EIGHTH KHANDA

1. He extends (these verses) by (interpolating) the sound. Verily, breath (prana) is sound. Therefore every breath when it sounds, sounds loud, as it were.

2. The verse (VIII, 69, 2) nadam va odatinam, &c., is by its syllables an Ushnih, by its feet an Anushtubh. Ushnih is life, Anushtubh, speech. He thus places life and speech in him (the sacrificer.)

3. By repeating the first verse three times, they become twenty-five. The trunk is the twenty-fifth, and Pragapati is the twenty-fifth. There are ten fingers on his hands, ten toes on his feet, two legs, two arms, and the trunk the twenty-fifth. He adorns that trunk as the twenty-fifth. Now this day consists of twenty-five, and the Stoma hymn of that day consists of twenty-five: it becomes the same through the same. Therefore the two, the day and the hymn, are twenty-five. This is the twenty-fifth with regard to the body.

4. Next, with regard to the deities: The eye, the ear, the mind, speech, and breath, these five deities (powers) have entered into that person (purusha), and that person entered into the five deities. He is wholly pervaded there with his limbs to the very hairs and nails. Therefore all beings to the very insects are born as pervaded (by the deities or senses).

5. This has been declared by a Rishi (Rv. X, 114, 8):-

6. 'A thousandfold are these fifteen hymns;'-for five arise from ten.

7. 'As large as heaven and earth, so large is it;'-verily, the self (givatman) is as large as heaven and earth.

8. 'A thousandfold are the thousand powers by saying this the poet pleases the hymns (the senses), and magnifies them.

9. 'As far as Brahman reaches, so far reaches speech;'-wherever there is Brahman, there is a word; and wherever there is a word, there is Brahman, this was intended.

10. The first of the hymns among all those hymns has nine verses. Verily, there are nine pranas (openings), and it serves for their benefit.

11. Then follows a hymn of six verses. Verily, the seasons are six, and it serves to obtain them.

12. Then follows a hymn of five verses. Verily, the Pankti consists of five feet. Verily, Pankti is food, and it serves for the gaining of proper food.

13. Then follows a tristich. Three are these threefold worlds, and it serves to conquer them.

14. These verses become Brihatis, that metre being immortal, leading to the world of the Devas. That body of verses is the trunk (of the bird represented by the whole sastra), and thus it is. He who knows this comes by this way (by making the verses the trunk of the bird) near to the immortal Self, yea, to the immortal Self.