सः होवाच गार्ग्यः यः एव अयम् यन्तम् पश्चात् शब्दः अनुदेति एतम् एव अहम् ब्रह्म उपास इति सः होवाच अजातशत्रुः मा म एतस्मिन् संवदिष्ठाः असुः इति वै अहम् एतम् उपास इति सः यः एतम् एवम् उपास्ते सर्वम् ह एव अस्मिन् लोके आयुः एति न एनम् पुरा कालात् प्राणः जहाति
saḥ hovāca gārgyaḥ yaḥ eva ayam yantam paścāt śabdaḥ anudeti etam eva aham brahma upāsa iti saḥ hovāca ajātaśatruḥ mā ma etasmin saṃvadiṣṭhāḥ asuḥ iti vai aham etam upāsa iti saḥ yaḥ etam evam upāste sarvam ha eva asmin loke āyuḥ eti na enam purā kālāt prāṇaḥ jahāti
Gārgya said: "The sound that follows behind a man as he goes — that I venerate as Brahman." Ajātaśatru said: "Do not speak to me of it! I venerate it as Life." He who venerates it thus attains his full span in this world, and the breath does not leave him before his time.
eb14c0c0d267 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:50:55 AM UTC
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The ninth address is the strangest on the list: "the sound that follows a man as he goes" — the rustle of one's own steps, the echo that accompanies every movement of the living. Gārgya collects such curiosities too. The king recognises this one as well: asu, the life-force — the sound of the steps is the sound of life itself walking in the body; while it is heard, the man is alive.
And the fruit is proportionate: a full span of life, the breath "will not depart before its time". An incidental lesson, but an important one: the presence of life is audible in the simplest things — in a step, in a rustle; reverence knows how to listen even to that. Yet life-as-asu, as we shall see, is still not the last door.