श्रोत्रम् ह उच्चक्राम तत् संवत्सरम् प्रोष्य पर्येत्य उवाच कथम् अशकत मज् जीवितुम् इति यथा बधिराः अशृण्वन्तः प्राणन्तः प्राणेन वदन्तः वाचा पश्यन्तः चक्षुषा ध्यायन्तः मनसा एवम् इति प्रविवेश ह श्रोत्रम्
śrotram ha uccakrāma tat saṃvatsaram proṣya paryetya uvāca katham aśakata maj jīvitum iti yathā badhirāḥ aśṛṇvantaḥ prāṇantaḥ prāṇena vadantaḥ vācā paśyantaḥ cakṣuṣā dhyāyantaḥ manasā evam iti praviveśa ha śrotram
Hearing went out. Having stayed away a year, it came back and asked: "How were you able to live without me?" — "Like the deaf: without hearing, but breathing with the breath, speaking with speech, seeing with the eye, thinking with the mind." And hearing entered again.
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The third year — without hearing. "Attainment" too proves replaceable: the body lives "like the deaf". The list of losses grows, and with it the evidence: not one of the powers whose titles opened the chapter is a condition of life itself — each only colours it.
There is a warning here for the hearer of the Veda as well: even the hearing of what is sacred is a service within life, not life itself. Hearing is precious because through it the tidings of the Living One come in; but a man lives not by his ear but by Him of whom the ear hears.