ओं शौनको ह वै महाशालोऽङ्गिरसं भगवन्तं पिप्पलादमपृच्छत् । दिव्ये ब्रह्मपुरे संप्रतिष्ठिता भवन्ति कथं सृजन्ति कस्यैष महिमा बभूव यो ह्येष महिमा बभूव क एषः । तस्मै स होवाच ब्रह्मविद्यं वरिष्ठाम् । प्राणो ह्येष आत्मा । आत्मनो महिमा बभूव देवानामायुः स देवानां निधनमनिधनं दिव्ये ब्रह्मपुरे विरजं निष्कलं शुभ्रमक्षरं यद्ब्रह्म विभाति स नियच्छति मधुकरराजानं माक्षिकवदिति । यथा माक्षीकैकेन तन्तुना जालं विक्षिपति तेनापकर्षति तथैवैष प्राणो यदा याति संसृष्टमाकृष्य । प्राणदेवतास्ताः सर्वा नाड्यः । सुष्वपे श्येनाकाशवद्यथा खं श्येनमाश्रित्य याति स्वमालयमेवं सुषुप्तो ब्रूते यथैवैष देवदत्तो यष्ट्याऽपि ताड्यमानो न यत्येवमिष्टापूर्तैः शुभाशुभैर्न लिप्यते । यथा कुमारो निष्काम आनन्दमुपयाति तथैवैष देवदत्तः स्वप्न आनन्दमभियाति वेद एव परं ज्योतिः ज्योतिष्कामो ज्योतिरानन्दयते । भूयस्तेनैव स्वप्नाय गच्छति जलौकावत् । यथा जलौकाऽग्रमग्रं नयत्यात्मानं नयति परं संधय । यत्परं नापरं त्यजति स जाग्रदभिधीयते । यथैवैष कपालाष्टकं संनयति । तमेव स्तन इव लम्बते वेददेवयोनः । यत्र जाग्रति शुभाशुभं निरुक्तमस्य देवस्य स संप्रसारोऽन्थर्यामी खगः कर्कटकः पुष्करः पुरुषः प्राणो हिंसा परापरं ब्रह्म आत्मा देवता वेदयति. य एवं वेद स परं ब्रह्म धं क्षेत्रज्ञमुपैति
oṃ śaunako ha vai mahāśālo'ṅgirasaṃ bhagavantaṃ pippalādamapṛcchat | divye brahmapure saṃpratiṣṭhitā bhavanti kathaṃ sṛjanti kasyaiṣa mahimā babhūva yo hyeṣa mahimā babhūva ka eṣaḥ | tasmai sa hovāca brahmavidyaṃ variṣṭhām | prāṇo hyeṣa ātmā | ātmano mahimā babhūva devānāmāyuḥ sa devānāṃ nidhanamanidhanaṃ divye brahmapure virajaṃ niṣkalaṃ śubhramakṣaraṃ yadbrahma vibhāti sa niyacchati madhukararājānaṃ mākṣikavaditi | yathā mākṣīkaikena tantunā jālaṃ vikṣipati tenāpakarṣati tathaivaiṣa prāṇo yadā yāti saṃsṛṣṭamākṛṣya | prāṇadevatāstāḥ sarvā nāḍyaḥ | suṣvape śyenākāśavadyathā khaṃ śyenamāśritya yāti svamālayamevaṃ suṣupto brūte yathaivaiṣa devadatto yaṣṭyā'pi tāḍyamāno na yatyevamiṣṭāpūrtaiḥ śubhāśubhairna lipyate | yathā kumāro niṣkāma ānandamupayāti tathaivaiṣa devadattaḥ svapna ānandamabhiyāti veda eva paraṃ jyotiḥ jyotiṣkāmo jyotirānandayate | bhūyastenaiva svapnāya gacchati jalaukāvat | yathā jalaukā'gramagraṃ nayatyātmānaṃ nayati paraṃ saṃdhaya | yatparaṃ nāparaṃ tyajati sa jāgradabhidhīyate | yathaivaiṣa kapālāṣṭakaṃ saṃnayati | tameva stana iva lambate vedadevayonaḥ | yatra jāgrati śubhāśubhaṃ niruktamasya devasya sa saṃprasāro'ntharyāmī khagaḥ karkaṭakaḥ puṣkaraḥ puruṣaḥ prāṇo hiṃsā parāparaṃ brahma ātmā devatā vedayati. ya evaṃ veda sa paraṃ brahma dhaṃ kṣetrajñamupaiti
Om. Śaunaka, the great householder, asked Pippalāda, the lord of Aṅgiras's line: “Those established in the divine city of Brahman — how do they create? Whose greatness is this, and who is he whose greatness it is?” To him he told the highest knowledge of Brahman: “For this breath is the Ātman. From the Ātman arose the greatness, the life-span of the gods; he is both the perishing of the gods and the unperishing. In the divine city of Brahman shines the dustless, partless, bright, imperishable — that which is Brahman; and he rules as the king of bees rules the bees. As a spider with a single thread casts out its web and with the same thread draws it in, so this breath, departing, gathers in what was created. All these channels are the deities of the breath. As a child free of desire comes to bliss, so Devadatta in dream attains bliss. The Veda itself is the highest light. And where in waking the good and evil of this god are pronounced — he is the expansion, the inner ruler, the bird, the crab, the lotus, the Puruṣa, the breath, the higher and lower Brahman, the Ātman, the deity. Who knows thus reaches the highest Brahman, the knower of the field.”
4a2127fdd51e · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:09:07 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The book opens with a question, and the questioners are the same as in the Praśna Upaniṣad: Śaunaka asks Pippalāda.
His question is dark and corrupted in transmission, but its general sense can be made out: those established “in the divine city of Brahman” — how do they create, and whose is this greatness?
“The city of Brahman”, brahmapura, is a usual name for the body in the Upaniṣads; the Chāndogya says: “in this city of Brahman there is a small lotus-chamber”.
The answer begins with the words that set the whole first part of the book: prāṇo hy eṣa ātmā — “for this breath is the Ātman”.
Then come two similes, and both are superb.
The first: He rules “as the king of bees rules the bees”. The bees fly off and return of themselves; the queen does not drive them. So is described a governing that is not goading.
The second: the spider, which with one thread casts out its web and with the same thread draws it in. The image is from the Muṇḍaka, and here it is applied to prāṇa: departing, the breath gathers in all that it unfolded.
Let me be honest about the state of the text. This book has reached us badly: both of its open copies descend from one ill-printed edition. The evident slips I have corrected against printed readings and listed in the source note; but several places at the end of this section — the string “bird, crab, lotus” and the word before “the knower of the field” — are dark and beyond recovery. I have left them as they stand rather than substitute a guess.