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May our ears hear the good. Lords! inspiration of sacrifice! May our eyes see the good. May we serve him with the whole strength of our body. May we, all our life, carry out his will. May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
Welcome to the Lord!
Sukesha Bharadwaja, Satyakama Shaibya, Souryayanee Gargya, Kousalya Ashwaldyana, Bhargawa Waidarbhee and Kabandhee Katyayana, students and devotees, brought their offerings and their faith to Sage Pippalada.
The Sage said: 'Stay with me for a year, practise faith, austerity, continence; then ask what questions you like.'
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At the end of a year Kabandhee Katyayana said: 'Lord! Who created all things?'
The Sage said: 'The Creator, His mind's eye on the world made a couple in meditation, life and matter, thinking they would do the rest.
'Sun is life, Moon matter; World moveable and immoveable is matter, all shape matter.
'The sun looks into the east, then into the other quarters, then above and below, enlivening, lighting.
'He, all-prevalent life, first shows himself as Light. Here is my authority:
'The wise know Him, the all pervading, all illuminating, all knowing, the One, upholder of all, and say that He rises as the sun that He may warm everything, go into everything, its particular life.'
'The year is the Creator. There are two paths, the southern and the northern. Those that are content with alms giving and ritual preferring the life of the family, go to their ancestors by the southern path, attain the lunar world and are born again. All there is matter.
'But those who seek the Self through austerity, continence, faith, knowledge, go by the northern path, attain the solar world. It is living, immortal, beyond fear; it is the goal. Once there, there is no return. It is the law. Here is my authority:
'Some call the sun our protector, with five seasons or feet, twelve moons or bodies, who lives beyond the sky and sends the rain. Others call Him the year, reckoner of time, who rides in the chariot of seven colours or seven horses, and of six wheels considering that the number of seasons.'
'The month too is the Creator, its bright half is life, its dark half matter. Wise men perform their rituals in the bright half; fools in the dark.
'The round of day and night is the Creator; day life, night matter. Those that couple with a woman by day, waste life; those that couple by night, preserve it.
'Food is the Creator. Food makes the seed; all things are from seed.
'Those who obey God as Creator, get all that life and matter can give. Those who practise austerity, continence, veracity go beyond these into Heaven.
'They that are neither crooked, nor hypocritical, nor lying, go beyond into pure Heaven.'
3
Bhargawa Waidarbhee asked: 'Lord! What powers have knit the body? What powers give it life? Which is the greatest?'
The Sage said: 'The powers are: air, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, light, hearing. All these said aloud that they had knit the body.
'Life, greater than these, said: you deceive yourselves. It is I alone, dividing myself into five streams, knit and enliven the body. But they would not believe.
'Life, to vindicate himself, rose as though he wanted to leave the body. But as he rose, others knew that they too must rise. When he returned they returned. As bees follow their queen when she goes out; return when she returns; speech, mind, light, hearing returned: they began to praise life.
'Life burns in the fire, shines in the Sun. Rain, cloud, air, earth, are life, Matter is life. All that has shape or no shape is life. Life is immortality.
'Everything is fixed in life, as are spokes in the hub of a wheel—the three Vedas, all sacrifices, all soldiers, all priests.
'Life, Lord of Creation, moving in the womb, there bringing yourself to birth, master of the five streams! All things offer you their tribute.
'You carry the offerings to the gods and the fathers; even breath and sense your handiwork.
'Life! Creator, Protector, Destroyer! Sun in heavenly circuit! Master of stars!
'Pour down the rain, let all things find their food, thrive, rejoice.
'Life itself! Purity itself! Fire itself, Eater, Master! All the world your food, Father in Heaven!
'May your body be in our speech, hearing, sight, mind, make us lucky, and never forsake us.
'May Life, Master of the three worlds, protect us as a mother protects her children. Grant us wisdom, grant us luck.'
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Kousalya Ashwaldyana asked: 'Lord! when does life begin; how does it get into the body; how does it live there after dividing itself; how does it get out of the body; how does it support all that is outside, all that is inside?'
The Sage said: 'You ask weighty questions; you dig into the root. Here is my answer:
'Life falls from Self as shadow falls from man. Life and Self are interwoven, but Life comes into the body that the desires of the mind may be satisfied.
'As the king portions out his kingdom under different officials, life portions out the body under five living streams.
'The organs of excretion and generation under the downward stream Apana; eye, ear, where He lives himself under Prana, which passes out through mouth and nose; the middle of the body under the equalising stream Samana, distributor of food, kindler of the seven flames.
'Self lives in the heart. There are a hundred and one arteries, from every artery start one hundred veins, from every vein seventy-two thousand smaller veins—all these He has put under the diffusing stream Wyana.
'Climbing through one of these the upward stream Udana leads man to his reward; the south, if his merit predominates; the north, if his demerit; if his merit and demerit are mixed, he returns to the earth.
'The sun is the symbol of life; sun maintains Prana of the eye; earth, Apana; air, filler of all, maintains Samana; wind, Wyana.
'Light maintains Udana. When that light is out, sense dissolves in mind, man is born again.
'Udana united to the mind's desire at the moment of death, returns to Life, and Life, Udana lighting the way, brings the soul to whatever place it deserves.
'The man who knows this, knows the meaning of life; his children are never lost. Here is my authority:
'"He who knows the source and power of Life, how it enters, where it lives, how it divides itself into five, how it is related to the Self, attains immortality; yes, attains immortality."'
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Souryayanee Gargya asked: 'Lord! Who in man's body wakes, sleeps, dreams, enjoys? Of whom do these depend?'
The Sage said: 'As the rays of the setting sun gather themselves up into his orb to come out again at sunrise, so the senses gather themselves up into the mind, master of them all. Therefore when a man does not hear, see, touch, smell, taste, speak, receive, give, move, enjoy, we say that he sleeps.
'Only the living fires are then awake. The living fire Apana corresponds to the everlasting sacrificial Garhapatya fire of the householder; the living fire Wyana corresponds to the sacrificial Anwarhapacchan fire that faces south and the southern path; the living fire Prana, lit from the fire Apana, corresponds to the sacrificial Ahavaneeya, fire lit from the everlasting Garhapatya fire that faces east and the rising sun.
'The living fire Samana is called the equalising fire, because it balances those oblations, the outgoing and the incoming breath. Mind is the sacrificer. The reward of the sacrifice is the living fire Udana, the deep sleep that again and again leads mind to Self.
'The dreaming mind enjoys its greatness. What it has seen it sees again; what it has heard it hears again; what it has enjoyed in different countries and climates it enjoys again. Whatever is seen, unseen, heard, unheard, enjoyed, unenjoyed, real, unreal, here and there, it knows; it knows everything.
'When mind is lost in the light of the Self, it dreams no more; still in the body it is lost in that happiness.
'My son! All things fly to the Self, as birds fly to the tree for rest.
'Earth, its quality of scent; water, its quality of taste; light, its quality of beauty; wind, its quality of touch; air, its quality of sound; eye, what it sees; ear, what it hears; nose, what it smells; tongue, what it tastes; skin, what it touches; voice, what it says; hands, what they handle; generation, what incites it; excretion, what is excreted; feet, what they tread upon; mind, what it imagines; intellect, what it discriminates; pride, what swells it; thought, what is thought; light, what is lit; life, what depends upon it; all these fly towards the Self.
'This is the Self who sees, touches, hears, smells, tastes, thinks, discriminates, acts. The personal self and the ultimate imperishable, impersonal Self, are one.
'My son! Who knows the impersonal Self, wherein the personal self, the living fires, senses, elements live, he knows all; lives in all. Here is my authority:
'"He who finds the imperishable Being where the individual self, sense, vitality and elements live, he knows all; pervades all."'
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Satyakama Shaibya asked: 'Lord! Where does the man go after his life, if he meditates on Om all his life?'
The Sage said: 'Om is the conditioned and the unconditioned Spirit. The wise man with its help alone attains the one or the other.
'If he meditates on the syllable A alone he is soon born again on this earth. If he has chanted the Rig-Veda, he is born among men, a great, austere, self-controlled, God-fearing man.
'If he meditates on the two syllables A and U and has chanted the Yajur-Veda, he goes to the moon and, after enjoying its pleasure, returns to the earth again and again.
'He who meditates on the three syllables AU, M, as upon God, is joined to the light of the sun. Peeling his evil off, as the snake peels off its skin, he goes through that light, with the help of Sama-Veda chants, to the Kingdom of Heaven, to the God greater than the greatest of all creatures though living in our body. Here is my authority:
'If man meditates on the three syllables in separation, it is the emblem of mortality; but if he meditate upon all together, inseparable, interdependent, the three conditions, physical, mental, intellectual, reward him; he goes beyond mortality.
'Rig-Veda brings man to earth, Yajur-Veda sends him to the sky, but only the Seer knows the world which Sama-Veda brings. The wise man with the help of Om goes there, beyond decay, death, fear; attains peace."
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Sukesha Bharadwaja said: 'Lord! I was asked this question by Hiranyanabha, Prince of Koasala: "Bharadwaja! Do you know God and his sixteen phases?"—I said to the young man: "I do not. I will not lie about it, for I know what happens to the liar. If I did, I would tell you." The Prince mounted his chariot, and went away without a word. Now I ask: "Where is that God?"'
The Sage said: 'My son, that God and his sixteen phases are in this body.
'God thought to himself: "What is that which compels me to go if it goes, to stay if it stays?"
'He then created life; from life, knowledge; from knowledge, air; from air, wind; from wind, light; from light, water; from water, earth; from earth, sense; from sense, mind; from mind, food; from food, vigour; from vigour, austerity; from austerity, revelation; from revelation, karma; from karma, world; from world, the names.
'When rivers mingle with the sea they lose their names and shapes and people speak of the sea only, so these sixteen phases, when they mingle with God, lose their names and shapes and people speak of God only; man becomes the phaseless, the timeless. Here is my authority:
'"God is the hub of the wheel where the sixteen phases are the spokes, know Him and die no more."
'What I have told you is all that is known about Spirit.'
They worshipped the Sage and said: 'You are indeed our father. You have led us to the further shore.
'All bow down to you, Great Sage! Bow down to the Great Sages!'