11. PRASHNA-UPANISHAD
PRASHNA-UPANISHAD
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Adoration to the Highest Self! Harih, Om!
1. Sukesas Bharadvaga, and Saivya Satyakama, and Sauryayanin Gargya,
and Kausalya Asvalayana, and Bhargava Vaidarbhi, and Kabandhin
Katyayana, these were devoted to Brahman, firm in Brahman, seeking for
the Highest Brahman. They thought that the venerable Pippalada could
tell them all that, and they therefore took fuel in their hands
(like pupils), and approached him.
2. That Rishi said to them: 'Stay here a year longer, with
penance, abstinence, and faith; then you may ask questions according
to your pleasure, and if we know them, we shall tell you all.'
3. Then Kabandhin Katyayana approached him and asked: 'Sir, from
whence may these creatures be born?'
4. He replied: 'Prajapati (the lord of creatures) was desirous of
creatures (Prajah). He performed penance, and having performed
penance, he produces a pair, matter (Rayi) and spirit (Prana),
thinking that they together should produce creatures for him in many
ways.
5. The sun is spirit, matter is the moon. All this, what has body
and what has no body, is matter, and therefore body indeed is matter.
6. Now Aditya, the sun, when he rises, goes toward the East, and
thus receives the Eastern spirits into his rays. And when he
illuminates the South, the West, the North, the Zenith, the Nadir, the
intermediate quarters, and everything, he thus receives all spirits
into his rays.
7. Thus he rises, as Vaisvanara, (belonging to all men,) assuming
all forms, as spirit, as fire. This has been said in the following
verse:
8. (They knew) him who assumes all forms, the golden, who knows
all things, who ascends highest, alone in his splendour, and warms us;
the thousand-rayed, who abides in a hundred places, the spirit of
all creatures, the Sun, rises.
9. The year indeed is Prajapati, and there are two paths thereof,
the Southern and the Northern. Now those who here believe in
sacrifices and pious gifts as work done, gain the moon only as their
(future) world, and return again. Therefore the Rishis who desire
offspring, go to the South, and that path of the Fathers is matter
(Rayi).
10. But those who have sought the Self by penance, abstinence,
faith, and knowledge, gain by the Northern path Aditya, the sun.
This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the
highest. From thence they do not return, for it is the end. Thus
says the Shloka:
11. Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons),
and with twelve shapes (the twelve months), the giver of rain in the
highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in
the lower half, in the chariot with seven wheels and six spokes.
12. The month is Prajapati; its dark half is matter, its bright half
spirit. Therefore some Rishis perform sacrifice in the bright half,
others in the other half.
13. Day and Night are Prajapati; its day is spirit, its night
matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to
unite in love by night is right.
14. Food is Prajapati. Hence proceeds seed, and from it these
creatures are born.
15. Those therefore who observe this rule of Prajapati (as laid down
in Section 13), produce a pair, and to them belongs this
Brahma-world here. But those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and
truth,
16. To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom
there is nothing crooked, nothing false, and no guile.'
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2ND_QUESTION
1. Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked him: 'Sir, How many gods keep
what has thus been created, how many manifest this, and who is the
best of them?'
2. He replied: 'The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth,
speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their
power), contend and say: We (each of us) support this body and keep
it.
3. Then Prana (breath, spirit, life), as the best, said to them:
Be not deceived, I alone, dividing myself fivefold, support this
body and keep it.
4. They were incredulous; so he, from pride, did as if he were going
out from above. Thereupon, as he went out, all the others went out,
and as he returned, all the others returned. As bees go out when their
queen goes out, and return when she returns, thus (did) speech,
mind, eye, and ear; and, being satisfied, they praise Prana, saying:
5. He is Agni (fire), he shines as Surya (sun), he is Parjanya
(rain), the powerful (Indra), he is Vayu (wind), he is the earth, he
is matter, he is God- he is what is and what is not, and what is
immortal.
6. As spokes in the nave of a wheel, everything is fixed in Prana,
the verses of the Rig-Veda, Yagur-veda, Sama-Veda, the sacrifice,
the Kshatriyas, and the Brahmans.
7. As Prajapati (lord of creatures) thou movest about in the womb,
thou indeed art born again. To thee, the Prana, these creatures
bring offerings, to thee who dwellest with the other Pranas (the
organs of sense).
8. Thou art the best carrier for the Gods, thou art the first
offering to the Fathers. Thou art the true work of the Rishis, of
the Atharvangiras.
9. O Prana, thou art Indra by thy light, thou art Rudra, as a
protector; thou movest in the sky, thou art the sun, the lord of
lights.
10. When thou showerest down rain, then, O Prana, these creatures of
thine are delighted, hoping that there will be food, as much as they
desire.
11. Thou art a Vratya, O Prana, the only Rishi, the consumer of
everything, the good lord. We are the givers of what thou hast to
consume, thou, O Matarisvan, art our father.
12. Make propitious that body of thine which dwells in speech, in
the ear, in the eye, and which pervades the mind; do not go away!
13. All this is in the power of Prana, whatever exists in the
three heavens. Protect us like a mother her sons, and give us
happiness and wisdom.'
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3RD_QUESTION
1. Then Kausalya Asvalayana asked: 'Sir, whence is that Prana
(spirit) born? How does it come into this body? And how does it abide,
after it has divided itself? How does it go out? How does it support
what is without, and how what is within?'
2. He replied: 'You ask questions more difficult, but you are very
fond of Brahman, therefore I shall tell it you.
3. This Prana (spirit) is born of the Self. Like the shadow thrown
on a man, this (the Prana) is spread out over it (the Brahman). By the
work of the mind does it come into this body.
4. As a king commands officials, saying to them: Rule these villages
or those, so does that Prana (spirit) dispose the other Pranas, each
for their separate work.
5. The Apana (the down-breathing) in the organs of excretion and
generation; the Prana himself dwells in eye and ear, passing through
mouth and nose. In the middle is the Samana (the on-breathing); it
carries what has been sacrificed as food equally (over the body),
and the seven lights proceed from it.
6. The Self is in the heart. There are the 101 arteries, and in each
of them there are a hundred (smaller veins), and for each of these
branches there are 72,000. In these the Vyana (the back-breathing)
moves.
7. Through one of them, the Udana (the out-breathing) leads (us)
upwards to the good world by good work, to the bad world by bad
work, to the world of men by both.
8. The sun rises as the external Prana, for it assists the Prana
in the eye. The deity that exists in the earth, is there in support of
man's Apana (down-breathing). The ether between (sun and earth) is the
Samana (on-breathing), the air is Vyana (back-breathing).
9. Light is the Udana (out-breathing), and therefore he whose
light has gone out comes to a new birth with his senses absorbed in
the mind.
10. Whatever his thought (at the time of death) with that he goes
back to Prana, and the Prana, united with light, together with the
self (the Jivaatma) leads on to the world, as deserved.
11. He who, thus knowing, knows Prana, his offspring does not
perish, and he becomes immortal. Thus says the Shloka:
12. He who has known the origin, the entry, the place, the
fivefold distribution, and the internal state of the Prana, obtains
immortality, yes, obtains immortality.'
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4TH_QUESTION
1. Then Sauryayanin Gargya asked: 'Sir, What are they that sleep
in this man, and what are they that are awake in him? What power
(Deva) is it that sees dreams? Whose is the happiness? On what do
all these depend?'
2. He replied: 'O Gargya, As all the rays of the sun, when it
sets, are gathered up in that disc of light, and as they, when the sun
rises again and again, come forth, so is all this (all the senses)
gathered up in the highest faculty (Deva), the mind. Therefore at that
time that man does not hear, see, smell, taste, touch, he does not
speak, he does not take, does not enjoy, does not evacuate, does not
move about. He sleeps, that is what people say.
3. The fires of the Pranas are, as it were, awake in that town
(the body). The Apana is the Garhapatya fire, the Vyana the
Anvaharyapakana fire; and because it is taken out of the Garhapatya
fire, which is fire for taking out, therefore the Prana is the
Ahavaniya fire.
4. Because it carries equally these two oblations, the out-breathing
and the in-breathing, the Samana is he (the Hotri priest). The mind is
the sacrificer, the Udana is the reward of the sacrifice, and it leads
the sacrificer every day (in deep sleep) to Brahman.
5. There that god (the mind) enjoys in sleep greatness. What has
been seen, he sees again; what has been heard, he hears again; what
has been enjoyed in different countries and quarters, he enjoys again;
what has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, enjoyed and
not enjoyed, he sees it all; he, being all, sees.
6. And when he is overpowered by light, then that god sees no
dreams, and at that time that happiness arises in his body.
7. And, O friend, as birds go to a tree to roost, thus all this
rests in the Highest Atman,-
8. The earth and its subtle elements, the water and its subtle
elements, the light and its subtle elements, the air and its
subtle elements, the ether and its subtle elements; the eye and what
can be seen, the ear and what can be heard, the nose and what can be
smelled, the taste and what can be tasted, the skin and what can be
touched, the voice and what can be spoken, the hands and what can be
grasped, the feet and what can be walked, the mind and what can be
perceived, intellect (Budhi) and what can be conceived, personality
and what can be personified, thought and what can be thought, light
and what can be lighted up, the Prana and what is to be supported by
it.
9. For he it is who sees, hears, smells, tastes, perceives,
conceives, acts, he whose essence is knowledge, the person, and he
dwells in the highest, indestructible Self,-
10. He who knows that indestructible being, obtains (what is) the
highest and indestructible, he without a shadow, without a body,
without color, bright,- yes, O friend, he who knows it, becomes
all-knowing, becomes all. On this there is this Shloka:
11. He, O friend, who knows that indestructible being wherein the
true knower, the vital spirits (Pranas), together with all the
powers (Deva), and the elements rest, he, being all-knowing, has
penetrated all.'
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5TH_QUESTION
1. Then Saivya Satyakama asked him: 'Sir, if some one among men
should meditate here until death on the syllable Om, what would he
obtain by it?'
2. He replied: 'O Satyakama, the syllable Om (AUM) is the highest
and also the other Brahman; therefore he who knows it arrives by the
same means at one of the two.
3. If he meditate on one Matra (the A), then, being enlightened by
that only, he arrives quickly at the earth. The Rik-verses lead
him to the world of men, and being endowed there with penance,
abstinence, and faith, he enjoys greatness.
4. If he meditate with two Matras (A + U) he arrives at the Manas,
and is led up by the Yagus-verses to the sky, to the Soma-world.
Having enjoyed greatness in the Soma-world, he returns again.
5. Again, he who meditates with this syllable AUM of three Matras,
on the Highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. And as a
snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil. He is led up
by the Saman-verses to the Brahma-world; and from him, full of life
(Hiranyagarbha, the lord of the Satya-Loka), he learns to see the
all-pervading, the Highest Person. And there are these two Shlokas:
6. The three Matras (A + U + M), if employed separate, and only
joined one to another, are mortal; but in acts, external, internal, or
intermediate, if well performed, the sage trembles not.
7. Through the Rik-verses he arrives at this world, through the
Yagus-verses at the sky, through the Saman-verses at that which the
poets teach,- he arrives at this by means of the Omkara; the wise
arrives at that which is at rest, free from decay, from death, from
fear,- the Highest.'
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6TH_QUESTION
1. Then Sukesas Bharadvaga asked him, saying: 'Sir, Hiranyanabha,
the prince of Kosala, came to me and asked this question: Do you
know the person of sixteen parts, O Bharadvaga? I said to the
prince: I do not know him; if I knew him, how should I not tell you?
Surely, he who speaks what is untrue withers away to the very root;
therefore I will not say what is untrue. Then he mounted his chariot
and went away silently. Now I ask you, where is that person?'
2. He replied: 'Friend, that person is here within the body, he in
whom these sixteen parts arise.
3. He reflected: What is it by whose departure I shall depart, and
by whose staying I shall stay?
4. He sent forth (created) Prana (spirit); from Prana Shraddha
(faith), ether, air, light, water, earth, sense, mind, food; from food
came vigour, penance, hymns, sacrifice, the worlds, and in the
worlds the name also.
5. As these flowing rivers that go towards the ocean, when they have
reached the ocean, sink into it, their name and form are broken, and
people speak of the ocean only, exactly thus these sixteen parts of
the spectator that go towards the person (Purusha), when they have
reached the person, sink into him, their name and form are broken, and
people speak of the person only, and he becomes without parts and
immortal. On this there is this verse:
6. That person who is to be known, he in whom these parts rest, like
spokes in the nave of a wheel, you know him, lest death should hurt
you.'
7. Then he (Pippalada) said to them: 'So far do I know this
Highest Brahman, there is nothing higher than it.'
8. And they praising him, said: 'You, indeed, are our father, you
who carry us from our ignorance to the other shore.'
Adoration to the highest Rishis!
Adoration to the highest Rishis!
Tat sat. Harih, Om!
OM - SHANTI - SHANTI - SHANTI