(2) Ajatasatru said: ' Verily, it is contrary to the course of things that a Brahman should come to a Kshatriya, thinking BR1HAD-ARANYAKA UPANISHAD [-3.1. " He will tell me Brahma/' However, I shall cause you to know him clearly/ He took him by the hand and rose. The two went up to a man who was asleep. They addressed him with these words: [i.e. Ajatasatru] woke him by rubbing him with his hand. That one arose.

(4) Janaka, [king] of Videha, descending from his cushion and approaching, said: c Adoration to you, Yajnavalkya. Do you instruct me.' He [i.e. Yajnavalkya] said: 'Verily, as a king about to go on a great journey would prepare a chariot or a ship, even so you have a soul (atman) prepared with these mystic doctrines (tipanisad}. So, being at the head of a troop, and wealthy, learned in the Vedas, and instructed in mystic doctrines, whither, when released hence, will you go? ' ' That I know not, noble Sir — whither I shall go/ 2, £ Indha (i. e. the Kindler) by name is this person here in the right eye. Him, verily, who is that Indha people call " Indra" 1 K % cryptically, for the gods are fond of the cryptic, as it were, and dislike the evident.

(6) Verily, Svetaketu Aruneya went up to an assembly of Pancalas. He went up to Pravahana Jaibali while the latter was having himself waited upon. He, looking up, said unto him, f Young man! ' ' Sir!' he replied. f Yes/ said he. a. ' Know you how people here, on deceasing, separate in different directions? ** ' No/ said he. ' Know you how they come back again to this world? ' c No/ said he. 'Know you why yonder world is not filled up with the many who continually thus go hence? ' ' No/ said he. 1 A parallel account is found in Chand. 5. 3-10. 1 6 < Know you in which oblation that is offered the water be- comes the voice of a person, rises up, and speaks? ' ' No,' said he. ' Know you the access of the path leading to the gods, or of the one leading to the fathers? by doing what, people go to the path of the gods or of the fathers? for we have heard the word of the seer: — Two paths, I've heard — the one that leads to fathers, And one that leads to gods — belong to moitals. By these two, every moving thing here travels, That is between the Father and the Mother.'

(3) Then [Gargl] Vacaknavl said: 'Venerable Brahmans, lo, I will ask him [i.e. Yajnavalkya] two questions. If he will answer me these, not one of you will surpass him in discussions about Brahma. ' Ask, Gargl/ a. She said: ' As a noble youth of the Kasls or of the Videhas might rise up against you, having strung his unstrung bow and taken two foe-piercing anows in his hand, even so, O Yajnavalkya, have I risen up against you with two questions. Answer me these/ Yajnavalkya said: 6 Ask, Gargi.'

(6) Then he addressed him with an invitation to remain. Not respecting the invitation to remain, the boy ran off. He went to his father. He said to him: 'Verily, aforetime you have spoken of me, Sir, as having been instructed! J 'Five questions a fellow of the princely class (rajanya- bandhu} has asked me. Not a single one of them do I know.' 'What are they?'

(4) ' Let us hear what anybody may have told you,' [con- tinued Yajnavalkya]. 'Jitvan Sailini told me: " Brahma, verily, is speech (vac)"' [said Janaka]. 'As a man might say that he had a mother, that he had a father, that he had a teacher, so did that Sailina say, " Brahma, verily, is speech." For he might have thought (iti), '* What can one have who can not speak? " But did he tell you Its seat and support?' ' He did not tell me.' ' Forsooth, your Majesty, that is a one-legged [Brahma].' ' Its seat is just speech; Its support, space (akasa). One should worship It as intelligence (prajna)' ' What is Its quality of intelligence, Yajnavalkya? ' 'Just speech, your Majesty,' said he. c Verily, by speech, your Majesty, a friend is recognized. By speech alone, your Majesty, the Rig- Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the [Hymns] of the Atharvans and Angirases, Legends (itika$a\ Ancient Lore (pur and], Sciences (vidya), Mystic Doctrines (upanisad)) Verses (sloka), Aphorisms (sutra\ Explanations (anuvyakhyand)) Commentaries (uyakkyana), what is offered in sacrifice and as oblation, food and drink, this world and the other, and all beings are known. The highest Brahma, your Majesty, is in truth speech. Speech does not desert him be noted, takes the active bruyat as if it were middle voice — a late epic usage. 2 A designation of the Atharva-Veda. who, knowing this, worships it as such. All things run unto him. He, having become a god, goes even to the gods/ { I will give you a thousand cows with a bull as large as an elephant/ said Janaka, [king] of Videha. Yajfiavalkya replied: 'My father thought that without having instructed one should not accept'

(2) Gargya said: cThe sound here which follows after one as he goes — him, indeed, I worship as Brahma ' ' Ajatas'atru said: 'Talk not to me about him! I worship him, verily, as Life (asu). To him who worships him as such there comes a full length of life (dyu) in this world. Breath (prdna) leaves him not before the time.'

(5) On this point, verily, Janaka, [king] of Videha, spoke as follows to Budila Asvatarasvi: f^io! Now if you spoke of yourself thus as a knower of the Gayatri, how then have you come to be an elephant and are carrying? ' ' Because, great king, I did not know its mouth/ said he. Its mouth is fire. Verily, indeed, even if they lay very much 1 RV. 3. 62. 1: On this, of Savitri the god, The choicest glory let us think. Our thoughts may he himself inspire! on a fire, it burns it all. Even so one who knows this, al- though he commits very much evil, consumes it all and becomes clean and puie, ageless and immortal