प्राणो ब्रह्मेति ह स्माह कौषीतकिस्तस्य ह वा एतस्य प्राणस्य ब्रह्मणो मनो दूतं वाक्परिवेष्ट्री चक्षुर्गात्रं श्रोत्रं संश्रावयितृ तस्मै वा एतस्मै प्राणाय ब्रह्मण एताः सर्वा देवता अयाचमानाय बलिं हरन्ति तथो एवास्मै सर्वाणि भूतान्ययाचमानायैव बलिं हरन्ति य एवं वेद तस्योपनिषन्न याचेदिति । तद्यथा ग्रामं भिक्षित्वाऽलब्धोपविशेन्नाहमतो दत्तमश्नीयामिति । य एवैनं पुरस्तात्प्रत्याचक्षीरंस्त एवैनमुपमन्त्रयन्ते ददाम त इत्येष धर्मो याचतो भवति । अन्यतस्त्वेवैनमुपमन्त्रयन्ते ददाम त इति
prāṇo brahmeti ha smāha kauṣītakistasya ha vā etasya prāṇasya brahmaṇo mano dūtaṃ vākpariveṣṭrī cakṣurgātraṃ śrotraṃ saṃśrāvayitṛ tasmai vā etasmai prāṇāya brahmaṇa etāḥ sarvā devatā ayācamānāya baliṃ haranti tatho evāsmai sarvāṇi bhūtānyayācamānāyaiva baliṃ haranti ya evaṃ veda tasyopaniṣanna yācediti | tadyathā grāmaṃ bhikṣitvā'labdhopaviśennāhamato dattamaśnīyāmiti | ya evainaṃ purastātpratyācakṣīraṃsta evainamupamantrayante dadāma ta ityeṣa dharmo yācato bhavati | anyatastvevainamupamantrayante dadāma ta iti
“The breath is Brahman” — so said Kauṣītaki. And of this breath-Brahman the mind is the messenger, speech the attendant, the eye the guard, the ear the announcer. To this breath-Brahman all the deities bring tribute, though he asks not; and so too all beings bring tribute, though he asks not, to the one who knows thus. His secret rule is: “let him not beg.” It is as if a man, having begged in a village and got nothing, should sit down and say: “I will not eat what is given from here” — and then the very people who refused him call him: “we will give to you.” Such is the lot of the one who begged. But him they call from elsewhere too: “we will give to you.”
c27014bc1fab · publicado 29 jul 2026, 3:43:45 UTC
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The second adhyāya opens with the proposition that will carry the whole book: “the breath is Brahman”. Prāṇa here is not the air in the lungs but the vital power by which every living thing is held; and it is declared not an instrument but the Highest itself.
Around it a court is arrayed. The mind is the messenger sent ahead; speech the attendant who dresses and serves; the eye the guard; the ear the herald reporting what happens. So the order within a man is depicted: the senses are not on their own — they serve at someone's court, and that someone is life.
Then the chief thing is said about the breath's station: tribute is brought to it “though it asks not”. The word bali is the tax carried to a lord; a-yācamānāya, “to the unasking one”, is set down twice and deliberately. He who is the source has no need to beg: things are carried to him unbidden.
And from this a rule is drawn for the man — a piece of counsel as worldly as any in the Upaniṣads: “let him not beg”. This is no ban on every request and no praise of pride; it points to the fact that the knower's position changes of itself. He who stands firm in breath-Brahman ceases to be the world's petitioner, for he stands in that of which things are asked.
The example is chosen with a smile and with precision. A beggar asked and received nothing; he sits down and says: I will take nothing from here. And at once those who refused call him themselves. So it works: begging repels, the refusal of begging attracts. “Such is the lot of the one who begged” — even he will be given in the end, but given after humiliation; while to the knower they give “from elsewhere”, without any asking at all.
This observation about men the book makes into an observation about the universe: tribute goes to the one who does not stretch out his hand — because such is the order of life itself.