truly and in all thy details. Unto
those persons that succeed in attaining to thee after having cleansed
themselves by devotion, thou showest thyself of thy own accord, O thou
that residest in all hearts.[83] By knowing thee one can avoid both death
and rebirth. Thou art the highest object of knowledge. By knowing thee no
higher object remains for one to know. Thou art the greatest object of
acquisition. The person that is truly wise, by acquiring thee, thinks
that there is no higher object to acquire. By attaining to thee that art
exceedingly subtile and that art the highest object of acquisition, the
man of wisdom becomes immortal and immutable. The followers of the
Sankhya system, well conversant with their own philosophy and possessing
a knowledge of the attributes (of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas) and of those
called the topics of enquiry,--those learned men who transcend the
destructible by attaining to a knowledge of the subtile or
indestructible--succeed, by knowing thee, in freeing themselves from all
bonds. Persons conversant with the Vedas regard thee as the one object of
knowledge, which has been expounded in the Vedantas. These men, devoted
to the regulation of the breaths, always meditate on thee and at last
enter into thee as their highest end. Riding on the car made of Om, those
men enter into Maheswara. Of that which is called the Devayana (the path
of the deities) thou art the door called Aditya. Thou art again, the
door, called Chandramas, of that which is called the Pitriyana (the path
of the Pitris).[84] Thou art Kashtha, thou art the points of the horizon,
thou art the year, and thou art the Yugas. Thine is the sovereignty of
the heavens, thine is the sovereignty of the Earth, thou art the Northern
and the Southern declensions. The Grandsire Brahma in days of yore
uttered thy praises, O thou that art called Nilarohita (blue and red), by
reciting diverse hymns and urged thee to create living creatures.
Brahmanas conversant with Richs praise thee by uttering Richs, regarding
thee as unattached to all things and as divested of all forms. Adhyaryus,
in sacrifices, pour libations, uttering Yajushes the while, in honour of
thee that art the sole object of knowledge, according to the three
well-known ways.[85] Persons of cleansed understandings, that are
conversant with Samans, sing thee with the aid of Samans. Those
regenerate persons, again, that are conversant with the Atharvans, hymn
thee as Rita, as Truth,