Praśna II, Adhyāya 5, Kaṇḍikā 8

1. Now, after washing his hands, he shall take his waterpot and a clod of earth, go to a (sacred) bathing-place and thrice clean his feet (with earth and water) and thrice his body.^[1]

2. Now some say, 'One must not enter a burial-ground, water, a temple, a cowpen, nor a place where Brāhmaṇas (sit) without having cleaned one's feet.'

3. Then he enters the water, (reciting the following verse): 'I take refuge with gold-horned Varuṇa, give me at my request (O Varuṇa) a purifying bathing-place. May Indra, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati, and Savitṛ again and again cleanse me from all sin which I have committed by eating the food of unholy men, by receiving gifts from the wicked, and from all evil which I have done by thoughts, speeches, or deeds.'^[2]

4. Then he takes up water in his joined hands, (saying), 'May the waters and the herbs be propitious to us.'^[3]

5. (Next) he pours (the water) out in that direction in which an enemy of his dwells, (saying), 'May they work woe to him who hates us and whom we hate.'^[4]

6. Then he sips water, and thrice makes the water eddy around himself turning from the left to the right (and saying), 'May that which is hurtful, which is impure, and which is inauspicious in the water be removed.'^[5]

7. After having submerged himself and having emerged from the water,^[6]

8. (Acts of) personal purification, washing the clothes by beating them on a stone and sipping^[7] water are not (permitted to the worshipper) as long as he is in the water.

9. If (the water used for bathing) has been (taken from a) confined (place, such as a well), he worships it with the following (Mantra): 'Adoration to Agni, the lord of the waters; adoration to Indra; adoration to Varuṇa; adoration to Vāruṇī; adoration to the waters.'^[8]

10. After having ascended the bank and having sipped water, let him again sip water, though he has done so before, (and recite the following Mantras) 'May water purify the earth, may the purified earth purify me, may Brahmaṇaspati (and) Brahman purify, may the purified (earth) purify me. May water purify me, (taking away) all (the guilt which I incurred by eating) remnants of food, and forbidden food, (by committing) evil deeds, (by) receiving gifts from wicked men, Svāhā!'^[9]

11. Making two Pavitras he rubs (his body) with water. Having rubbed himself, (reciting the) three (verses), 'Ye waters are,' &c., the four (verses), 'The golden-coloured, pure, purifying,' &c., (and) the Anuvāka, 'He who purifies,' &c., he performs, stepping back into the water, three Prāṇāyāmas with the Aghamarshaṇa (hymn); then he ascends the bank, squeezes (the water) out of his dress, puts on garments which have been washed and dried in the air and which are not the worse for wear, sips water,^[10] sits down on Darbha grass, and, holding Darbha grass (in his hands), recites, facing the east, the Gāyatrī one thousand times, (or) one hundred times, or any number of times, or at least twelve times.

12. Then he worships the sun (reciting the following Mantras): 'Out of darkness we,' &c., 'Up that bright,' &c., That eye which is beneficial to the gods,' &c., (and) 'He who rose,' &c.^[11]

13. Now they quote also (the following maxim): 'The syllable Om,, the Vyāhṛtis, and the Sāvitrī, these five Veda-offerings daily cleanse the Brāhmaṇa from guilt.'

14. Being purified by the five Veda-offerings, he next satiates the gods (with water, saying),^[12]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

8. Viṣṇu LXIV, 18. This Adhyāya contains the rules for bathing, and the subject is introduced, as Govinda observes, because in the preceding chapter II, 4, 7, 2, it has been said that an impure person must bathe before he performs the twilight devotions. Govinda also states that the word ca, 'and,' which stands after mṛtpiṇḍam, 'a clod,' indicates that gomaya, 'cowdung,' must also be employed.

[2]:

The verse is found Taittirīya Āraṇyaka X, 1, 12,

[3]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka X, 1, 11.

[4]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, loc. cit. This and the following Sutras, down to II, 6, 11, 15, are wanting in the Gujarāt and Dekhan MSS. except in K.

[5]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka X, 1, 13.

[6]:

Govinda points out that the completion of this Sūtra is to be found in Sūtra to. He adds that Baudhāyana inserted Sutras 8-9 in the middle, because he was afraid to forget the rules contained in them.

[7]:

Viṣṇu LXIV, 10, 11.

[8]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka X, 1, 12.

[9]:

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka X, 23. Govinda says that the rule is intended to indicate also that a person who recites sacred texts while sipping water, must do so only after having taken water once before. K. inserts before this Mantra, also Anuvāka 22.

[10]:

Viṣṇu LXIV, 13-14; 18-19. The Vedic passages intended p. 252 are found Taitt. Saṃhitā IV, 1, 5, r; V, 6, 1, r; and Taitt. Brāhmaṇa I, 4, 8. Pavitras, i.e. blades of Kuśa grass. 'He performs three Prāṇāyāmas with the Aghamarshaṇa hymn (Rig-veda X, 190),' i.e. he thrice suppresses his breath (prāṇāyāma) and recites during each suppression the Aghamarshaṇa three times, just as on other occasions the Gāyatrī is recited three times.

[11]:

The first Mantra is found Taitt. Saṃhitā IV, 1, 7, 4; the third and the fourth Taitt. Āraṇyaka IV, 42, 32-33.

[12]:

Viṣṇu XLIV, 24. The ceremony is the so-called Tarpaṇa, which is usually described in the Gṛhya-sūtras, e.g. Sāṅkhāyana IV, 9-10, and the quotations in Professor Oldenberg's notes, Indische Studien XV, 152.