Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 15.djvu/213

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153
mahâvagga
153

iv adhyAya, i brAhmajva, 3. 153

Yd^avalkya said: ' The tongue is its body, ether its place, and one should worship it as knowledge/ I

kanaka Vaideha said: ' What is the nature of that knowledge?'

Y&£#avalkya replied: ' Your Majesty, speech itself— (is knowledge). For through speech, Your Majesty, a friend is known (to be a friend), and likewise the y?sg-veda, Ya^ur-veda, S^Lma-veda, the Atharvdngi- rasas, the Itih&sa (tradition), Pur£#a-vidy& (know- ledge of the past), the Upanishads, .Slokas (verses), SAtras (rules), Anuvy&khyinas and Vydkhydnas (commentaries 1 , &c); what is sacrificed, what is poured out, what is (to be) eaten and drunk, this world and the other world, and all creatures. By speech alone, Your Majesty, Brahman is known, speech indeed, O King, is the Highest Brahman. Speech does not desert him who worships that (Brahman) with such knowledge, all creatures approach him, and having become a god, he goes to the gods.'

kanaka Vaideha said : ' I shall give you (for this) a thousand cows with a bull as big as an elephant/

Y&£$avalkya said: 'My father was of opinion that one should not accept a reward without having fully instructed a pupil/

3. Y&£*#avalkya said : ' Let us hear what anybody may have told you/

kanaka Vaideha replied : ' Udanka 6aulb£yana told me that life (pr£#a) 2 is Brahman.' —

Y&£*#avalkya said: 'As one who had (the benefit of a good) father, mother, and teacher might tell, so did

1 See before, II, 4, 10; and afterwards, IV, 5, 11.

2 See Taitt. Up. Ill, 3.

Digitized by VjOOQ IC