The ancient token with which a person presented himself as a pupil unto a teacher whose instruction he desired.

Or, according to a different exegests, the word jātavedasam may mean ‘all-finding.’

This stanza occurs again in Maitri 6. 8, as the conclusion of a section which expounds the unity of Prāṇa (life) and Āditya (the sun).

Elaborated in Bṛih. 6. 2. 15-16; Chānd. 4. 15. 5; Chānd. 5. 10; and BhG. 8. 24-26 as the half-year of the sun’s southward course and as the half-year of the sun’s northward course, respectively.

This belief in rebirth occurs already in AV. 12. 2. 52 b.

Both Śaṅkara here and Sāyaṇa on the Rig-Veda passage explain this as ‘the year,’ ‘with five seasons,’ and ‘with twelve months.’

Or ‘one far-shining,’ vicakṣaṇa.

‘With seven steeds, and six seasons.’—Com.

This stanza = RV. 1. 164. 12.

As stated above in § 13.

That is, offspring, like Prajāpati himself according to § 4.

That is, the five cosmic elements, and with prāṇa (life-breath) the five personal functions.

The reference may be to ‘Indra,’ for whom maghavan is a very common Vedic epithet.

This line is a reminiscence of AV. 11. 4. 19 a, b, a hymn to Prāṇa, of which there are other reminiscences in this Praśna Upanishad.

Śaṅkara explains this word as meaning ‘uninitiated’ because of his being the first born, and there being no one else to initiate him; therefore ‘pure by nature.’ This is a noteworthy characterization; for, later a Vrātya is either a despised, non-Brahmanical low-caste man, or else a man who has lost caste through the non-observance of proper ceremonies! Yet compare the glorification of the Vrātya in AV. 15.

Or, ‘most devoted to Brahma,’ brahmistha.

Such seems to be the implication of the important preceding word manokṛtena, in accordance with the theory of rebirth which is assumed later in this same Upanishad. That is: a person’s life in this body is the sure and appropriate result of his thoughts in a previous existence, even as a shadow is the similitude unavoidably cast from a person’s body. A different, but not contradictory, interpretation is possible from the reading mano’krtena, ‘without action of the mind’ (which Deussen proposes): i. e. that a person’s life in this body is an involuntary shadow cast from the great Self.

Or possibly, as rendered by Deussen, ‘. . . it is this [breath] that brings to sameness [i. e. assimilates, digests] this offered food.’ But cf. Praśna 4. 4.

Compare Mund. 2. 1. 8.

Mentioned in Chānd. 8. 6. 6.

Mentioned in Bṛih. 2. 1. 19.

Called the suṣumnā. Cf. Maitri 6. 21.

The idea expounded is that the five bodily life functions are correlated with five cosmic powers.

As already identified in 1. 5.

The destiny-making power of thought, especially as instanced in a person’s last thoughts, is similarly expressed in BhG. 8. 6.

Life itself being conceived of as a sacrifice, these three life-breaths are symbolically identified with the three fires which are used in the Vedic sacrificial rites. Compare the identification of the sacrificer’s priest, wife, and son with these same three altar fires at Ait. Br. 8. 24.

The following is a noteworthy Sāṅkhya enumeration, including the five cosmic elements, the ten organs ( indriya ), and manas, buddhi, ahaṁkāra, citta, together with light and life. Cf. p. 391, note 4.

Compare Muṇḍ. 1. 1. 4 for the two kinds of sacred knowledge. So here probably brahma may be used in the sense of ‘sacred knowledge’ as well as in a strictly metaphysical sense referring to the nir-guṇa, ‘un-qualified,’ and the saguṇa, ‘qualified,’ Brahma respectively.

In VS. 8. 36 Prajāpati, ‘Lord of Creation,’ is addressed as ṣoḍaśin, ‘with sixteen parts.’ In Bṛih. 1. 5. 14 the year is identified with Prajāpati and explained as having sixteen parts because its component half-months each consist of fifteen days and a turning-point. According to Bṛih. 1. 5. 15 the human person who understands this fact becomes similarly characterized. A practical proof of a person’s sixteenfoldness is adduced at Chānd. 6. 7, and an etymological proof at Śat. Br. 10. 4. 1. 17.

These old conceptions, namely that the ‘Lord of Creation’ is sixteenfold and that a human person also is sixteenfold, are here philosophically interpreted in accordance with the general pantheism of the Upanishads.

Analysis: §§ 2, 3, the cosmic Person is immanent in the human person, which is His most distinctive manifestation; § 4, the human person is the culmination and recapitulation of the sixteenfold evolution of the thought of the creative Person; § 5, the sixteenfold human person tends to return to, and merge into, the immortal Person, and therein to lose his finite individuality; § 6, an appreciation of the unitary basis of the manifold world as being a knowable Person, removes the fear of death.

Inasmuch as akṣaraṁ means also ‘imperishable,’ the word may in this connection be used with a double significance, namely, ‘This imperishable syllable . . .’

A similar phrase occurs at Śvet. 6. 5 b.

Śaṅkara refers to the enumeration of the several parts of the universal ( vaiśvānara ) Self at Chānd. 5. 18. 2; there, however, the list is longer than seven. The exact significance of the number here is uncertain.

Śaṅkara explains this to mean: the five organs of sense ( buddhīndriya ), namely those of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, the five organs of action ( karmendriya ), namely those of speech, handling, locomotion, generation, and excretion, the five vital breaths ( prāṇa ), the sensorium ( manas ), the intellect ( buddhi ), egoism ( ahaṁkāra ), and thinking ( citta ).

The part of the sentence up to this point has occurred already in Bṛih. 4. 3. 19.

A detailed description of the condition of being ‘unified’ occurs at Bṛih. 4. 4. 2.

This compound has already occurred in Bṛih. 4. 5. 13.

A description of the self ‘consisting of bliss’ occurs in Tait. 2. 5. It is declared to be the acme of attainment over every other form of self at Tait. 2. 8. 1 and 3. 10. 5.

A phrase in Bṛih. 4. 4. 22.

A phrase in Muṇḍ. 1. 1. 9; 2. 2. 7.

The subject of discourse in Bṛih. 3. 7.

Literally, ‘womb.’

A phrase in Kaṭha 6. 11.

Or, according to the reading ekātma -, ‘the oneness of the Self’ or ‘one’s own self.’

The designation here used for the ‘fourth,’ or super-conscious, state is caturtha the usual and regular form of the ordinal numeral adjective. In Bṛih. (at 5. 14. 3, 4, 6, 7) it is named turīya, and in Maitri (at 6. 19; 7. 11. 7) turya —variant forms of the same ordinal. All later philosophical treatises have the form turīya, which came to be the accepted technical term.

In Sanskrit the vowel o is constitutionally a diphthong, contracted from a + u. Om therefore may be analyzed into the elements a + u + m.

Either (1) in the sense of ‘equable,’ i. e. unaffected in the midst of the pairs of opposites ( dvandva ); or (2) in the sense of ‘equitable,’ i. e. impartial, alike, indifferent to both friend and foe; or (3) in the sense of ‘equalized,’ i. e. with the universe, which a knower understands exists only as his Self’s consciousness; or even (4) in the very common sense of ‘same,’ i. e. the same as that which he knows.

All these four (and more) are possible interpretations. They evidence how vague (or, how pregnant—it is urged) are some of the statements in the Upanishads, and how capable therefore of various interpretations.

Of each of sections 8-10 there are, similarly, several interpretations.

Possibly as a synonym for another meaning of miti (derived from √mi, mināti ), ‘destroying’ or ‘perishing.’

That is, out of his own consciousness—according to the philosophic theory of subjective idealism expounded in the Upanishads.

This is a phrase which has previously occurred at VS. 32. 11.

The words kiṁ kāranam brahma might mean also ‘What is the cause? Is it Brahma?’ or ‘What is the cause? What is Brahma?’ or ‘Is the cause Brahma?’ or ‘Is Brahma the cause?’ or even ‘What sort of a cause is Brahma?’

That is, consisting of the Three Qualities according to the Sānkhya philosophy (see Introduction, p. 8) sattvam, rajas, and tamas —pureness, passion, and darkness.

That is, the five elements ( bhūta ), the five organs of perception ( buddhīndriya ) the five organs of action ( karmendriya ), and the mind ( manas ).

The fifty conditions ( bhāva ) of the Sāṅkhya philosophy (cf. Sāṅkhya Kārikā 46).

The ten senses ( indriya ) and their ten corresponding objects.

That is, (1) eight producing causes of Prakṛiti, namely the five elements, mind ( manas ), intellect ( buddhi ), and self-consciousness ( ahaṁkāra ); (2) eight constituents of the body ( dhātu ); (3) eight forms of superhuman power; (4) eight conditions ( bhāva ); (5) eight gods; (6) eight virtues.

That is, desire.

Namely religiousness ( dharma ), irreligiousness ( a-dharma ), and knowledge ( jñāna ).

That is, the illusion of self-consciousness.

Namely the consequences of good and of evil deeds.

The five senses.

The five elements.

The five objects of sense.

According to Śaṅkara’s reading. The traditional text has ‘divided fiftyfold.

The world, the individual soul, and the cosmic Soul.

Or ‘This is the highest mystic teaching concerning Brahma ( brahmopaniṣad )!’

These five stanzas = TS. 4. 1. 1. 1-5 and with variation also = VS. 11. 1-5, from which again they are cited and applied liturgically at Śat. Br. 6. 3. 1. 12-17.

Or possibly dative, ‘to the earth.’

In addition to the references cited in note 2, above, this stanza also = RV. 5. 81. 1; VS. 5. 14 and 11. 4. It is quoted in Śat. Br. 3. 5. 3. 11, 12.

This stanza also = RV. 10. 13. 1; VS. 11. 5. Lines a, b, c with slight variants = AV. 18. 3. 39 b, c, d.

Such is the traditional interpretation of a line which, even in its original source (RV. 6. 16. 18a with a very slight alteration), is of doubtful meaning.

Head, chest, and neck—so prescribed at BhG. 6. 13.

Described at Kaṭha 3. 4.

That is, the five cosmic elements.

Or, with another reading, alolubhatvam, ‘freedom from desires.’

This stanza = VS. 32. 4.

Compare RV. 10. 72. 2, where Brahmaṇaspati ‘forged together’ ( sam-adhamat ) all things here.

With variants this stanza = RV. 10. 81. 3; VS. 17. 19; AV. 13. 2. 26; TS. 4. 6. 2. 4; TA. 10. 1. 3; MS. 2. 10. 2.

With variants this stanza = 4. 12 and Mahānār. 10. 19.

These two stanzas = VS. 16. 2-3.

Either ‘higher than this [Terrible, Vedic god Rudra],’ or ‘higher than this [world].’

This stanza = VS. 31. 18.

Compare ‘the eternal fig-tree rooted in heaven,’ described at Kaṭha 6. 1.

This stanza = Mahānār. 10. 20.

The last two lines = Bṛih. 4. 4. 14 c, d.

The first three lines are reminiscent of RV. 10. 81. 3 and 10. 90. 1. Cf. also 3. 3 above.

Cf. Kaṭha 6. 7.

Line a = Katha 6. 17 a. The first part of it also = Katha 4. 12 a; 4. 13 a. Lines c and d = Kaṭha 6 9 c, d. Lines b, c, d, recur as Śvet. 4. 17 b, c, d.

This stanza = RV. 10. 90. 1; VS. 31. 1; SV. 1. 618; TA. 3. 12. 1; AV. 19. 6. 1.

This stanza = RV. 10. 90. 2; VS. 31. 2; SV. 1. 620, AV. 19. 6. 4; TA. 3. 12. 1, with variants.

This stanza = BhG. 13. 13.

The first two lines occur as BhG. 13. 14 a, b.

That is, in the body, cf. Kaṭha 5. 1 and BhG. 5. 13.

This stanza = TA. 10. 10. 1 (= Mahānār. 10. 1, or in the Atharva Recension 8. 3), and also, with slight variation, Kaṭha 2. 20.

This stanza = AV. 10. 8. 27.

That is, Nature, Prakṛiti, with three constituent Qualities ( guṇa ), namely Pureness ( sattva ), Passion ( rajas ), and Darkness ( tamas ).

The cosmic Person, father of all being.

The individual soul, or experiencer.

That is, the individual person.

That is, the universal Brahma.

This stanza = RV. 1. 164. 20 and Muṇḍ. 3. 1. 1.

This stanza = Muṇḍ. 3. 1. 2.

This stanza = VS. 32. 1.

This stanza = RV. 1. 164. 39.

That is, the individual soul.

This stanza = 3. 4 and Mahānār. 10. 19 with variants.

The last two lines = RV. 10. 121. 3 c, d.

The third line = 3. 7 c and 4. 16 c. The whole stanza recurs, with modifications, as 5. 13.

Lines b, c, d=3. 13 b, c, d. Lines c and d also = Katha 6. 9 c, d.

tamas, perhaps metaphorically as well as literally. That is: when the darkness of ignorance and illusion has been removed, then all fluctuations and distinctions are also overpassed. Undifferenced bliss only remains. Compare the similar descriptions at Chānd. 3 11. 3 and 8. 4. 1-2.

The first phrase of the famous Gāyatrī Prayer, RV. 3. 62. 10.

This stanza = VS. 32. 2 c, d + 32. 3 a, b; TA. 10. 1. 2; Mahānār. 1. 10.

This stanza = Kaṭha 6. 9 and Mahānār. 1. 11 with slight variation.

This stanza = RV. 1. 114. 8; TS. 4. 5 10. 3; and VS. 16. 16 with variations.

The reference may be to ‘the sage Kapila,’ the founder of the Sāṅkhya philosophy. But in the similar stanza 4. 12 (compare also 3. 4) the reference is clearly to the Demiurge Hiraṇyagarbha, ‘The Golden Germ.’

Literally, ‘in this field.’

‘Marshals’; literally, ‘Exercisers’ According to RV. 10. 72. 7 they were Demiurges who assisted in the creation of the world.

Namely, pureness ( sattva ), passion ( rajas ), and darkness ( tamas )

Namely, religiousness ( dharma ), irreligiousness ( adharma ), and knowledge ( jñāna ) Cf. Śvet. 1. 4 d.

Literally ‘ruler of the vital breaths’ ( prānādhipa ).

In transmigration.

This third line = 3. 7 c; 4. 14 c; 4. 16 c.

The fourth line of this stanza = 1. 8 d; 2. 15 d; 4. 16 d; 6. 13 d.

As the First Cause—as in 1. 2. See Introduction, p. 8.

That is, the world.

The same list of five cosmic elements as in 2. 12 b.

That is, the principles as arranged in groups by systematized Sāṅkhya philosophy: the sole principle—the Person (Purusha); dual principles—the Unmanifest ( avyakta ) and the Manifest ( vyakta ); triple principles—the three Qualities ( guṇa ), i. e. Pureness ( sattva ), Passion ( rajas ), and Darkness ( tamas ); eight principles—the five cosmic elements together with mind, intellect, and self-consciousness (so enumerated, e. g., at BhG. 7. 4.)

Compare the similar line 5. 5 c.

That is, without past, present, or future—as in Māṇḍ. 1.

Which is described in Katha 6. 1.

Reading cettā instead of the tautologous cetā, ‘observer.’

This stanza = Kaṭha 5. 12 with slight variation in a and b.

These first two lines = Kaṭha 5. 13 a and b.

The last line of the stanza is repeated at 5. 13 d, etc.

This stanza = Katha 5. 15 and Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 10.

The last two lines = 3. 8. c, d and VS. 31. 18 c, d.

This line = 6. 2 b.

Or, ‘who is the light of self-knowledge’; or, according to the variant reading ātma-buddhi-prasādam, ‘who through his own grace lets himself be known.’

Cf. Kaṭha 4. 13 b, ‘Like a light without smoke.’

That is, when the impossible becomes possible.

Similar restrictions are imposed at Bṛih. 6. 3. 12 and Maitri 6. 29.

Or the meaning may be: ‘The building up of the previous [sacrificial fires, described in the antecedent Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā,] was verily a sacrifice to Brahma.’

The commentator Rāmatīrtha supplies ‘years.’

The particular course of instruction here begun continues through 6. 28.

Chānd. 8. 3. 4.

Śākāyanya’s report of this conversation between the Vālakhilyas and Prajāpati continues to the end of 4. 6.

The Sanskrit word viśva, the ordinary word for ‘everyone,’ is doubtless used here in its individual, as well as in its collective, reference.

According to the commentator, the Prāṇa and Apāna breaths are here compared to the two vessels, Upāṁśu and Antaryāma, which stand on either side of the central altar at the Soma sacrifice; and a person is compared to the heat produced between the two.

Bṛih. 5. 9. A similar idea is found in Chānd. 3. 13. 8.

Deictically.

Repeated from Chānd. 3. 14. 2.

This is probably the earliest occurrence of the word in Sanskrit literature. For an exposition of the doctrine, consult Garbe’s Die Samkhya-Philosophie, pp. 236-239.

That is, it is unaffected; for the simile see Chānd. 4. 14. 3.

So again in Mānava Dharma Śāstra 12. 12.

Referring either, as in 6. 28 and again in 6. 38, to the doctrine of the four sheaths ( kośa ), namely food, breath, mind, and knowledge (the same characteristics of four different selves are mentioned in Tait. 2. 1-4), or, according to the Scholiast, to the four forms of animal life, characterized as born alive, born from an egg, born from moisture, born from a germ (Ait. 5. 3).

Referring to the fourteen classes of beings, Sānkhya-Kārikā 53, or to the fourteen worlds of the Vedāntasāra 129—so Deussen interprets.

Meaning probably merely ‘very many.’

That is, in the womb.

For the same metaphor of the individual soul riding in the body as in a vehicle see above, 2. 3. and 2. 6; also Kaṭha 3. 3.

If instead of abhivādī the reading should be ativādī, as in Chānd. 7. 15. 4. and Muṇḍ. 3. 1. 4, then the translation would be: ‘You are a superior speaker! You are a superior speaker!’

Note the three triads: an old Vedic trinity, three principles speculated about as philosophic causes, and the famous Brahmanic trinity.

Chānd. 3. 14. 1.

This evidently is the end of the conversation, begun in 2. 3, between the Vālakhilyas and Prajāpati, as derived by tradition from Maitri and narrated by Śākāyanya to King Bṛihadratha. The remainder of the Upanishad up to 6. 29 is supposedly a continuation of Śākāyanya’s long discourse; but without a doubt it consists of several supplements, as even the commentator explains with regard to the Sixth and Seventh Prapāṭhakas.

‘Individuality’ is the precise modern technical philosophical term for the indefinite word viśva, which means simply ‘everyone.’

In 2. 5.

That is to say, waking and sleeping are correlated with day and night.

Thus far the quotation may be found in Chānd. 1. 6. 6.

Namely, bhūr, bhuvas, and svar.

A repeated phrase, Bṛih. 2. 3. 1.

A statement regarding primeval being occurring in Bṛih. 1. 2. 3.

‘Across Him,’ i. e. reading asminn iti instead of asmīti. The main statement is a stereotyped formula, used repeatedly in Bṛih. 3. 6.

Quoted from Chānd. 1. 5. 1.

According to the commentator, referring to the three conditions of waking, dreaming, and profound slumber.

That is, a + u + m.

Embracing the five breaths, Prāṇa, Apāna, Vyāna, Samāna, Udāna.

RV. 10. 90. 3-4.

Cf. Kaṭha 6. 1 for the eternal fig-tree with its root above and its branches below.

This stanza is quoted from Kaṭha 2. 16 with certain verbal changes.

In Praśna 5. 2.

RV. 3. 62. 10.

The original meaning of dhīmahi is more likely to have been ‘obtain,’ from √dhā, although it is possible to derive the form from √dhī, ‘to meditate upon,’ as here interpreted.

Of the Soma juice in the sacrifices to the sun.

Cf. Praśna 4. 9 for a similar list.

Cf. Bṛih. 2. 4. 14 for this same theory of knowledge.

That is, implying both a subject which knows and an object which is known.

The paragraph up to this point recurs later in 7. 7.

Or, according to a different exegesis, jātavedasam may mean ‘all-finding.’

This stanza = Praśna 1. 8.

By taking a sip into the mouth. On the whole procedure of this ritual cf. Chānd. 5. 2. 2-5 and 5. 19-24.

That is, is not reborn, and is not eaten again by others.

Of nature through intellect, mind, thought, self-consciousness, the five organs of sense-perception, and the five organs of action.

That is, in interaction with the correlated objects in Nature.

So intimated in Bṛih. 1. 4. 6.

By knowing this fact about fire he becomes identified with fire and so, like fire, is not defiled by the impurities of the food eaten.

The quotation is made loosely from Chānd. 7. 9. 1.

In Tait. 2. 2.

Literally: ‘When sprinkled with food, living beings here cook [it].’

In Tait. 2. 2.

That is, from June up to December.

A twelfth part of the twenty-seven asterisms through which the sun moves in the course of the year is two and a quarter, or nine quarters.

The sun: etymologically, the Begetter.

Quoted from Chānd. 3. 19. 1.

A phrase from Chānd. 3. 14. 2 and Kaush. 2. 14.

The first three lines of this stanza = Muṇḍ. 3. 1. 3 a, b, c.

Described in Māṇḍ. 7. On the term turya see p. 392, note 11.

So described, but not so designated, in Chānd. 8. 6. 6 and Kaṭha 6. 16. Hinted at also in Tait. 1. 6 and Praśna 3. 7.

Cf. Chānd. 6. 9. 1-2.

For another parable of a bow and arrow in mystical meditation see Munḍ. 2. 2. 3-4.

‘Called Om . . . deathless’ is a stereotyped expression from 6. 4.

That is, Brahma-Ātman, which is designated by this same epithet at Śvet. 3. 10.

That is, because it manifests the presence of heat.

As in Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 1 a: ‘manifest, [yet] hidden.’

—and is not overcome.

Consisting, according to the commentator, of food, breath, mind, and understanding, as in Tait. 2. 1-4. The same exhortation recurs below in 6. 38.

The words ‘pure, clean . . . greatness’ are repeated from 2. 4.

That is, to Bṛihadratha, concluding the conversation begun at 1. 2 and the course of instruction begun at 2. 1.

The Vālakhilyas (according to the commentator Rāmatīrtha), who at 2. 3 are described as having come to Prajāpati for this knowledge.

This same prohibition is imposed near the end of two previous Upanishads, namely at Bṛih. 6. 3. 12 and at Śvet. 6. 22.

As directed at 6. 9.

This paragraph has already occurred in Bṛih. 1. 5. 3.

The paragraph up to this point has already occurred above at 3. 2.

These two sentences have already occurred in this same section.

The last clause of this sentence has already occurred in Chānd. 8. 1. 5.

Kaṭha 6. 10.

The last line of this stanza recurs at BhG. 8. 21 b.

Compare Chānd. 8. 6. 6.

Rāmatīrtha, the commentator, explains this as:—of re-creation for the man who does not worship the sun; of heaven [with temporary enjoyment] for the man who worships the sun as a divinity; of final cessation of rebirth for the man who worships the sun as Brahma-Ātman.

As in 2. 4 and in 6. 28.

As in 6. 27.

As in Bṛih. 4. 4. 18 and Kena 2.

As in Ait. 5. 2.

Already quoted in 6. 26.

Most of this paragraph is repeated from Bṛih. 2. 1. 20 with the addition of the words ‘all the Vedas.’

This paragraph is repeated from Bṛih. 2. 4. 10 with slight variation.

The three fires which are used in the religious sacrifice are interpreted to represent the three successive sacrificial piles which were erected by the Lord of Creation in the cosmos, namely the earth, the atmosphere, and the sky. The power which rules in each of these world-regions, namely the year, the wind, and the sun, successively elevates the sacrificer to the next superior, finally to the supreme Brahma.

That is, to Prajāpati.

Epithets of three oblations offered in the fire at a sacrifice; so, by transference, applied, as epithets, to the fire itself.

In RV. 3. 62. 10.

This same great truth, of the character-making power of thought, is expressed also in the Buddhist scripture, Dhammapāda 1. 1, 2.

This quatrain has already occurred in 6. 20.

Or perhaps ‘an extension of the knots [that bind the soul].’

According to the reading of the text, lokasmṛte. Or, with the reading lokasprte of TS. 7. 5. 24. 1, ‘who protects the world.’

These same three invocations occur, with the variation ‘who protects the world,’ in TS. 7. 5. 24. 1.

These lines and the following phrase occur with slight variations in Īśā 15, 16 and Brih. 5. 15. 1.

Regarded as the highest of the Vedas, for it is the one to which this Maitri Upanishad is attached.

For the simile see Bṛih. 2. 4. 12.

The last clause has already occurred in Chānd. 8. 1. 5 and Maitri 6. 30, and recurs again in 6. 38.

This same stanza occurs also in Mānava Dharma Śāstra 3. 76.

Composed of food, breath, mind, and understanding—according to Tait. 2. 1. 4. This same exhortation has occurred in 6. 28.

The words ‘immovable . . . Vishṇu’ are repeated from 6. 23.

The last clause is repeated from 6. 30 and 6. 35.

An analytic and philosophic statement of the contents of this section, 1-6, would be:—

The various divinities, meters, hymns, chants, seasons, breaths, heavenly bodies, celestial gods, and earthly beings are transient emanations in the six different directions, returning again into the one unlimited Soul (Ātman) of the whole world.

The sentence up to this point is repeated from 6. 23.

The winter season ( hemanta ) in India is reckoned to last about two months, from the middle of November to the middle of January; the dewy season ( śiśira ) about two months, from the middle of January to the middle of March.

A description repeated from 6. 4 and also 6. 25.

For the same metaphor of warp and woof see Bṛih. 3. 6 and 3. 8.

Reading vipāśaḥ.

This same metaphor occurs at Bṛih. 4. 4. 22 and Chānd. 8. 4. 1.

This entire paragraph is repeated from 6. 8 with the addition of the epithet ‘the Unshaken.’

The sentence is repeated from 6. 17.

Reading vedāvidyāntaram.

Compare the instruction of Indra, the representative of the gods, and Virocana, the representative of the devils, by Prajāpati in Chānd. 8. 7. ff.

In Kaṭha 2. 4.

This quatrain = Īśā 11.

This stanza is repeated from Kaṭha 2. 5 and Muṇḍ. 1. 2. 8 with slight variation.

The words ‘bright power . . . breath of life’ are repeated from 6. 37.

This sentence is repeated from 6. 37.

For this same thought see Bṛih. 4. 2. 3.

The well-known uṣman.

This stanza is repeated with slight verbal variation from Chānd. 7. 26. 2.

A re-assertion in somewhat different form of the thought of RV. 10. 90. 3, 4 namely, that one quarter of Brahma exists in the actual and that three quarters constitute the eternal part of existence.

The four conditions have already been enumerated in the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad.