Aitareya-Aranyaka: Second Aranyaka, Third Adhyâya, Eighth Khanda

1. Here (with regard to obtaining Hiranyagarbha) there are these Slokas:

2. The fivefold body into which the indestructible (prâna, breath) enters, that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true (the highest Brahman) follows after, in that body (of the worshipper) all gods become one.

3. That body into which goes the indestructible (the breath) which we have joined (in meditation), proceeding from the indestructible (the highest Brahman), that body which the harnessed horses (the senses) draw about, that body where the true of the true follows after, in that body all gods become one.

4. After separating themselves from the Yes and No of language, and of all that is hard and cruel, poets have discovered (what they sought for); dependent on names they rejoiced in what had been revealed.

5. That in which the poets rejoiced (the revealed nature of prâna, breath), in it the gods exist all joined together. Having driven away evil by means of that Brahman (which is hidden in prâna), the enlightened man goes to the Svarga world (becomes one with Hiranyagarbha, the universal spirit).

6. No one wishing to describe him (prâna, breath) by speech, describes him by calling him “woman,” “neither woman nor man,” or “man” (all such names applying only to the material body, and not to prâna or breath).

7. Brahman (as hidden beneath prâna) is called the A; and the I (ego) is gone there (the worshipper should know that he is uktha and prâna).

8. This becomes perfect as a thousand of Brihatî verses, and of that hymn, perfect with a thousand Brihatî verses, there are 36,000 syllables. So many are also the thousands of days of human life. By means of the syllable of life (the a) alone (which is contained in that thousand of hymns) does a man obtain the day of life (the mahâvrata day, which completes the number of the days in the Gavamayana sacrifice), and by means of the day of life (he obtains) the syllable of life.

9. Now there is a chariot of the god (prâna) destroying all desires (for the worlds of Indra, the moon, the earth, all of which lie below the place of Hiranyagarbha). Its front part (the point of the two shafts of the carriage where the yoke is fastened) is speech, its wheels the ears, the horses the eyes, the driver the mind. Prâna (breath) mounts that chariot (and on it, i.e. by means of meditating on Prâna, he reaches Hiranyagarbha).

10. This has been said by a Rishi (Rv. X, 39, 12):—

11. “Come hither on that which is quicker than mind,” and (Rv.VIII, 73, 2) “Come hither on that which is quicker than the twinkling of an eye,” yea, the twinkling of an eye.