सः एषः संवत्सरः प्रजापतिः षोडशकलः तस्य रात्रयः एव पञ्चदश कलाः ध्रुवा एव अस्य षोडशी कला सः रात्रिभिः एव आ च पूर्यते अप च क्षीयते सः अमावास्याम् रात्रिम् एतया षोडश्या कलया सर्वम् इदम् प्राणभृत् अनुप्रविश्य ततः प्रातर् जायते तस्मात् एताम् रात्रिम् प्राणभृतः प्राणम् न विच्छिन्द्यात् अपि कृकलासस्य एतस्याः एव देवतायाः अपचित्यै
saḥ eṣaḥ saṃvatsaraḥ prajāpatiḥ ṣoḍaśakalaḥ tasya rātrayaḥ eva pañcadaśa kalāḥ dhruvā eva asya ṣoḍaśī kalā saḥ rātribhiḥ eva ā ca pūryate apa ca kṣīyate saḥ amāvāsyām rātrim etayā ṣoḍaśyā kalayā sarvam idam prāṇabhṛt anupraviśya tataḥ prātar jāyate tasmāt etām rātrim prāṇabhṛtaḥ prāṇam na vicchindyāt api kṛkalāsasya etasyāḥ eva devatāyāḥ apacityai
This year is Prajāpati of sixteen parts: the nights are his fifteen parts, and the sixteenth part is constant. By the nights he waxes and wanes. On the new-moon night he enters with this sixteenth part into everything that breathes, and in the morning is born again. Therefore on that night let no one cut off the breath of any living being, not even of a lizard, in honour of this deity.
82c426ef69ab · प्रकाशित 27 जुल॰ 2026, 12:48:21 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Prajāpati-the-year is displayed in the moon of sixteen parts: fifteen wax and wane with the nights, the sixteenth is dhruvā, constant — the undiminishing remainder from which the month begins anew each time. At the new moon, when there is no visible light at all, this secret part does not perish: it "enters into everything that breathes" — the life of all creatures on the dark night is the strongbox where the undiminishing part of the light is kept.
Hence a commandment of rare beauty: on the new-moon night kill nothing that breathes, "not even a lizard" — for in every creature the sixteenth part of Prajāpati is a guest. Ahiṁsā is grounded not sentimentally but liturgically: on that night a creature is a tabernacle. The sixteenth, undiminishing kalā is known to us from the Chāndogya (6.7: the fasting Śvetaketu lived by one part out of sixteen): in a man as in a month there is that which does not melt away with the nights — and from it everything is restored.