{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe08/sbe0836.htm","path":"hin/sbe08/sbe0836.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe08/sbe0836.htm","text":"The Br\u00e2hmana said:\nOn this, too, they relate this ancient story, a dialogue between N\u00e2rada and the sage Devamata.\nDevamata said:\nWhen a creature is about to be born, what comes into existence first, his Pr\u00e2na, or Ap\u00e2na, or Sam\u00e2na, or Vy\u00e2na, or else Ud\u00e2na?\nN\u00e2rada said:\nBy whichever the creature is produced, that which is other than this first comes to him. And the pairs of the life-winds should be understood, which (move) upwards, or downwards, or transversely.\nBy which (of the life-winds) is a creature produced? and which (of them) first comes to him? Explain to me also the pairs of the life-winds, which (move) upwards, or downwards, or transversely.\nPleasure is produced from a mental operation 1, and (it) is also produced from a sound, (it) is also produced from taste, and (it) is also produced from colour, and (it) is also produced from touch, and (it) is also produced from smell. This is the effect 2 of the Ud\u00e2na; the pleasure is produced from union 3. From desire the semen is produced; and from the semen is produced menstrual excretion. The semen and the blood are produced by the Sam\u00e2na and the Vy\u00e2na in common 4. From the combination of the semen and the blood, the Pr\u00e2na comes first into operation; and the semen being developed by the Pr\u00e2na, the Ap\u00e2na then comes into operation. The pair Pr\u00e2na and Ap\u00e2na go upwards and downwards, and the Sam\u00e2na and Vy\u00e2na are called the pair (moving) transversely. It is the teaching of the\n[paragraph continues] Veda, that the fire verily is all the deities 1, and knowledge (of it) arises among Br\u00e2hmanas, being accompanied by intelligence 2. The smoke of that (fire), which is of excellent glory, (appears) in the shape of (the quality of) darkness; (its) ashes, (the quality of) passion; and (the quality of) goodness is that in connexion with it 3, in which the offering is thrown. Those who understand the sacrifice understand the Sam\u00e2na and the Vy\u00e2na as the principal (offering). The Pr\u00e2na and Ap\u00e2na are portions 4 of the offering of clarified butter, and between them is the fire. That is the excellent seat of the Ud\u00e2na as understood by Br\u00e2hmanas 5 As to that which is distinct from these pairs 6, hear me speak about\nthat. Day and night are a pair, between them is the fire. That is the excellent seat of the Ud\u00e2na as understood by Br\u00e2hmanas. That which exists and that which does not exist are a pair, between them is the fire. That is the excellent seat of the Ud\u00e2na as understood by Br\u00e2hmanas. The two--good and evil--:are a pair, between them is the fire. That is the excellent seat of the Ud\u00e2na as understood by Br\u00e2hmanas. First 1, the Sam\u00e2na and Vy\u00e2na, their function 2 is performed: then, secondly, the Sam\u00e2na comes into operation again. Then the V\u00e2madevya 3 for tranquillity, and tranquillity is the eternal Brahman. This is the excellent seat of the Ud\u00e2na as understood by Br\u00e2hmanas.\n274:1 This is not quite clear. I presume it means that each one has the generic qualities which make the others great in their own spheres; but the specific qualities are different.\n274:2 The one life-wind is supposed, here to be generally unmoving, but its distribution among the different parts of the body as specified, for instance, in the commentary on the Yoga-s\u00fbtra III, 38, gives it the different names. The expression does not seem to be quite accurate for this, which nevertheless seems to be the true, sense.\n274:3 Another reading is, 'That one is my own self.' Cf. Maitr\u00ee, pp. 28 seq., 105, and Brihad\u00e2ranyaka p. 169.\n275:1 I. e. desire. 'Sound' = recollection of a woman's voice; taste,' scil. of chastity; 'colour' = the beauty of a woman, Arguna Misra Cf. \u00c2pastamba I, 2, 7, 8, and Lalita Vistara, p. 19.\n275:2 Literally, 'form,' which Arguna Misra interprets to mean effect, and adds, 'The Ud\u00e2na causes mental activity, and by mental activity sound &c. are apprehended.'\n275:3 I. e. of Ud\u00e2na and mind, Arguna Misra; adding, 'the result is that a creature is produced by the Ud\u00e2na.'\n275:4 Or, perhaps, generally, that is to say, the store of them, the specific semen being produced from desire, as before stated. The Sam\u00e2na's function is the digestion of food, and that of the Vy\u00e2na is the distribution of the digested food to the whole body through the n\u00e2d\u00ees, hence the proposition in the text.\n276:1 Cf. inter alia, Aitareya-br\u00e2hmana (Haug's ed.), p. 1.\n276:2 Arguna Misra says intelligence means 'discussion, or argument.' The connexion of this with what has gone before, according to Arguna Misra, is this, that the author having first stated the five Hotris fully, now explains in what the Pr\u00e2na and Ap\u00e2na are to be offered up for acquiring the Pr\u00e2n\u00e2y\u00e2ma. The fire he takes to mean the self. Cf. what has been said about Vaisv\u00e2nara above, p. 259.\n276:3 That is to say, the flame, 'take it. 'He is drawing out here the figure of the fire.\n276:4 These are only a subordinate part of the offering, called \u00c2gyabh\u00e2ga. They are called subordinate, I suppose, as the operations of the Sam\u00e2na and Vy\u00e2na are more practically important for vitality. The fire is the self. The place of the principal offering is between the \u00c2gyabh\u00e2gas, as stated by Arguna Misra.\n276:5 The Ud\u00e2na is here treated as the life-wind into which the others are to be offered up. See p. 258, and note 8 there.\n276:6 The next three sentences seem to indicate what is to be destroyed in common with the life-winds. One has to get rid of all notions about day and night, good and evil, existence and non-existence, and then final emancipation is reached. The fire, which is common to all the passages, stands for the self; into that apparently all the ideas of time, and good and evil, and so forth, are to be offered as the life-winds are; and that fire stands in the place of p. 277 the Ud\u00e2na, for this purpose, as into the last all the other life-winds have to be offered. As to that which exists, &c., cf. G\u00eet\u00e2, p. 103, and p. 370, note 9 infra. As to good and evil and generally, cf. Kh\u00e2ndogya, p. 60; Kaush\u00eetaki, p. 19. They are nothing to one who knows the Brahman. Day and night Arguna Misra takes to mean the Id\u00e2 and Pingal\u00e2 n\u00e2d\u00ees, between which is the Sushumn\u00e2, as they are connected with the sun and moon. But the sense of the whole passage is far from clear.","title":"Sacred Books of the East Vol. 8: The Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2: Anug\u00eet\u00e2: Chapter IX","type":"page"}