Praśna 6, Kaṇḍikā 3

1. He should (again) pray to the cowpen with the formulas, “With strength I gaze on you; gaze on me with strength. I gaze on you with abundance of wealth; gaze on me with abundance of wealth. You are food, making sweetness; kindly enter me, nourishment and drink. May I prosper with your thousandfold prosperity; may your wealth rest in me.”^[1]

2. According to some teachers, he should touch the calf (with those formulas).

3. He should pray to the Āhavanīya fire with the verses, “That excellent glory of Savitṛ, the god, we meditate, that he may stimulate our prayers.—Do thou make the Soma-presser sounding loud, O Brahmaṇaspati, as thou didst make Kakṣīvant Auśija.—Never art thou barren, O Indra; never dost thou fail thy worshipper. O bountiful one, thy divine gift is increased more and more.—May we set thee around us, O Agni, the sage, the strong, as a fort, of daring hue, day by day destroyer of that which may be broken.”^[2]

4. He should pray to the Gārhapatya fire with the formulas, “O Agni, lord of the house, through thee as lord of the house, may I be a good lord of the house. Through me as lord of the house, mayest thou be a good lord of the house. For a hundred winters I invoke this blessingbringing light for the race; I invoke this blessing-bringing light for N.N.”^[3]

5. He should (then) pronounce the name of his son.

6. The procedure to be followed by one to whom a son has born and also one to whom no son has born is already explained.^[4]

7. Then he should recite the formula, “The divine cord is unbroken; may the human cord not be broken. May I not be broken from the divine splendour, not from the human one.”^[5]

8. He should put fuel on the fires, and should sit down between the two fires with the formula, “For light and cord thee.”^[6]

9. In this way he should pray to the sacred fires every evening.

10. In the morning he should pray with the prātaravanehaka.^[7]

11. When the Agnihotra-milk has been put over the fire, or when it is being taken up into the Agnihotra-ladle, he should cleanse his hands while reciting the verses intended for the cleansing.^[8]

12. With the rest of the verses^[9] he should pray to the Āhavanīya fire.

13. Before the verse dedicated to Agni-Soma,^[10] he should murmur the next four verses of the vihavya hymn,^[11] and then the two verses, namely, the puronuvākyā and the yājyā relating to the offering of the cake to Agni.^[12]

14. Some teachers prescribe the praying (in the morning)^[13] to the (Āhavanīya) fire (only) with the Vyāhṛtis.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.5.6.3,4.

[2]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.5.6.4,5.

[3]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.5.6.5.

[4]:

IV.21.7,8.

[5]:

Maitrāyaṇī-saṃhitā I.4.2.; Caraka-kaṭha-saṃhitā VII.2.

[6]:

Maitrāyaṇī-saṃhitā I.4.2.

[7]:

cf. Maitrāyaṇī-saṃhitā I.5.7; Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.20.1 ff

[8]:

The first four verses of the vihavya hymn (Taittirīya-saṃhitā IV.7.14) cf. Maitrāyaṇī-saṃhitā I. 5.7; Mānava-śrauta-sūtra I.6.2.I.

[9]:

That is, the verses in Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.5.5. leaving out the first six.

[10]:

VI.1.10.Taittirīya-saṃhitā II.2.14.2.

[11]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā IV.7.14.2-4.

[12]:

Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa III.5.7.1. Lastly he should murmur the remaining verses in Taittirīya-saṃhitā I. 5.5.

[13]:

Satyāṣāḍha-sūtra VI. 6.