Praśna 14, Kaṇḍikā 21

1. with the Anuvāka^[1]:

(1) “O king Soma, thy dear well-placed limbs which the officiating priests have cut out, do thou join them together with clarified butter and thrive them. Faultless, may we live together.

(2) Thy parts which the officiating priests pressed with the pressing stones carried with their right hands and from which they extracted the sap, may those thy parts swell and increase, O god Soma.

(3) The officiating priests have torn thy skin and thy womb; thou art detached from thy original place; thou yearnest for that. O Soma, do thou keep secret (= ignore) all that. May our intimate union with thee be in the highest region.

(4) The Soma mixed with milk has left out its original colour; its colour is changed. O Soma, acquiesced in connection with the drinking of thee, we are thine. Do thou help us in the multiformed assembly.

(5) May Soma be beholding men and listening to men. Accepting our praise, may he not abandon us, faultless, feeding our bodies and appearing in new form, may he accomplish our form.

(6) The ladles, making thy dear bodies swell, envelop thee with clarified butter. O Soma, obeisance to thee, and (the offering to the accompaniment of) the vaṣaṭ-utterance to thee. O king Soma, do thou acquiesce in my good deed.

(7) O king Soma, do thou be united with my Prāṇa and Apāna, with my eye and with my ear. Whatever accomplishments we have effected upon thee, may they be favourable to thee. Do thou approve of the accompaniment to us on the way.

(8) Do thou know him in the highest region. Devourers are accompanying him; do thou note his form. When he goes along the Devayāna way, do thou advocate his sacrificial rites and acts of piety.

(9) O king Soma, uninjured and diseaseless, do thou disperse. Obeisance to thee who art all-perceiving and quick-moving. Do thou ascend the heaven together with the sacrificer. May the sacrificer reach the sun in the highest region.

(10) God Savitṛ is worthy of being worshipped by us; he is to be praised by men at day-break. He who distributes wealth among men, may grant us the best wealth here.

(11) O Mitra-Varuṇa, do you help us here; O friends, do you think of us here. May the bond of the Adityas, the sharp and active sword having a hundred edges spare us.

(12) O Soma, do thou swell...^[2]

(13) O Soma, may the liquids meet thee; may the vigours meet thee; may the manliness meet thee who overpowerest the enemies. Being caused to swell for immortality, do thou attain the highest praise in the heaven.”

2. According to some teachers, he should make the offering with three verses; according to others, with five; according to still others with seven.

3. The sacrificer should throw the skin^[3] of a black antelope on the cātvāla with the verse, “O Varuṇa, we conciliate thy anger with obeisance and oblations offered in the sacrifice. O powerful and wise ruler, ruling over us, do thou pardon us for the evils perpetrated by us.”^[4]

4. Or he should immerse it along with the other substances into the water.

5. Then the Adhvaryu should call out, “O Prastotṛ, do you chant the Sāmans.”

6. All the officiating priests, together with the sacrificer’s wife, should joint in the chanting of the ending portion (nidhana) three times: first on the border of the Mahāvedi, for the second time on the middway, and for the third time near the water.

7. All should go out of the Mahāvedi with the verse, “King Varuṇa has made a broad path for the sun to travel. He has made him set his feet in the pathless way. He drives away whatever wounds the heart.”^[5]

8. They should go to the steady bathing water either towards the east or towards the north. According to some teachers towards the northeast; according to others towards the south; according to still others towards the west.

9. The direction, towards which they proceed, should be regarded as the east.

10. As soon as they behold water, they should recite the verse, “O king, your remedies are a hundred, a thousand. May thy favour be broad and deep. Overcome the enemy and the evil. Remove from us whatever sin is committed.”^[6]

11. They should stand by the border of water with the formula, “The bond of Varuṇa is overcome.”^[7]

12. At this stage some teachers prescribe the disposing of the heart-pike^[8]

13. They should enter the water, stand there and proceed with the Avabhṛtha-rite.

14. After having poured down the āghāra-libation by means of the spoon, the Adhvaryu should call out, “O Āgnīdhra, do thou cleanse the water thrice.”

15. The Āgnīdhra should cleanse only the water three times. He should cleanse with the formula, “Water is winner of treasure. I cleanse the water which is hastening to treasure, which is going to win treasure, which possesses treasure, and which consumes food, for the winning of the treasure of one who wins treasure, and for food.”^[9]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa III.7.13.2.

[2]:

XIII.27.23.

[3]:

X.8.18.

[4]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.5.11.3.

[5]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.1.

[6]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.1.

[7]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.1.

[8]:

XII.20.21,22.

[9]:

cf. II.12.10.