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X KANDA, 5 ADHYAYA, 3 BRAHMANA, 3. 375
the beginning this (universe), indeed, as it were, existed and did not exist: there was then only that Mind.
2. Wherefore it has been said by the Rishi (Rig-veda X, 129, 1), 'There was then neither the non-existent nor the existent;' for Mind was, as it were, neither existent nor non-existent.
3. This Mind, when created, wished to become manifest,- -more defined', more substantial: it sought after a self (body) 2. It practised austerity": it acquired consistency. It then beheld thirty-six thousand Arka-fires of its own self, composed of mind, built up of mind: mentally alone they were established (on sacrificial hearths) and mentally
1 Niruktataram niruktam sabdanirvâkyam. Sây.
a Sâyana also allows the interpretation, after (its source, or cause,) the (supreme) self,'-âtmânam svakâranam paramâtmânam svasvarûpam vânvaikkhat. What seems, indeed, implied in these esoteric lucubrations, is that meditation on the infinite is equivalent to all ceremonial rites which are supposed to be incessantly performed for one so engaged, even during his sleep (paragraph 12). 3 I. e. intense meditation (paryâlokanam), Sây. ?'it became heated.'
Sâyana apparently takes 'prâmûrkhat' in the sense of 'became great, or important,'- samukkhritam babhuva.
* Sâyana here takes 'arka' in the sense of arkaniya (worthy of veneration), as, indeed, he did several times before; though once he seems to call them 'agnyarkâh,' as being the highest, merely speculative or immaterial form of sacrificial fires or fire-altars (dhyeyâ agnayah); cf. X, 3, 4, 3 seq.-The 36,000 fires are calculated so as to be equal to the number of days in the life of the perfect man living a hundred years (X, 2, 6, 9); there being thus for each day of his life a (spiritual) sacrificial fire, a mental exercise or discipline, as Sâyana expresses it,-tatraikasmin dine (âgneyâ?) manovrittik.
The text has everywhere the instrumental 'manasâ,' which would imply either the agent, the instrument, or the material, as the case might be.
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