Section 4.8 (eighth khaṇḍa) (four texts)

Upaniṣad text:

‘The Acquatic Bird will declare to thee the other foot’.—On the morrow, he made the cows start. When they came together towards evening, he, having kindled the fire, penned the cows, and laid the fuel, sat down behind the fire, facing the East.—(1)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

The flamingo also, having said ‘The Acquatic Bird will declare to thee the other foot’,—kept quiet. The Acquatic Bird—Madgu, is a bird that lives in water: and thus stands for Prāṇa (life-breath), through its connection with water. On the morrow etc., etc. as before.—(1)

Upaniṣad text:

The Acquatic Bird flew to him and said—‘Satyakāma’—He answered—Yes, Sir.—(2)

‘I would declare to thee, my Boy, the foot of Brahman’.—‘Do tell it to me, Revered Sir,’—He said—‘The Breath is one factor; the Eye is one factor; the Ear is one factor; the Mind is one factor.—This, my Boy, is the four-factored foot of Brahman, named The Repository.—(3)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

The Acquatic Bird,—i.e. Breath (Prāṇa) declared the philosophy relating to itself:—‘Breath is one factor etc,, etc.’ Its name is the Repository. The Repository (Abode) here is the Mind; and inasmuch as the experiences presented through all other organs converge—in this factor,—it is called the Repository.—(2-3)

Upaniṣad text:

One who, knowing this thus, meditates upon this four-factored foot of Brahman as the Repository, becomes endowed in this world, with repositories. He wins Regions with Repositories, who, knowing this thus, meditates upon this four-factored foot of Brahman as the Repository.—(4)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

One who meditates on this foot as here described becomes endowed in this world with Repositories—i.e. with Abode, Shelter. And he wins Regions with Repositories—after death,—one who knowing etc. etc. as before.—(4)

End of Section (8) of Discourse IV