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1. Ganaka Vaideha, descending from his throne, said: 'I bow to you, O Yâgñavalkya, teach me.'
Yâgñavalkya said: 'Your Majesty, as a man who wishes to make a long journey, would furnish himself with a chariot or a ship, thus is your mind well
furnished by these Upanishads 1. You are honourable, and wealthy, you have learnt the Vedas and been told the Upanishads. Whither then will you go when departing hence?'
Ganaka Vaideha said: 'Sir, I do not know whither I shall go.'
Yâgñavalkya said: 'Then I shall tell you this, whither you will go.'
Ganaka Vaideha said: 'Tell it, Sir.'
2. Yâgñavalkya said: 'That person who is in the right eye 2, he is called Indha, and him who is Indha they call indeed 3 Indra mysteriously, for the gods love what is mysterious, and dislike what is evident.
3. 'Now that which in the shape of a person is in the right eye, is his wife, Virâg 4. Their meeting-place 5 is the ether within the heart, and their food the red lump within the heart. Again, their covering 6 is that which is like net-work within the heart, and the road on which they move (from sleep to waking) is the artery that rises upwards from the heart. Like a hair divided into a thousand parts, so are the veins of it, which are called Hita 7, placed
firmly within the heart. Through these indeed that (food) flows on flowing, and he (the Taigasa) receives as it were purer food 1 than the corporeal Self (the Vaisvânara).
4. 'His (the Taigasa's) Eastern quarter are the prânas (breath) which go to the East;
'His Southern quarter are the prânas which go to the South;
'His Western quarter are the prânas which go to the West;
'His Northern quarter are the prânas which go to the North;
'His Upper (Zenith) quarter are the prânas which go upward;
'His Lower (Nadir) quarter are the prânas which go downward;
'All the quarters are all the prânas. And he (the Âtman in that state) can only be described by No 2, no! He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is undecaying, for he cannot decay; he is not attached, for he does not attach himself; he is unbound, he does not suffer, he does not perish. O Ganaka, you have indeed reached fearlessness,'--thus said Yâgñavalkya.
Then Ganaka said: 'May that fearlessness come to you also who teachest us fearlessness. I bow to you. Here are the Videhas, and here am I (thy slave).'
159:1 This refers to the preceding doctrines which had been communicated to Ganaka by other teachers, and particularly to the upâsanas of Brahman as knowledge, dear, true, endless, bliss, and certainty.
159:2 See also Maitr. Up. VII, p. 216.
159:3 The Mâdhyandinas read paroksheneva, but the commentator explains iva by eva. See also Ait. Up. I, 3, 14.
159:4 Indra is called by the commentator Vaisvânara, and his wife Virâg. This couple, in a waking state, is Visva; in sleep, Taigasa.
159:5 Samstâva, lit. the place where they sing praises together, that is, where they meet.
159:6 Prâvarana may also mean hiding-place, retreat.
159:7 Hita, a name frequently given to these nâdîs; see IV, 3, 20; Khând. Up. VI, 5, 3, comm.; Kaush. Up. IV, 20. See also Katha Up. VI, 16.
160:1 Dvivedaganga explains that food, when it is eaten, is first of all changed into the coarse food, which goes away downward, and into the subtler food. This subtler food is again divided into the middle juice that feeds the body, and the finest, which is called the red lump.
160:2 See Brih. Up. II, 3, 6; IV, 9, 26.