Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1655

LV, 20.
PENANCES.
183
or fails to recite them in the proper season, meets with reproach among the virtuous.
15. The three imperishable 'great words, preceded by the syllable Om, and the Gâyatri consisting of three divisions, have to be recognised as the mouth (or beginning) of the Veda !.
16. He who repeats that stanza (preceded by the syllable Om and the three 'words ') carefully every day for three years, will be absorbed in the highest. Brahman after death, move as freely as air, and become as pure as air.
17. The monosyllable (Om) is the highest Brahman, the stoppings of the breath are the best of austerities, but nothing is more exalted than the Gâyatri ; (declaring the) truth is better than silence.
18. All religious acts ordained in the Veda, (whether) consisting in burnt-oblations or sacrifices (or alms-giving or other pious observances), perish (after the merit obtained by them has been exhausted); but the syllable Om (akshara) must be known to be imperishable (akshara), as it is identical with Brahman, the lord of creatures.
19. The act of reciting (the syllable Om, the words,' and the Gâyatri) is ten times better than the (Gyotishtoma or other) sacrifices prescribed (by the Veda); it is a hundred times better when muttered in a low voice; it is a thousand times better when repeated mentally only.
20. The four Påkayagñas? (small or domestic
15. 1 To explain this, Nand. quotes a passage of Âsvalâyana (Grihya-sútra III, 2, 3, where, however, part only of this quotation is found) to the effect that the study of the Veda has to be begun by pronouncing Om, the words,' and the Gâyatrî.
20. 1. The four Pâkayagñas are the offerings to gods, goblins (or “all beings"), manes, and men, together with the offering to
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