Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath
New to these pages?
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.
The breath as the Saman
He is also the Saman. Speech is sa, this breath is ama; that is the saman-hood of the Saman. Or because he is equal to a white ant, equal to a gnat, equal to an elephant, equal to these three worlds, equal to this whole universe, therefore indeed he is the Saman. He who knows this Saman thus attains union with the Saman, attains its world.
This vital breath is also the Saman, the sacred chant. Speech is sa and the breath is ama; their joining (sa + ama) is what makes the Saman a Saman. Or else, because the breath is the same (sama) in a tiny white ant, the same in a gnat, the same in an elephant, the same in these three worlds, the same in this entire universe, for that reason it is the Saman. One who knows this Saman in this way attains oneness with it and reaches its world.
In the commentaries
Sankara: the breath is the Saman by a double etymology, the union of speech (sa) and breath (ama), and its sameness (sama) present alike in the least and the greatest creature; meditating thus wins identity with the Saman and its world.