Upanishads · Prāṇāgnihotra 1.11
॥
Devanāgarī
अमृतमस्य मृतोपस्तरणमस्यमृतं प्राणे जुहोम्यमाशिष्यान्तोऽसि
Transliteration (IAST)
amṛtamasya mṛtopastaraṇamasyamṛtaṃ prāṇe juhomyamāśiṣyānto'si
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अमृतम् असिamṛtam asiyou are immortality
अ-मृत-उपस्तरणम् असिa-mṛta-upastaraṇam asiyou are the bedding of immortality
अमृतं प्राणे जुहोमिamṛtaṃ prāṇe juhomiI pour immortality into the breath
अ-मा-शिष्यान्तः असिa-mā-śiṣyāntaḥ asiyou are the covering
Translation
You are immortality; you are the bedding of immortality; I pour immortality into the breath; you are the covering.
Version
4608e2bf1180 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The formula recited before eating in the brahmanical practice to this day is cited: amṛtam asi, amṛtopastaraṇam asi. The rite is thus: before the first mouthful one sips a swallow of water and says "you are the bedding of immortality"; after the last, one sips again and says "you are the covering." That is, the meal is framed by water: water below and water above.
The image deserves examining, for it is taken from sacrifice. In the rite, grass is first laid on the altar, then the offering placed, then it is covered. Here the same structure is transferred onto eating: the food is the offering, the stomach the altar, the water the bedding and the covering.
The correspondence is carried through to the end, and this is the book's merit: it does not merely draw an analogy, but transfers the whole order entire. Note also the word juhomi, "I pour," from hu, "to pour into fire." From the same root come homa and āhuti, "oblation."
That is, a person putting a morsel into his mouth describes his act with the very verb by which the priest describes pouring into the fire. The Vaiṣṇava side, before eating, recites something else — a verse that food is prasāda — but the very custom of framing the meal with words is the same for it. Let us add what lies behind this and deserves keeping. An act framed by words ceases to be mechanical. A person who says something before and after inevitably notices what he is doing; and in this, to my mind, lies the whole purpose of table-prayers, whatever they may be.