A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD

and “‘ whose womb is (pava-) Brahman.” Krsna’s exposition of his two “natures” is perfectly “correct ” (pramitz).8° Parva and apara prakyti are the same as the Upper (farasiat) and the Nether (avastat) Waters of Rg Veda, III, 22, 3, etc.; as the “two seas”’ of Varuna,*’ which are his “ paunches”’ or “ wombs,” udava, kuksi,®* Atharva Veda, IV, 16, 3 ; as the “ twin breasts ” of Aditi, Mother and Honey-whip, that “ milk out refreshment,” life, zb1d., IX, 1, 7.

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He willed, “ Let me offer up again by a further sacrifice’ (yajva). He strove, he undertook intension. When he had striven and was intensified, his glorious virility (yasovirya) went-forth (udakvamat). So when the life-breaths had gone forth (pranesu utkrantesu), the body (Sartva) began to swell (sua). Yet the Intellect (manas) remained in the body.** 6.

He, that is the Year, Prajapati, the Son. <A “ further sacrifice ” implies a former sacrifice: that was the first procession or flowing out into existence, the taking on of personal (fauyusya) nature, and mortality. For all utterance is an incontinence: to “spend ”’ is to “ die,” and in taking on existence, God takes on mortality: that is the Fisher King’s “ debility,” the meaning of the Grail “myth.”

Utkvam is used of “ going forth,’ much as in our colloquial “ passing out.” Either with respect to natural death, whether voluntary and sacrificial as here in our text, or involuntary as in our Upanisad, III, 2, 11-12, and Kausitaki Up., I, 2, 12-15°*: or in connection with avatarana, the “ appearance on the stage of life’ of an avatava, which is at once a descent” from heaven to earth and a death in heaven, “ His exit thence is his entrance

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