those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and truth,
16. To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked,
nothing false, and no guile."
SECOND QUESTION
1. Then Bhârgava Vaidarbhi asked him: "Sir, How many gods[1] keep what has thus been created, how many manifest this[2], and who is the best of
them?"
2. He replied: "The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their power), contend and say: We (each of us) support this body and keep it[3].
3[4]. Then Prâna (breath, spirit, life), as the best, said to them: Be not deceived, I alone, dividing
myself fivefold, support this body and keep it.
4. They were incredulous; so he, from pride, did as if he were going out from above. Thereupon,
- ↑ Devâh, powers, organs, senses.
- ↑ Their respective power.
- ↑ This is Sankara's explanation, in which bâna is taken to mean the same as sarîra, body. But there seems to be no authority for such a meaning, and Ânandagiri tries in vain to find an etymological excuse for it. Bâna or Vâna generally means an arrow, or, particularly in Brâhmana writings, a harp with many strings. I do not see how an arrow could be used as an appropriate simile here, but a harp might, if we take avashtabhya in the sense of holding the frame of the instrument, and vidhârayâmah in the sense of stretching and thereby modulating it.
- ↑ On this dispute of the organs of sense, see Brih. Up. VI, 1, p. 201; Khând. Up. V, 1 (S.B.E., vol. i, p. 72).
