Self alone bears witness is Brahman, immortal and bright. That is the way; that is the world.”

6.25 Elsewhere it is also said: “The senses are withdrawn as in sleep. With thoroughly purified understanding, as if in a dream, one sees in the opening of the senses, without being under their control, the guide called the sacred syllable, whose form is light, free from sleep, old age, death, and sorrow. One then also becomes a guide called the sacred syllable, whose form is light, free from sleep, old age, death, and sorrow.” As it is said: “Because one joins the life-breath and Om, from which everything comes in many forms, or because they are joined, this is called yoga. The oneness of life-breath and mind, and of the senses too, and giving up every state of being: this is called yoga.”

6.26 Elsewhere it is also said: “Just as a bird-catcher lifts creatures that move in water by a device of string and offers them into the fire in his belly, so one lifts these life-breaths through Om and offers them into the fire free from illness. From this it becomes heated, like the earth. Just as heated ground, with clarified butter, blazes on contact with grass and wood, so what is called breathless blazes on contact with life-breath. What blazes is a form of Brahman, the highest place of Vishnu, and Rudra's very nature. Dividing itself in countless ways, it fills these worlds.” As it is said: “Just as sparks come from fire and rays from the sun, so life-breaths and the rest come forth here from it, again and again, in their proper order.”

6.27 Elsewhere it is also said: “The body's warmth is the radiance of the highest, immortal, bodiless Brahman. This is its clarified butter. Though manifest, it is placed in the sky. Through single-minded attention, people open the space inside the heart so that it becomes like its light. From this one soon takes on its nature, just as an iron ball placed in the earth soon takes on the nature of earth. An iron ball that has become like earth is no longer affected by fire, smiths, and the rest. In the same way, the mind disappears together with its support.” As it is said: “The covering made of space within the heart is joy, the highest dwelling. From it come our own being and yoga, and the radiance of fire and sun.”

6.29 Elsewhere it is also said:“Go beyond the elements, senses, and their objects. Take the bow whose string is renunciation and whose staff is firmness. With an arrow made of freedom from self-importance, strike down the first guard at Brahman's door. He wears confusion as his crown and thirst and envy as earrings. Drowsiness and attachment are his staff; self-importance is his chief. Taking a bow with anger as its string and greed as its staff, and an arrow made of desire, he kills these creatures. Kill him. Cross the space inside the heart on the raft of Om. When the inner space has become visible, enter Brahman's hall as a miner seeking metals slowly enters a pit. Then, through the teaching received from a teacher, open Brahman's covering with its four nets.“Then one is clean, purified, empty, peaceful, without breath, without a self, limitless, inexhaustible, firm, lasting, unborn, and independent. One stands in one's own greatness. Standing in one's own greatness, one looks at the wheel of movement as at a wheel that does not turn.” As it is said:“For an embodied person who practices for six months and is always free,limitless, supreme, hidden, complete yoga comes into operation.But never for an embodied person pierced by passion and darkness, thoroughly inflamed,and attached to children, wife, and family.” 6.28After saying this, Śākāyanya was within the heart. Having bowed to him, the king heard: “King, through this knowledge of Brahman, Prajāpati's sons have climbed the path of Brahman.” Through practicing yoga, one gains contentment, endurance of opposites, and peace. One should not tell this deepest secret to someone who is neither a son nor a pupil, or to someone who is not peaceful. Give it to someone devoted to this alone and possessing every good quality.

6.30 Om. In a clean place, one should be clean, established in clarity, studying what is true, speaking what is true, meditating on what is true, and sacrificing to what is true. Then one finds rest in true Brahman, which desires truth. The bonds of the results of action are cut. Without expectations, treating others as oneself, free from fear and desire, one reaches happiness that cannot be exhausted or measured and remains there. Having no desire is the highest thing one can draw from the highest treasure. A person filled with every desire, marked by determination, intention, and self-importance, is bound. Someone who is the opposite is free. Some say here: “Through the differences of nature, a quality becomes determination and binds the self. Liberation comes when the faults of determination are destroyed.” One sees through the mind and hears through the mind. Desire, intention, doubt, trust, distrust, firmness, lack of firmness, shame, understanding, and fear: all this is mind alone. Carried by streams of qualities, made dirty, unsteady, restless, plundered, longing, and distracted, one becomes self-important. Thinking “I am that; this is mine,” one binds oneself by oneself, like a bird in a net. So a person marked by determination, intention, and self-importance is bound; someone who is the opposite is free. Therefore remain without determination, intention, or self-importance. This marks liberation. This is the path to Brahman; this is the opening of the door. Through it one will go beyond this darkness. Here all desires are gathered together. On this they quote: “When the five powers of knowing stand still together with the mind, and the understanding does not move, they call that the highest way.” After saying this, Śākāyanya was within the heart. The king bowed to him, carried out the proper service, and had done what needed to be done. He went along the wind's northward course. There is no route here by a devious path. This is the path to Brahman: breaking through the sun's door, they go out upward. On this they quote: “Countless are the rays of the one who stands like a lamp in the heart: white and black, brown and dark blue, yellow and pale red. One of them points upward. Breaking through the sun's disk and passing beyond Brahmā's world, people go by it to the highest way. The other hundred rays of this one that also point upward lead to the separate dwellings of the groups of gods. Its many-colored rays below, with their gentle light, bring a person back here, helpless, to experience the results of action.” Therefore that blessed sun is the cause of creation, heaven, and liberation.

6.31 He asks, “What is the nature of these senses as they operate? Who gives rise to them here, and who controls them?” The answer is: “Their nature is the Self. The Self gives rise to them. The water-born ones and those belonging to the sun are called rays. Through five rays it eats the objects of the senses.” Which Self? The one described as clean, purified, empty, peaceful, and so on, to be recognized through its own marks. This is a mark of the one without a mark: the warmth that has entered fire and the most beneficial essence of water, according to some. Others say it is speech, hearing, sight, mind, and life-breath. Others say understanding, firmness, memory, and insight are that. These belong to it as shoots belong to a seed, or as smoke, flame, and sparks belong to fire. On this they quote: “Just as sparks come from fire and rays from the sun, so life-breaths and the rest come forth here from it, again and again, in their proper order.”

6.32 From this Self come all life-breaths, all worlds, all Vedas, all gods, and all beings. Its secret teaching is “the truth of truth.” Just as separate clouds of smoke come from a fire fed with damp wood, so the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, Atharva-Aṅgiras, history, ancient stories, learning, the Upanishads, verses, rules, supplementary explanations, and explanations are the breathing of this great being. All these beings belong to it alone.

6.33 This fire, the year, has five bricks. Its bricks are spring, summer, the rainy season, autumn, and winter. With a head, two wings, a tail, and a back, this fire has the form of a person. This is Prajāpati's first piled altar. With its hands it lifts the sacrificer into the middle region and gives him to the wind. The wind is life-breath; life-breath is fire. Its bricks are the life-breath, the pervading breath, the downward breath, the balancing breath, and the upward breath. With a head, two wings, a back, and a tail, this fire has the form of a person. This middle region is Prajāpati's second piled altar. With its hands it lifts the sacrificer into heaven and gives him to Indra. That sun is Indra; it is this fire. Its bricks are the Rig, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva-Aṅgiras, and history and ancient stories. With a head, two wings, a tail, and a back, this fire has the form of a person. This heaven is Prajāpati's third piled altar. With its hands it makes an offering of the sacrificer to the knower of the Self. Just as the knower of the Self lifts him up and gives him to Brahman, there he becomes happy and delighted.

6.34 Earth is the householder's fire; the middle region is the southern fire; heaven is the offering fire. From these come Pavamāna, Pāvaka, and Śuci. Through this, the sacrifice is revealed, for the fire in the belly is a combination of Pavamāna, Pāvaka, and Śuci. Therefore fire should receive sacrifice, be built up, be praised, and be meditated on. Taking the offering, the sacrificer wishes to meditate on the deity: “The golden-colored bird is established in the heart and in the sun: the diving bird, the swan, the bull of radiance. We sacrifice to him in this fire.” He also considers the meaning of the prayer. “That desirable splendor of Savitṛ” is what he should meditate on. The meditator within the understanding follows the mind's place of peace here and places it in the Self alone. Here are these verses: 1 Just as a fire without fuel dies down in its own source, so the mind, when its activities stop, dies down in its own source. 2 For the mind quieted in its own source and seeking truth, the sense objects that delude it are false, following the power of action. 3 The mind itself is the cycle of rebirth. Work to purify it. Whatever a person's mind is, that is what the person becomes. This is the lasting secret. 4 Through the mind's clarity one destroys action, both good and bad. With a clear self, established in the Self, one enjoys happiness that does not end. 5 If a creature's mind were as attached to Brahman as it is to the range of sense objects, who would not be freed from bondage? 6 The mind is said to be of two kinds, clean and unclean. It is unclean through contact with desire; it is clean when free from desire. 7 Make the mind completely still, neither sinking nor distracted. When it reaches the state of no mind, that is the highest place. 8 Restrain the mind in the heart until it has ceased. This is knowledge and liberation. Everything else is an expansion of books. 9 When the mind has been washed clean of dirt through absorption and placed in the Self, the happiness that comes cannot be described in speech. One grasps it personally through one's inner awareness. 10 One cannot distinguish water in water, fire in fire, or space in space. Someone whose mind has entered within in this way is fully freed. 11 The mind alone is the cause of human bondage and liberation. Attachment to objects brings bondage; freedom from objects is held to bring liberation. For those who do not offer the fire sacrifice or build the fire altar, and who meditate on ignorance, it is therefore not fitting to contemplate space as Brahman's station. Therefore fire should receive sacrifice, be built up, be praised, and be meditated on.

6.35 Honor to fire, dwelling on earth, remembering the world. Give a world to this sacrificer. Honor to wind, dwelling in the middle region, remembering the world. Give a world to this sacrificer. Honor to the sun, dwelling in heaven, remembering the world. Give a world to this sacrificer. Honor to Brahman, dwelling everywhere, remembering everything. Give everything to this sacrificer. The face of truth is covered by a golden bowl. Pūṣan, uncover it for Vishnu, whose law is truth. The person there in the sun is I. This is the true law: what makes the sun the sun. It is the bright, unmarked Person. What is in the middle of the sun is only a part of the radiance contained within space. This is also in the eye and in fire. This is Brahman; this is immortality; this is splendor; this is the true law. What is in the middle of the sun is only a part of the radiance contained within space: the immortal one, for which Soma and these life-breaths are shoots. This is Brahman; this is immortality; this is splendor; this is the true law. What is in the middle of the sun is only a part of the radiance contained within space. There the sacrificial formula shines: “Om. The waters, light, essence, immortality, Brahman; earth, atmosphere, heaven. Om.” The clean swan has eight feet and three cords, is tiny and does not perish. With two conditions—blind and lit by radiance—the one who sees everything sees it. What is in the middle of the sun is only a part of the radiance contained within space. Having risen, it becomes a ray. This is awareness; this is the true law; this is the sacrificial formula; this is austerity; this is fire; this is wind; this is life-breath; this is water; this is the moon; this is brightness; this is immortality; this is the field of Brahman; this is the luminous ocean. In that alone the sacrificers dissolve, like salt. This is unity with Brahman. Here all desires are gathered together. On this they quote: “Like streams of rays, stirred by a fine wind, that one shines within the gods. Whoever knows this knows; he knows duality. From here he would have one dwelling and that very Self. They rise constantly like drops, like lightning or flames from clouds in the highest sky. Those flames of glory, because of what supports them, take the form of the matted locks of fire, whose path is black.”

6.36 These are the two forms of Brahman's light: one peaceful, the other flourishing. Space supports the peaceful form; food here supports the flourishing form. Therefore one should sacrifice within the altar with prayers, plants, clarified butter, meat, sacrificial cakes, cooked rice, and the rest. One should also offer the remaining food and drink in the mouth, thinking of the mouth as the offering fire, to increase radiance, win holy worlds, and reach immortality. On this they quote: “Someone who wants heaven should offer the fire sacrifice. One wins Yama's kingdom through the Agniṣṭoma, Soma's kingdom through the Uktha, the sun's kingdom through the Ṣoḍaśin, one's own sovereignty through the Atirātra, and Prajāpati's kingdom through a rite ending after a thousand years.” Just as a lamp is kept going by the combination of wick, container, and oil, so these two, the Self and the bright one, are kept going by using what is inside the egg.

6.37 Therefore one should worship this limitless radiance with Om. It is described in three ways: in fire, in the sun, and in life-breath. The channel called Abundant Food carries what is offered in fire to the sun. The essence that flows from it rains down the high chant. From this come these life-breaths, and from the life-breaths come creatures. On this they quote: “What is offered in fire is carried to the sun. The sun rains it down through its rays. Through that there is food; from food beings are born.” As it is said: “An offering properly placed in fire reaches the sun. From the sun comes rain; from rain comes food; from that come creatures.”

Someone who offers the fire sacrifice breaks the net of greed. Having cut through confusion, without praising anger or dwelling on desire, one breaks through Brahman's covering with its four nets and reaches the highest space. Having passed through the solar, lunar, fiery, and clear spheres, one is purified and sees the dwelling beyond everything, called Vishnu: inside clarity, unmoving, immortal, unfailing, constant, joined with true desire and complete knowledge, independent consciousness standing in its own greatness. On this they quote: “The moon is in the middle of the sun; fire is in the middle of the moon. Clarity is in the middle of radiance; the unfailing one is in the middle of clarity.” Meditating on what is the size of a thumb within the body's span, smaller even than the small, one goes to the highest state. Here all desires are gathered together. On this they quote: “The size of a thumb, a span, or the body, like the heat and light of a lamp, in two or three forms: praised as Brahman, the great god has entered the worlds. Om. Honor to Brahman. Honor.” 6.38 Here ends Prapathaka 6.