Praśna Upaniṣad
1.1
Sukesas Bharadvaga, and Saivya Satyakama, and Sauryayanin Gargya, and Kausalya Asvalayana, and B...
1.2
That Rishi said to them: `Stay here a year longer, with penance, abstinence, and faith; then you...
1.3
Then Kabandhin Katyayana approached him and asked: `Sir, from whence may these creatures be born?'
1.4
He replied: `Pragapati (the lord of creatures) was desirous of creatures (pragah). He performed ...
1.5
The sun is spirit, matter is the moon. All this, what has body and what has no body, is matter, ...
1.6
Now Aditya, the sun, when he rises, goes toward the East, and thus receives the Eastern spirits ...
1.7
Thus he rises, as Vaisvanara, (belonging to all men,) assuming all forms, as spirit, as fire. Th...
1.8
(They knew) him who assumes all forms, the golden, who knows all things, who ascends highest, al...
1.9
The year indeed is Pragapati, and there are two paths thereof, the Southern and the Northern. No...
1.10
But those who have sought the Self by penance, abstinence, faith, and knowledge, gain by the Nor...
1.11
Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons), and with twelve shapes (the twelve m...
1.12
The month is Pragapati; its dark half is matter, its bright half spirit. Therefore some Rishis p...
1.13
Day and Night are Pragapati; its day is spirit, its night matter. Those who unite in love by day...
1.14
Food is Pragapati. Hence proceeds seed, and from it these creatures are born.
1.15
Those therefore who observe this rule of Pragapati (as laid down in {verse} 13), produce a pair,...
1.16
To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked, nothi...
2.1
Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked him: `Sir, How many gods keep what has thus been created, how many...
2.2
He replied: `The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. Th...
2.3
Then Prana (breath, spirit, life), as the best, said to them: Be not deceived, I alone, dividing...
2.4
They were incredulous; so he, from pride, did as if he were going out from above. Thereupon, as ...
2.5
He is Agni (fire), he shines as Surya (sun), he is Parganya (rain), the powerful (Indra), he is ...
2.6
As spokes in the nave of a wheel, everything is fixed in Prana, the verses of the Rig-veda, Yagu...
2.7
As Pragapati (lord of creatures) thou movest about in the womb, thou indeed art born again. To t...
2.8
Thou art the best carrier for the Gods, thou art the first offering to the Fathers. Thou art the...
2.9
O Prana, thou art Indra by thy light, thou art Rudra, as a protector; thou movest in the sky, th...
2.10
When thou showerest down rain, then, O Prana, these creatures of thine are delighted, hoping tha...
2.11
Thou art a Vratya, O Prana, the only Rishi, the consumer of everything, the good lord. We are th...
2.12
Make propitious that body of thine which dwells in speech, in the ear, in the eye, and which per...
2.13
All this is in the power of Prana, whatever exists in the three heavens. Protect us like a mothe...
3.1
Then Kausalya Asvalayana asked: `Sir, whence is that Prana (spirit) born? How does it come into ...
3.2
He replied: `You ask questions more difficult, but you are very fond of Brahman, therefore I sha...
3.3
This Prana (spirit) is born of the Self. Like the shadow thrown on a man, this (the prana) is sp...
3.4
As a king commands officials, saying to them: Rule these villages or those, so does that Prana (...
3.5
The Apana (the down-breathing) in the organs of excretion and generation; the Prana himself dwel...
3.6
The Self is in the heart. There are the 101 arteries, and in each of them there are a hundred (s...
3.7
Through one of them, the Udana (the out-breathing) leads (us) upwards to the good world by good ...
3.8
The sun rises as the external Prana, for it assists the Prana in the eye. The deity that exists ...
3.9
Light is the Udana (out-breathing), and therefore he whose light has gone out comes to a new bir...
3.10
Whatever his thought (at the time of death) with that he goes back to Prana, and the Prana, unit...
3.11
He who, thus knowing, knows Prana, his offspring does not perish, and he becomes immortal. Thus ...
3.12
He who has known the origin, the entry, the place, the fivefold distribution, and the internal s...
4.1
Then Sauryayanin Gargya asked: `Sir, What are they that sleep in this man, and what are they tha...
4.2
He replied: `O Gargya, As all the rays of the sun, when it sets, are gathered up in that disc of...
4.3
The fires of the pranas are, as it were, awake in that town (the body). The Apana is the Garhapa...
4.4
Because it carries equally these two oblations, the out-breathing and the in-breathing, the Sama...
4.5
There that god (the mind) enjoys in sleep greatness. What has been seen, he sees again; what has...
4.6
And when he is overpowered by light, then that god sees no dreams, and at that time that happine...
4.7
And, O friend, as birds go to a tree to roost, thus all this rests in the Highest Atman,
4.8
The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtil...
4.9
For he it is who sees, hears, smells, tastes, perceives, conceives, acts, he whose essence is kn...
4.10
He who knows that indestructible being, obtains (what is) the highest and indestructible, he wit...
4.11
He, O friend, who knows that indestructible being wherein the true knower, the vital spirits (pr...
5.1
Then Saivya Satyakama asked him: `Sir, if some one among men should meditate here until death on...
5.2
He replied: `O Satyakama, the syllable Om (AUM) is the highest and also the other Brahman; there...
5.3
If he meditate on one Matra (the A), then, being enlightened by that only, he arrives quickly at...
5.4
If he meditate with two Matras (A+U) he arrives at the Manas, and is led up by the Yagus-verses ...
5.5
Again, he who meditates with this syllable AUM of three Matras, on the Highest Person, he comes ...
5.6
The three Matris (A+U+M), if employed separate, and only joined one to another, are mortal; but ...
5.7
Through the Rik-verses he arrives at this world, through the Yagus-verses at the sky, through th...
6.1
Then Sukesas Bharadvaga asked him, saying: `Sir, Hiranyanabha, the prince of Kosala, came to me ...
6.2
He replied: `Friend, that person is here within the body, he in whom these sixteen parts arise.
6.3
He reflected: What is it by whose departure I shall depart, and by whose staying I shall stay?
6.4
He sent forth (created) Prana (spirit); from Prana Sraddha (faith), ether, air, light, water, ea...
6.5
As these flowing rivers that go towards the ocean, when they have reached the ocean, sink into i...
6.6
That person who is to be known, he in whom these parts rest, like spokes in the nave of a wheel,...
6.7
Then he (Pippalada) said to them: `So far do I know this Highest Brahman, there is nothing highe...