(2) This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright, how, in pleasing Him, may we serve the supreme one of (Heaven) the better world ; yea, how to serve that chief who may grant us those (blessings of His grace, and) who will seek for (grateful requitals at our hands); for He, bountiful (as He is) through the Righteous Order, (will hold off) ruin from (us) all, guardian (as He is) for both the worlds, O Spirit Mazda! and a friend.

(4) If one is fortunate among men and wealthy, lord over others, best provided with all human enjoyments — that is the highest bliss of men. Now a hundredfold the bliss of men is one bliss of those who have won the fathers' world. Now a hundredfold the bliss of those who have won the fathers' world is one bliss in the Gandharva- world. A hundredfold the bliss in the Gandharva-world is one bliss of the gods who gain their divinity by meritorious works. A hundredfold the bliss of the gods by works is one bliss of the gods by birth and of him who is learned in the Vedas, who is without crook- edness, and who is free from desire. A hundredfold the bliss of the gods by birth is one bliss in the Prajapati- world and of him who is learned in the Vedas, who is without crookedness, and who is free from desire. A hundredfold the bliss in the Prajapati-world is one bliss in the Brahma-world and of him who is learned in the Vedas, who is without crookedness, and who is free from desire. This truly is the highest world. This is the Brahma-world, O king/ — Thus spake Yajnavalkya, [Janaka said:] c I will give you, noble Sir, a thousand [cows]. Speak further than this, for my release.' Then Yajnavalkya feared, thinking: ' This intelligent king has driven me out of every corner.' l

(1) Do what thou hast to do, O Sekaru ( twice ); as The god who is in his own house, and as The god who standeth on his legs in the Netherworld

(18) The children of the great god nourish him to whom they have given birth, with sacred offerings

(3) Lastly, the continual exercise of prayer nourishes the vigour of our intellect, and renders the receptacles of the soul far more capacious for the communications of the Gods. It likewise is the divine key , which opens to men the penetralia of the Gods; accustoms us to the splendid rivers of supernal light; in a short time perfects our inmost recesses, and disposes them for the ineffable embrace and contact of the Gods; and does not desist till it raises us to the summit of all. It also gradually and silently draws upward the manners of our soul, by divesting them of every thing foreign to a divine nature, and clothes us with the perfections of the Gods. Besides this, it produces an indissoluble communion and friendship with divinity, nourishes a divine love, and inflames the divine part of the soul.

(2) And first I will ask for these two blessings of Your own, O Thou Great Creator, and thou His Righteous Order! and I also ask of thee, Our Piety (personified, as well); and grant me this Your Sovereign Rule over our desired wealth (to give and to preserve it; and likewise) those spiritual blessings which are advantageous for our worship (of Ahura) through (the inspiration of His) Good Mind (within the soul).

(10) Feed N. with you; let him eat what you eat, drink as you drink, sit as you sit, be mighty as you are mighty, navigate as you navigate. The tent of N. is woven in the field of Aarru, his running water is in the Garden of Hotepit. Offerings are made to him among the gods; the drink of N. is the wine of Rā

(9) Yea, with these Yasnas of Your sacrifice would I approach You, praising back to You (in answer to Your mercies), O Ahura! and Thou, O Righteousness! in (the holy) actions of Your Good Mind, (as he moves within us), so long indeed as I shall have the power, commanding at my will o’er this my sacred (privilege) and gift. (And doing as) the wise man (thus), may I (like him) become a supplicant who gains his ends.

(3) “ Supplications, however ,” you say, “ are too foreign to the purity of intellect to be offered to the Gods .” But this is by no means the case. For on this very account, because we fall short of the Gods in power, purity, and every thing else, we shall act in the most opportune manner, by invoking them with the most vehement supplications. For the consciousness of our own nothingness, when we compare ourselves, with the Gods, causes us to betake ourselves spontaneously to suppliant prayer. But from supplication, we are in a short time led to the object of supplication, acquire its similitude from intimate converse, and gradually obtain divine perfection, instead of our own imbecility and imperfection.

(1) The same things also may be learned from the distribution of the Gods according to places; and from this, and the partible dominion over each particular thing, it may be seen how many allotments, greater or less, superior beings are assigned according to their different orders. For it is evident, that to the Gods who preside over certain places, the things produced by them are most appropriately offered in sacrifice; and that what pertains to the governed is most adapted to be sacrificed to the governors. For always to makers their own works are particularly grateful; and to those who primarily produce certain things, such things are primarily acceptable. Whether, therefore, certain animals, or plants, or any other productions of the earth, are governed by superior beings, at one and the same time, they participate of their inspective care, and impart to us an indivisible communion with the Gods. Some things, therefore, of this kind, if they are carefully preserved, increase the familiarity of those that retain them with the Gods; and these are such as by remaining entire, preserve the communion between Gods and men. Of this kind are some of the animals in Egypt, and man, who is everywhere sacred. But some things, when consecrated, produce a more manifest familiarity; and these are such as by an analysis into the principle of the first elements, effect an alliance more sacredly adapted to superior causes. For the more perfect this alliance is, the more perfect always is the good which is imparted by it.

(4) Honor God above all things, that he may rule over you.

Whatever you honor above all things, that which you so honor will have dominion over you. But if you give yourself to the domination of God, you will thus have dominion over all things.

(1) O Tmu, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Sut, Nephthys, Horus of the two Horizons, Hathor in the great dwelling, Chepera, Mentu lord of Thebes, Amon lord of Nestaui, ye the great cycle of the gods, ye the small cycle of the gods, ye gods and goddesses issued from Nu, Sebek of Shet, Sebek in all his manifold names, in all the abodes where his ka likes to be; ye gods of the South and of the North, ye gods in heaven and on earth, grant a pure garment to the mighty Chu N. ; give him to be glorious by it and destroy all that was wrong in him

(18) At this time when the Fifty-eight Blood-Drinking Deities emanating from thine own brain come to shine upon thee, if thou knowest them to be the radiances of thine own intellect, thou wilt merge, in the state of at-one-ment, into the body of the Blood-Drinking Ones there and then, and obtain Buddhahood.

(9) This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright, how to myself shall I hallow the Faith of Thy people, which the beneficent kingdom's lord hath taught me, even the admonitions which He called Thine equal, hath taught me through His lofty (and most righteous Sovereignty and) Power, as He dwells in like abode with Thine Order and Thy Good Mind?

(8) "That the service of the gods may be established, and that [their] shrines 1 [may be built

(224) Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

(3) ( Yajfiavalkya,' said he, ' since this atmosphere does not afford a [foot]hold, as it were, by what means of ascent does a sacrificer ascend to the heavenly world? ' the mind. is the Brahman of the sacrifice. That which is this mind is yonder moon, is the Brahman. This is release, this is complete release,' — Thus [concerning] liberation. Now the acquirements. —

(3) 'Yajnavalkya/ said he, c how many hymns of praise will the Udgatri chant today in this sacrifice? ' 'Three.' ' The introductory hymn, the accompanying hymn, and the benediction hymn as the third.' < Which are those three with reference to the self? ' 'The introductory hymn is the in-breath (prana). The accompanying hymn is the out-breath (apand). The bene- diction hymn is the diffused breath (yyana).' ' What does one win by these? ' ' One wins the earth-world by the introductory hymn, the atmosphere-world by the accompanying hymn, the sky-world by the benediction hymn.' Thereupon the Hotri-priest Asvala held his peace,

(1) Let me sit in the midst of the great gods. Let me pass through the place of the Sektit boat. It is the Bird-fly deity that shall convey me to see the great gods who are in the Netherworld, and I shall be triumphant in their presence

(2) 'And through their satisfaction he (the sacrificer or eater) himself is satisfied with offspring, cattle, health, brightness, and Vedic splendour.