Upanishads Part II · 85 of 112

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: V.15 — The Golden Disc

FIFTEENTH BRÂHMANA.

1. 2The face of the True (the Brahman) is covered with a golden disk 3. Open that, O Pûshan 4, that we may see the nature of the True 5.

2. O Pûshan, only seer, Yama (judge), Sûrya (sun), son of Pragâpati 6, spread thy rays and gather them!

The light which is thy fairest form, I see it. I am what he is (viz. the person in the sun).

3. Breath to air and to the immortal! Then this my body ends in ashes. Om! Mind, remember! Remember thy deeds! Mind, remember! Remember thy deeds 1!

4. Agni, lead us on to wealth (beatitude) by a good path 2, thou, O God, who knowest all things! Keep far from us crooked evil, and we shall offer thee the fullest praise! (Rv. I, 189, 1.)

Footnotes

199:2 These verses, which are omitted here in the Mâdhyandina text, are found at the end of the Vâgasaneyi-upanishad 15-18. They are supposed to be a prayer addressed to Âditya by a dying person.

199:3 Mahîdhara on verse 17: The face of the true (purusha in the sun), is covered by a golden disk.' Saṅkara explains here mukha, face, by mukhyam svarûpam, the principal form or nature.

199:4 Pûshan is here explained as a name of Savitri, the sun; likewise all the names in the next verse.

199:5 Cf. Maitr. Up. VI, 35.

199:6 Of Îsvara or Hiranyagarbha.

200:1 The Vâgasaneyi-samhitâ reads: Om, krato smara, klibe smara, kritam smara. Uvata holds that Agni, fire, who has been worshipped in youth and manhood, is here invoked in the form of mind, or that kratu is meant for sacrifice. 'Agni, remember me 'Think of the world! Remember my deeds!' Klibe is explained by Mahîdhara as a dative of klip, klip meaning loka, world, what is made to be enjoyed (kalpyate bhogâya).

200:2 Not by the Southern path, the dark, from which there is a fresh return to life.