150 • BltfHADARAJVYAKA-UPANISHAD.
man 1 comes forth blood, as from a tree that is struck.
3. * The lumps of his flesh are (in the tree) the layers of wood, the fibre is strong like the ten- dons 2 . The bones are the (hard) wood within, the marrow is made like the marrow of the tree.
4. ' But, while the tree, when felled, grows up again more young from the root, from what root, tell me, does a mortal grow up, after he has been felled by death ?
5. ' Do not say, "from seed," for seed is produced from the living 3 ; but a tree, springing from a grain, clearly 4 rises again after death 6 .
6. * If a tree is pulled up with the root, it will not grow again ; from what root then, tell me, does a mortal grow up, after he has been felled by death ?
7. ' Once born, he is not born (again) ; for who should create him again 6 ?'
1 In the Mddhyandina-jdkhd, p. 1080, tasmat tadatunn&t, instead of tasm£t tad£tr*>*«£t.
2 *Sankara seems to have read snavavat, instead of snSva tat sthiram, as we read in both «S$kh£s.
8 Here the Madhyandinas (p. 1080) add, g&td. eva na^&yate, ko nv ena*« ^anayet puna^, which the K&nvas place later.
4 Instead of a%as&, the M&dhyandinas have anyata^.
5 The M&dhyandinas have dh&n&ruha u vai, which is better than iva vai, the iva being, according to Ankara's own confession, use- less. The thread of the argument does not seem to have been clearly perceived by the commentators. What the poet wants to say is, that a man, struck down by death, does not come to life again from seed, because human seed comes from the living only, while trees, springing from grain, are seen to come to life after the tree (which yielded the grain or the seed) is dead. Pretya-sam- bhava, like pretya-bh&va, means life after death, and pretyasam- bhava, as an adjective, means coming to life after death.
6 This line too is taken in a different sense by the commentator. According to him, it would mean : c If you say, He has been born
Digitized by VjOOQ 1C
