V-i-1: Om, Verily, he who knows the eldest and the best, surely becomes the eldest and the best. Prana is indeed the eldest and the best (of the organs).
V-i-2: Verily, he who knows the richest, becomes the richest among his own people. Speech is indeed the richest.
V-i-3: Verily, he who knows the stable basis, becomes stabilized in this world and in the next. The eye is indeed the stable basis.
V-i-4: Verily, he who knows prosperity, attains all desires, both divine and human. The ear is indeed prosperity.
V-i-5: Verily, he who knows the abode, becomes the abode of his people. The mind is indeed the abode.
V-i-6: Now, once the five senses disputed among themselves about their personal superiority, saying ‘I am superior’.
V-i-7: Those senses approached the father Prajapati and said to him, ‘Revered sir, who is the best amongst us ?’ He replied, ‘He amongst you is the best on whose departure the body would appear its worst, as it were.’
V-i-8: Speech departed. Staying a year out, it came back and asked, ‘How have you been able to live without me ?’ (The others replied,) ‘Just like the dumb, though not speaking, yet living with the breath, seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ear and thinking with the mind.’ (At this) speech entered (the body).
V-i-9: The eye departed. Staying a year out, it came back and asked, ‘How have you been able to live without me ?’ (The others replied,) ‘Just like the blind, though not seeing, yet living with the breath, speaking with the organ of speech, hearing with the ear and thinking with the mind.’ (At this) the eye entered (the body).
V-i-10: The ear departed. Staying a year out, it came back and asked, ‘How have you been able to live without me ?’ (The others replied,) ‘Just like the deaf, though not hearing, yet living with the breath, speaking with the organ of speech, seeing with the eye and thinking with the mind.’ (At this) the ear entered (the body).
V-i-11: The mind departed. Staying a year out, it came back and asked, ‘How have you been able to live without me ?’ (The others replied,) ‘Just like infants without developed minds, yet living with the breath, speaking with the organ of speech, seeing with the eye and hearing with the ear.’ (At this) the mind entered (the body).
V-i-12: Then, as the Prana was about to depart, it uprooted the other senses just as a horse of mettle would uproot the pegs to which it is tethered. They all then came to it and said, ‘O revered sir, be our lord, you are the best amongst us; do not depart from the body.’
V-i-13: Then speech said to that one, ‘Just as I am the richest, in the same manner are you also the richest’. Then the eye said to that one, ‘Just as I am the stable basis, in the same manner are you also the stable basis’.
V-i-14: Then the ear said to that one, ‘Just as I am prosperity, in the same manner are you also prosperity.’ Then the mind said to that one, ‘Just as I am the abode, in the same manner are you also the abode.’
V-i-15: Verily, people do not call them as organs of speech, nor as eyes, nor as ears, nor as minds. But they call them only as Pranas; for the Prana indeed is all these.
V-ii-1: He (the Prana) asked, ‘What will be my food?’ ‘Whatever there is here, even (the food) of dogs and birds’, replied the senses. Whatever is eaten, all that is the food of Ana. The name “Ana’ indeed is self-evident. For him who knows thus there is nothing that is not food.
V-ii-2: He asked, ‘What will be my garments ?’ ‘Water’, replied the senses. Therefore, indeed, those who are about to eat, cover it, both before and after, with water. (He who knows thus) becomes the obtainer of clothes and of upper garments.
V-ii-3: Satyakama Jabala imparted this (doctrine of Prana) to Gosruti, the son of Vyaghrapada, and said, ‘If anyone should impart this even to a dry stump, then branches would certainly shoot and leaves would sprout from it’.
V-ii-4: Next, if that knower of Prana desires to attain greatness, then having consecrated himself on the new moon day, he should, on the full moon night, stir up in a vessel of curd and honey the mash of all herbs and then offer an oblation into the fire on the spot prescribed for offerings, with the Mantra, ‘Svaha to the eldest and the best’, and throw what remains attached to the ladle into the mash-pot.
V-ii-5: With the Mantra “Svaha to the richest’, he should offer an oblation into the fire on the spot prescribed for offerings, and throw what remains attached to the ladle into the mash-pot. With the Mantra ‘Svaha to what is stable’, he should offer an oblation into the fire on the spot prescribed for offerings, and throw what remains attached to the ladle into the mash-pot. With Mantra ‘Svaha to prosperity’, he should offer an oblation into the fire on the spot prescribed for offerings, and throw what remains attached to the ladle into the mash-pot. With the Mantra ‘Svaha to the abode’, he should offer an oblation into the fire on the spot prescribed for offerings, and throw what remains attached to the ladle into the mash-pot.
V-ii-6: Then, moving a little away and taking the mash-pot in his hands, he should recite (the Mantra): ‘You are Ama by name, for all this (universe) rests with you. He (i.e. you as Prana) is the eldest, the best, the effulgent, and sovereign. May he (i.e. you as Prana) lead me to the eldest age, to the best position, to effulgence, and to sovereignty. Verily I wish to become all this.’
V-ii-7: Then, reciting this Rik-mantra, foot by foot, he should sip. ‘We pray for that food pertaining to the Progenitor’, saying this (line) he should sip. ‘We pray for the food of the effulgent one’, saying this he should sip. ‘(Which is) the best and all-sustaining’, saying this he should sip. We readily meditate upon (the form of the deity) Bhaga’, saying this and washing the pot shaped like a Kamsa (goblet) or a Camasa (cup), he should drink all. Then he should lie down behind the fire on a skin or on the ground, controlling speech and mind. If he should see a woman (in a dream), he should know that his rite has succeeded.
V-ii-8: There is this verse about it: During the performance of the rites for desired results if the performer sees a woman in a dream, then he should recognize fulfilment in this vision in a dream – yea, in this vision in a dream.
V-iii-1: Once Svetaketu, the grandson of Aruna, came to the assembly of the Panchalas. Pravahana, the son of Jivala, enquired of him, ‘My boy, has your father instructed you ?’ ‘He has indeed, revered sir’.
V-iii-2: ‘Do you know where created beings go above from here ?’ No, revered sir’. ‘Do you know the place of parting of the two paths – the path of the gods and the path of the fathers ?’ ‘No, revered sir’.
V-iii-3: ‘Do you know why the other world is not filled up ?’ ‘No, revered sir’. ‘Do you know how, at the fifth oblation, the liquid oblations (or unseen results of action) come to be designated as man ?’ ‘No, indeed, revered sir’.
V-iii-4: ’Then why did you say, “I have been instructed” ? Foz, how can he who does not know these things say, “I have been instructed” ?’ He was distressed and came to his father’s place and said to him, ‘Revered Sir, wiuhout having instructed me properly you said, “I have instructed you”.’
V-iii-5: ‘That nominal Kshatriya asked me five questions, and I was not able to answer even one of them’. The father said, ‘Even as you have spoken to me about them, so do I not know even one of them. If I had known them, why should I not have toll you ?’
V-iii-6: Then Gautama went to the king’s place. When he arrived, the king made reverential offerings to him. In the morning he presented himself to the king when he was in the assembly. The king said to him, ‘O revered Gautama, please ask for a boon of human wealth’. He replied, ‘O king, let the human wealth remain with you, tell me those words which you spoke to my boy’. The king was perturbed.
V-iii-7: The king commanded him, ‘Stay here for a long time.’ At the end of the period he said to him, ‘Even as you told me, O Gautama, prior to you, this knowledge never went to the Brahmanas. This is why the expounding of this knowledge belonged to the Kshatriyas in earlier times in all the worlds’. Then he instructed him.
