As a tree of the forest,
Just so, surely, is man.
His hairs are leaves.
His skin the outer bark.
From his skin blood,
Sap from the bark flows forth.
From him when pierced there comes forth
A stream, as from the tree when struck.
His pieces of flesh are under-layers of wood.
The fibre is muscle-like, strong.
The bones are the wood within.
The marrow is made resembling pith.
A tree, when it is felled, grows up
From the root, more new again;
A mortal, when cut down by death —
From what root does he grow up?
Say not 'from semen'
For that is produced from the living,
As the tree, forsooth, springing from seed,
Clearly arises without having died.
If with its roots they should pull up
The tree, it would not come into being again.
A mortal, when cut down by death —
From what root does he grow up?
When born, indeed, he is not born [again].
Who would again beget him?
Brahma is knowledge, is bliss,
The final goal of the giver of offerings,
Of him, too, who stands still and knows It.
from the Ninth Brahmana of the Third Adhyaya (chapter 3.9)
Yajnavalkya [Yagyavalkya] (c. 700 BC) India
Translated by Robert Ernest Hume
Source: The Thirteen Principal Upanishads by Robert Ernest Hume, Oxford University Press, 1921
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep your comments relevant and free from abusive language. Thank you. Note that comments are moderated so it may be a day or two before your comment is posted - irrelevant or abusive comments will not be published.