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Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
Chapter Six
VI. 2
1. Svetaketu Aruneya came to an assembly of the Pancalas. He approached Jaivali Pravahana, who was being waited on by his entourage. Seeing him, the prince called, 'Young man!'
'Sir?' he called back.
'Have you been educated by your father?'
'OM,' he said.
2. 'Do you know,' cried the prince, 'how people, when they depart, go in different directions?'
'No,' he said.
'And do you know how they come back to this world again?'
'No,' he said.
'And do you know how that world does not become full with the many people who depart to it again and again?'
'No,' was all he said.
'And do you know how many offerings have to be offered before the waters take on a human voice, rise up and speak?'
'No,' was all he said.
'And do you know how to reach the path that leads to the gods or the one that leads to the ancestors?what they do to reach the path that leads to the gods or the one that leads to the ancestors? For we have heard the saying of the Rsi:
"I have heard of two ways for mortals,
To the ancestors and to the gods:
By them goes everything that moves
Between the father and the mother."
'I do not know a single one of these things,' he said.
3. The prince invited him to stay with him, but the young man, not honouring his hospitality, ran away. He came to his father and said, 'Now, father, you said before that we had been educated!'
'What of it, clever one?'
'A princeling asked me five questions, and I do not know a single one of them.'
'What are they?'
'These'?and he told him the subjects.
4. He said, 'You should know me, son: whatever I know, I have taught you. But come, we two will go to him and live with him as his students.'
'You go, father.'
Gautama went to Pravahana Jaivali's house. The prince offered him a seat, had water brought for him, and welcomed him as an honoured guest. He said, 'We grant a boon to the blessed Gautama.'
5. He said, 'I accept the boon. Tell me the words you spoke in the presence of the young man.'
6. He said, 'Gautama, that falls among boons for the gods. Name something that belongs to human beings.'
7. He said, 'It is well known that I have plenty of gold, cows and horses, slave?women, coverings and clothing. Sir, do not stint me of what is great, endless, unlimited.'
'Then, Gautama, you should ask for it in the proper way.'
The ancients used to go to their teachers by saying, 'I come to you, sir': and so Gautama became his student by announcing, that he was going to him.
8. He said, 'Gautama, may you not be displeased with us, nor your grandfathers either, but this knowledge has never before lived in any Brahmana. But I will teach it to you: for who could refuse you when you ask in this way?
9. 'That world is a fire, Gautama. The sun is its fuel; the rays its smoke; the day its flame; the directions its embers; the intermediate directions its sparks. In that fire the gods offer faith (sraddha). From that offering King Soma arises.
10. 'Parjanya is a fire, Gautama. The year is his fuel; the clouds his smoke; the lightning his flame; the thunderbolt his embers; the hailstones his sparks. In that fire the gods offer King Soma. From that offering rain arises.
11. 'This world is a fire, Gautama. The earth is its fuel; fire its smoke; the night its flame; the moon its embers; the constellations its sparks. In that fire the gods offer rain. From that offering food arises.
12. 'A man (purusa) is a fire, Gautama. The open mouth is his fuel; breath his smoke; speech his flame; the eye his embers; the ear his sparks. In that fire the gods offer food. From that offering the seed arises.
13. 'A young woman is a fire, Gautama. The loins are her fuel; the body?hairs her smoke; the vagina her flame; what one does inside, her embers; the pleasures her sparks. In that fire the gods offer the seed. From that offering a person arises. He lives as long as he lives, and when he dies
14. 'They carry him to the fire. Then his fire becomes the fire; his fuel the fuel; his smoke the smoke; his flame the flame; his embers the embers; his sparks the sparks. In that fire the gods offer the person. From that offering a person of the colour of light arises.
15. 'Those who know this, and those who in the forest worship faith as truth, go into the flame, from the flame into the day, from the day into the waxing fortnight, from the waxing fortnight into the six months in which the sun goes northward, from the months into the world of the gods, from the world of the gods into the sun, from the sun into that which is made of lightning. The person of mind goes to those beings of lightning and leads them to the world of Brahma. Exalted, far above, they dwell in the worlds of Brahma. For them there is no returning.
16. 'But those who win worlds by sacrifice, giving and asceticism go into the smoke, from the smoke into the night, from the night into the waning fortnight, from the waning fortnight into the six months in which the sun goes southward, from the months into the world of the ancestors, from the world of the ancestors into the moon.
'Reaching the moon, they become food. There the gods partake of them, as they do of King Soma, saying, "Grow full!" "Wane!"
'When that passes away for them, they enter into space, from space into the air, from the air into the rain, from the rain into the earth.
'Reaching the earth, they become food. They are offered again in the fire of a man, and from that are born in the fire of a young woman, rising again to the worlds. So they circle around. But those who do not know the two paths become worms, flying things, and everything that bites.'
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