Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
Breath chants for food
Then it chanted to win food for itself; for whatever food is eaten, it is eaten by this very breath, and in it the breath rests secure.
After carrying the organs across, the vital breath chanted to obtain food for itself. For whatever food anyone eats is eaten by this breath alone, and the breath finds its firm support and rest in that food.