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Satapatha Brahmana Part IV (SBE43), Julius Eggeling tr. [1897], at sacred-texts.com
10:4:4
10:4:4:11. When Pragâpati was creating living beings, Death, that evil, overpowered him. He practised austerities for a thousand years, striving to leave evil behind him.
10:4:4:22. Whilst he was practising austerities, lights went upwards from those hair-pits 3 of his; and those lights are those stars: as many stars as there are, so many hair-pits there are; and as many hair-pits as there are, so many muhûrtas there are in a (sacrificial performance) of a thousand years.
10:4:4:33. In the one-thousandth year, he cleansed himself all through; and he that cleansed all through is this wind which here cleanses by blowing; and that evil which he cleansed all through is this body.
[paragraph continues] But what is man that he could secure for himself a (life) of a thousand years 1? By knowledge, assuredly, he who knows secures for himself (the benefits of a performance) of a thousand years.
10:4:4:44. Let him look upon all these bricks as a thousandfold: let him look upon each enclosing-stone as charged with a thousand nights, each day-holder 2 with a thousand days, each half-moon-holder with a thousand half-moons, each month-holder with a thousand months, each season-holder with a thousand seasons, each muhûrta-holder 3 with a thousand muhûrtas, and the year with a thousand years. They who thus know this Agni as being endowed with a thousand, know his one-thousandth digit; but they who do not thus know him, do not even know a one-thousandth digit of him. And he alone who so knows this, or who performs this sacred work, obtains this whole and complete Pragâpatean Agni whom Pragâpati obtained. Wherefore let him who knows this by all means practise austerities 4; for, indeed, when he who knows this practises austerities, even to (abstention from) sexual intercourse, every (part) of him will share in the world of heaven 5.
10:4:4:55. It is regarding this that it is said in the Rik (I, 179, 3), 'Not in vain is the labour which the gods favour;' for, in truth, for him who knows there is no labouring in vain, and so, indeed, the gods favour this every (action) of his 1.
361:3 That is, the pores from which the hairs spring.
362:1 Tasmai sahasrasamvatsaragîvanâya ko vâ manushyah saknuyât; manushyâvadhih satam ato gîvato manushyena sahasrasamvatsarâh prâptum asakyât. Sây.
362:2 That is, the majority of Yagushmatî bricks, viz. 360 of them, whilst the remaining ones are supposed to stand in lieu of half-moons, months, and seasons; see X, 4, 3, 19.
362:3 Viz. the Lokamprinâ bricks; see X, 4, 3, 20.
362:4 Or, religious fervour (meditation).
362:5 Or, as Sâyana seems to interpret it, 'that austerity will gain for him all his (Agni's thousandfold perfection) and the heavenly world (?),'--etat tapah agnes tadavayavânâm ka sahasrâtmakatvarûpam karoti tasmâk ka svargalokaprâptir bhavatîty arthah.
363:1 Evam vidvân yat kurute tat sarvam yad yasmâd devâ avanti. Sây.