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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 2, Brahmana 5. The honey: the Self shining in all beings

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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.

॥ 2.5.17 ॥

Taught through the head of a horse

इदं वै तन्मधु दध्यङ्ङाथर्वणोऽश्विभ्यामुवाच । तदेतदृषिः पश्यन्नवोचत् आथर्वणायाश्विनौ दधीचेऽश्व्यं शिरः प्रत्यैरयतम् । स वां मधु प्र वोचदृतायन् त्वाष्ट्रं यद्दस्रावपिकक्ष्यं वामिति
In transliteration
idaṃ vai tanmadhu dadhyaṅṅātharvaṇo'śvibhyāmuvāca | tadetadṛṣiḥ paśyannavocat ātharvaṇāyāśvinau dadhīce'śvyaṃ śiraḥ pratyairayatam | sa vāṃ madhu pra vocadṛtāyan tvāṣṭraṃ yaddasrāvapikakṣyaṃ vāmiti

In English

This indeed is that honey which Dadhyac Atharvana declared to the two Asvins. Seeing this, the seer said: O Asvins, upon Dadhyac Atharvana you set a horse's head. True to his word, O mighty ones, he declared to you the honey of Tvastr, which was to be kept secret from you.

In plain words

This is that very honey-knowledge which Dadhyac, son of Atharvan, taught to the two Asvins. A seer, beholding it, sang the Rgveda verse: O Asvins, you fixed a horse's head upon Dadhyac Atharvana; keeping his promise, that truthful one then declared to you the honey, the secret connected with Tvastr (the sun's ritual meditation) that he had been forbidden to disclose.