who dishonours his Guru's bed, who kills a Brahman, these four fall, and as a fifth he who associates with them.
10. 'But he who thus knows the five fires is not defiled by sin even though he associates with them. He who knows this, is pure, clean, and obtains the world of the blessed, yea, he obtains the world of the blessed.'
Eleventh Khanda.[1]
1. Prâkînasâla Aupamanyava, Satyayagña Paulushi, Indradyumna Bhâllaveya, Gana Sârkarâkshya, and Budila Âsvatarasvi, these five great householders and great theologians came once together and held a discussion as to What is our Self, and what is Brahman[2].
2. They reflected and said: 'Sirs, there is that Uddâlaka Âruni, who knows at present that Self,
- ↑ The same story is found in the Satapatha-brâhmana X, 6, I, I.
- ↑ Âtman and Brâhman are to be taken as predicate and subject.
assume this or that body, leave impressions behind, like dreams. This is not the case with those who in their descent from the moon, pass, as we saw, through an existence as rice, corn, &c. They have no consciousness of such existences, at least not in their descent. In their ascent to the moon, they have consciousness, as a man who climbs up a tree knows what he is about. But in their descent, that consciousness is gone, as it is when a man falls down from a tree. Otherwise a man, who by his good works had deserved rewards in the moon, would, while corn is being ground, suffer tortures, as if he were in hell, and the very object of good works, as taught by the Veda, would be defeated. As we see that a man struck by a hammer can be carried away unconscious, so it is in the descent of souls, till they are born again as men, and gain a new start for the attainment of the Highest Brahman.
