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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 3, Brahmana 1. Yajnavalkya at Janaka's sacrifice: the eight seizers

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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.

॥ 3.1.6 ॥

The ascent to heaven

याज्ञवल्क्येति होवाच यदिदमन्तरिक्षमनारम्बणमिव केनाक्रमेण यजमानः स्वर्गं लोकमाक्रमत इति । ब्रह्मणर्त्विजा मनसा चन्द्रेण । मनो वै यज्ञस्य ब्रह्मा । तद्यदिदं मनः सोऽसौ चन्द्रः स ब्रह्मा स मुक्तिः सातिमुक्तिरित्यतिमोक्षा । अथ संपदः ॥
In transliteration
yājñavalkyeti hovāca yadidamantarikṣamanārambaṇamiva kenākrameṇa yajamānaḥ svargaṃ lokamākramata iti | brahmaṇartvijā manasā candreṇa | mano vai yajñasya brahmā | tadyadidaṃ manaḥ so'sau candraḥ sa brahmā sa muktiḥ sātimuktirityatimokṣā | atha saṃpadaḥ ||

In English

"Yajnavalkya," he said, "since this sky seems to be without a hold, by what ascent does the sacrificer climb to the heavenly world?" "By the Brahman priest, by the mind, by the moon. For the mind is the Brahman of the sacrifice. This mind is that moon; it is the Brahman; it is the freeing, it is the full release." Such are the meditations on full release. Now the meditations on correspondence.

In plain words

Asvala asks: since the mid-region of sky has no visible support, by what means of ascent does the sacrificer reach the heavenly world (svarga)? Yajnavalkya answers: through the Brahman priest, who is the moon, who is the mind. The sacrificer's mind is identified with the moon that is the Brahman priest, and that recognition is the liberation (mukti, atimukti). With this the atimoksa meditations close, and the sampad (correspondence) meditations begin.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara marks this as the close of the meditations on release, since every priestly accessory of the sacrifice has now been treated: the mind as the moon, presiding through the Brahman priest, is the support by which the sacrificer ascends to heaven, and he keeps liberation (the knowing) distinct from emancipation (its fruit).

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 3.1.6 (via Madhavananda)