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KANDA III
PRAPATHAKA IV
The Optional And Occasional Offerings
1. The Explanation Of The Mantras in iii. 3. 10.
iii. 4. 1.
The sacrifice of him whose offering is too large is unsuccessful; 'Surya, the god, for those that sit in the sky', he says; verily with the aid of Brhaspati and Prajapati he makes good the deficiency in the sacrifice. Now the Raksases infest the victim if it being offered to one deity is greater (than normal); 'Thou who hast a tawny embryo', he says; verily he sends it to the gods, to smite away the Raksases. 'Bring near, O bringer', he says [1]; verily with the holy power he brings it. 'I split apart thy urinator', he says; that is according to the text. 'The drop, far extending, of all forms', he says; the drop is offspring and cattle; verily with offspring and cattle he unites him.
To the sky the deficiency of the sacrifice goes, to the earth the redundancy; if he were not to appease it, the sacrificer would be ruined; 'May the two great ones, sky and earth, for us' [2], he says; verily by means of sky and earth he appeases both the deficiency and the redundancy of the sacrifice; the sacrificer is not ruined. He covers (the offering) with ashes for the call of 'Godspeed'; now this is the embryo of these two; verily in these two he deposits it. If he were to cut off, he would make it redundant; if he were not to cut off, he would fail to cut off from the victim which has been offered; one portion he should cut off from in front of the navel, another behind it; the expiration is in front of the navel [3], the inspiration behind; verily he cuts off from the whole extent of the victim.
He offers to Visnu Çipivista; Visnu Çipivista is the redundancy of the sacrifice, the greatness of the victim, the prosperity thereof; verily in the redundant he deposits the redundant, to appease the redundant. The sacrificial fee is gold of eight measures, for the (victim) has eight feet; the self is the ninth; (verily it serves) to win the victim. It is enveloped in a turban in an inner box, for so as it were is the victim, the omentum, the skin, the flesh, the bone; verily he obtains and wins the whole extent of the victim. He, for whom in the sacrifice this expiration is offered, by his sacrificing becomes richer.
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