सः अकामयत भूयसा यज्ञेन भूयः यजेय इति सः अश्राम्यत् सः तपः अतप्यत तस्य श्रान्तस्य तप्तस्य यशः वीर्यम् उदक्रामत् प्राणाः वै यशः वीर्यम् तत् प्राणेषु उत्क्रान्तेषु शरीरम् श्वयितुम् अध्रियत तस्य शरीरे एव मनः आसीत्
saḥ akāmayata bhūyasā yajñena bhūyaḥ yajeya iti saḥ aśrāmyat saḥ tapaḥ atapyata tasya śrāntasya taptasya yaśaḥ vīryam udakrāmat prāṇāḥ vai yaśaḥ vīryam tat prāṇeṣu utkrānteṣu śarīram śvayitum adhriyata tasya śarīre eva manaḥ āsīt
He desired: "Let me sacrifice with a still greater sacrifice!" He wore himself out, he heated himself with austerity. From him, wearied and heated, glory and power went forth — and glory and power are the breaths. When the breaths had gone out, the body began to swell; but his mind remained in the body.
96ee2da789c6 · publicado 27 jul 2026, 0:37:41 UTC
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Death's third desire is again a sacrifice, "a still greater" one. The world's creator is himself possessed by sacrifice: it is his way of growing. And again the labour to exhaustion — but this time the price is terrible: out of the wearied one "glory and power went forth", that is, the breaths, the prāṇas. The creator has overworked himself to his own death: his body "swelled up" like a corpse.
One detail is carefully noted: "his mind remained in the body" — desire did not leave even the dead; the design of the sacrifice outlived the breath. Out of this posthumous desire the aśvamedha will now be born: the swollen (aśvat) body will become the horse (aśva). Even the death of Death is turned by the Veda into a sacrifice and the name of a rite: in this world nothing is lost — everything is forged into a sacred act.