सः अकामयत द्वितीयः मे आत्मा जायेत इति सः मनसा वाचम् मिथुनम् समभवत् अशनाया मृत्युः तद् यद् रेतस् आसीत् सः संवत्सरः अभवत् न ह पुरा ततः संवत्सरः आस तम् एतावन्तम् कालम् अबिभर् यावान् संवत्सरः तम् एतावतः कालस्य परस्तात् असृजत तम् जातम् अभिव्याददात् सः भाण् अकरोत् सा एव वाक् अभवत्
saḥ akāmayata dvitīyaḥ me ātmā jāyeta iti saḥ manasā vācam mithunam samabhavat aśanāyā mṛtyuḥ tad yad retas āsīt saḥ saṃvatsaraḥ abhavat na ha purā tataḥ saṃvatsaraḥ āsa tam etāvantam kālam abibhar yāvān saṃvatsaraḥ tam etāvataḥ kālasya parastāt asṛjata tam jātam abhivyādadāt saḥ bhāṇ akarot sā eva vāk abhavat
He desired: "Let a second self be born to me!" He — hunger, death — united in mind with speech. The seed became the year: before that there was no year. He carried it for a time as long as a year, and after that time brought it forth. Upon the newborn he opened his jaws; it cried "bhāṇ!" — and that became speech.
7211974d1074 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:37:41 AM UTC
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Death's second desire is "let a second self be born to me": not even hunger can bear solitude. Uniting in mind with speech (manas and vāc, the first couple of the universe), he conceives — and the seed becomes the Year: time is born like a child and carried like a child: "before that there was no year". The very term of gestation, a year, exists only from this birth onward: time appeared together with the first waiting.
And then a scene to freeze the blood: to a parent who is hunger, a newborn is food; he "opened his jaws" upon his own child. And the child-Year cried out: bhāṇ! — and the cry became speech. The world's first word is a cry before the maw of death. So the Upaniṣad knows the worth of all speech: it was born on the edge of destruction, as a call and a defence; every living word since is the cry of a creature refusing to be eaten. Prayer is the direct heir of that "bhāṇ": a voice raised out of the jaws of time toward the Immortal.