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(3) ' Yajnavalkya/ said he, ' since everything here is overtaken by death, since everything is overcome by death, whereby is - a sacrificer liberated beyond the reach of death? ' 'By the Hotri-priest, by fire, by speech. Verily, speech is the Hotri of sacrifice. That which is this speech is this fire, is the Hotri. This is release (mukti), this is complete release/ 4- ' Yajnavalkya, said he, c since everything here is overtaken by day and night, since everything is overcome by day and night, whereby is a sacrificer liberated beyond day and night? ' By the Adhvaryu-priest, by the eye, by the sun. Verily, the eye is the Adhvaryu of sacrifice. That which is this eye is yonder sun, is the Adhvaryu. This is release, this is complete release/

(6) Whoever may wish, ( I would attain something great! — in the northern course of the sun, on an auspicious day of the 1 M % half month of the waxing moon, having performed the Upasad ceremony for twelve days, having collected in a dish of the wood of the sacied fig-tree (udambara\ or in a cup, all sorts of herbs including fruits, having swept around, having smeared around, having built up a fire, having strewn it around, having prepared the melted butter according to rule, having com- pounded the mixed potion under a male star, he makes an oblation, saying: — ' However many gods in thee, All-knower, Adversely slay desires of a person, To them participation I here offer! Let them, pleased, please me with all desires! Hail! Whoever lays herself adverse, And says, "I the deposer am!" To thee, O such appeasing one, With stream of ghee I sacrifice. Hail! ' a. ( To the chiefest, hail! To the best, hail! ' — he makes an oblation in the fire and pours off the remainder in the mixed potion. A Hail to breath (prana) \ ' To the most excellent, hail! ' — he makes an oblation in the fire and pours off the remainder in the mixed potion. A Hail to speech! £ To the firm basis, hail!' — he makes an oblation in the fire and pours off the remainder in the mixed potion. A Hail to the eye! 'To attainment, hail!'— he makes an oblation in the fire and pours off the remainder in the mixed potion. A Hail to the ear! ' To the abode, hail! ' — he makes an oblation in the fire and pours off the remainder in the mixed potion. A Hail to the mind! -where some of the same directions occur. Another parallel passage is Chand.

(3) [Sakalya said:] * What divinity have you in this southern (daksina) quarter? ' ' That Yama — on what is he based? ' ' On sacrifice.' t And on what is sacrifice based? ' f On gifts to the priests (daksind}' priests. Verily, on faith the gifts to the priests are based/ ' On the heart,' he said, ' for with the heart one knows faith. Verily, on the heart alone faith is based/

(1) Verily, the day arose for the horse as the sacrificial vessel which stands before. Its place is the eastern sea. Verily, the night arose for him as the sacrificial vessel which stands behind. Its place is the western sea. Verily, these two arose on both sides of the horse as the two sacrificial vessels. animal sacrifices in ancient India (described at length in Sat. Br. 13. 1-5), is interpreted, in this and the following Brahmana, as of cosmic significance — a miniature reproduction of the world-order. In the liturgy for the Horse-sacrifice (contained in VS. 22-25) there is a similar apportionment of the parts of the animal to the vanous parts of the world. Compare also a similar elaborate cosmic correlation of the ox at AV. 9. 7. symbolized cosmically by the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Becoming a steed, he carried the gods; a stallion, the Gandharvas; a courser, the demons; a horse, men. The sea, indeed, is his relative. The sea is his place.

(1) He desired: ' Would that this [body] of mine were fit for sacrifice! Would that by it I had a self (atmanmn)! J Thereupon it became a horse (asva), because it swelled (a£vat). ' It has become fit for sacrifice (medhya) \ ' thought he. There- fore the horse-sacrifice is called A6va-medha. He, verily, knows the A3va-medha, who knows it thus. He kept him [i.e. the horse] in mind without confining him. After a year he sacrificed him for himself, [Other] animals he delivered over to the divinities. Therefore men sacrifice the victim which is consecrated to Prajapati as though offered unto all the gods. free for a year. Verily, that [sun] which gives forth heat is the Asva-medha. The year is its embodiment (atmau). This [eaithly] fire is the ar&a. The worlds are its embodi- ments. These aie two, the arka sacrificial fire and the A^va- medha sacrifice. Yet again they are one divinity, even Death. He [who knows this] wards off death again, death obtains him not, death becomes his body (atman\ he becomes one of these deities.

(4) Thus manifold sacrifices are spread at the mouth of Brahman. Know them all as born of action. Thus knowing, thou shalt be liberated.

(1) Now next, the praying of the puiificatory formulas (pavamana). — The Prastotri priest (Praiser), verily, begins to praise with the Chant (sdman). When he begins to praise, then let [the sacrlficer] mutter the following: — ' From the unreal (asaf) lead me to the real (sat) I From darkness lead me to light! From death lead me to immortality ' ' When he says ' From the unreal lead me to the real/ the unreal, verily, is death, the real is immortality. * From death lead me to immortality. Make me immortal ' — that is what he says. death, the light is immortality. ' From death lead me to im- mortality. Make me immortal ' — that is what he says. ' From death lead me to immortality '—there is nothing there that seems obscure. Now whatever other verses there are of a hymn of praise (stotra), in them one may win food for himself by singing. And, therefore, in them he should choose a boon, whatever desire he may desire. That Udgatri priest who knows this — whatever desire he desires, either for himself or for the sacri- ficer, that he obtains by singing. This, indeed, is world-con- quering. There is no prospect of his being without a world who knows thus this Saman.

(4) Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation; by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman; Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.

(2) 'May we be able to master that Nâkiketa rite which is a bridge for sacrificers; also that which is the highest, imperishable Brahman for those who wish to cross over to the fearless shore.'

(17) 'And he who repeats this greatest mystery in an assembly of Brâhmans, or full of devotion at the time of the Srâddha sacrifice, obtains thereby infinite rewards.'

(10) And this is declared by the following Rik-verse: 'Let a man tell this science of Brahman to those only who have performed all (necessary) acts, who are versed in the Vedas, and firmly established in (the lower) Brahman, who themselves offer as an oblation the one Rishi (Agni), full of faith, and by whom the rite of (carrying fire on) the head has been performed, according to the rule (of the Âtharvanas).'

(18) 'He who knows the three Nâkiketa fires, and knowing the three, piles up the Nâkiketa sacrifice, he, having first thrown off the chains of death, rejoices in the world of heaven, beyond the reach of grief.'

(4) Eating of ambrosia, the remnant of the sacrifice, they go to Eternal Brahman. This world is not for the non-sacrificer; whence the other? — O best of Kurus.

(6) Those who know this, and those too who in the forest truly worship (ujasate) faith (traddka), pass into the flame [of the cremation-fire]; from the flame, into the day; from the day, into the half month of the waxing moon; from the half month of the waxing moon, into the six months during which the sun moves northward; from these months, into the world of the gods (deva-loka); from the world of the gods, into the sun -^ from the sun, into the lightning-fire. A Peison (puntsd) consisting of mind (manasa) goes to those regions of lightning and conducts them to the Brahma-worlds. In those Brahma- worlds they dwell for long extents. Of these there is no return. 1 6. But they who by sacrificial offering, charity, and austerity conquer the worlds, pass into the smoke [of the cremation-fire]; from the smoke, into the night; from the night, into the half month of the waning moon; from the half month of the waning moon, into the six months during which the sun moves southward; from those months, into the world of the fathers; from the world of the fathers, into the moon. Reaching the moon, they become food. There the gods—as they say to King Sotna, " Increase! Decrease!"_even so feed upon them there. When that passes away for them, then they pass forth into this space; from space, into air; from air, into rain; from rain, into the earth. On reaching the earth they become food. Again they are offered in the fire of man. Thence they are born in the fire of woman. Rising up into the world, they cycle round again thus. But those who know not these two ways, become crawling and flying insects and whatever there is here that bites/

(4) Other yogins resort to sacrifices to Gods ; in the fire of Brahman others offer the Self by the Self.

(17) 'He who has three times performed this Nâkiketa rite, and has been united with the three (father, mother, and teacher), and has performed the three duties (study, sacrifice, almsgiving) overcomes birth and death. When he has learnt and understood this fire, which knows (or makes us know) all that is born of Brahman, which is venerable and divine, then he obtains everlasting peace.'