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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 5, Brahmana 13. The uktha, the yajus, the saman, the ksatra

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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.

॥ 5.13.4 ॥

Breath that guards the body

क्षत्रम् । प्राणो वै क्षत्रम् । प्राणो हि वै क्षत्रम् । त्रायते हैनं प्राणः क्षणितोः । प्र क्षत्रमत्रमाप्नोति । क्षत्रस्य सायुज्यं सलोकतां जयति य एवं वेद ॥
In transliteration
kṣatram | prāṇo vai kṣatram | prāṇo hi vai kṣatram | trāyate hainaṃ prāṇaḥ kṣaṇitoḥ | pra kṣatramatramāpnoti | kṣatrasya sāyujyaṃ salokatāṃ jayati ya evaṃ veda ||

In English

The ksatra. The vital breath, truly, is the ksatra; the breath is indeed the ksatra, for the breath guards the body from being wounded. The one who knows this attains the ksatra that needs no other to guard it, free of injury. He who knows this thus wins union with the ksatra and a dwelling in the same world as the ksatra.

In plain words

The breath is the ksatra, the ruling and protecting power, because it shields the body from harm (tra, to guard; kshanitoh, from being wounded). One who meditates on it this way wins a sovereignty that keeps itself, beyond injury, and comes to share the world of the ksatra.