Prashna Upanishad – I – Spiritual paths of the Moon and Sun – 11   «   »

Prashna Upanishad – I – Spiritual paths of the Moon and Sun – 11   «   »

पञ्चपादं पितरं द्वादशाकृतिं
दिव आहुः परे अर्धे पुरीषिणम् ।
अथेमे अन्य उ परे विचक्षणं
सप्तचक्रे षडर आहुरर्पितमिति ॥ १.११॥
pañcapādaṃ pitaraṃ dvādaśākṛtiṃ
diva āhuḥ pare ardhe purīṣiṇam .
atheme anya u pare vicakṣaṇaṃ
saptacakre ṣaḍara āhurarpitamiti .. 1.11..
Translation by Swami Sivananda
11 Some call Him the father with five feet and with twelve forms, the giver of rain and the dweller in the region above the sky. Others, again, say that the world is fixed in the omniscient Sun, endowed with seven wheels and six spokes. 

Translation by Max Mueller
11. Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons), and with twelve shapes (the twelve months), the giver of rain in the highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in the lower half, in the chariot with seven wheels and six spokes.

deity_Prashna

Sri Shankara’s Commentary (Bhashya) translated by S. Sitarama Sastri

Having five feet] the five seasons are, as it were, the feet of the sun which is no other than the year. With these seasons as ‘feet,’ the year moves. This analogy makes but one of the hêmanta and the sisira seasons. Father] he is called father because he is the creator of all. Having twelve forms] the twelve months are the forms, i.e., limbs or component parts of the year. In a place higher than Dyulôka (sky), i.e., in the third heaven. Purishinam, full of water. They say] those who know Time say. The same, some others who know Time say, is omniscient; and that the world is fixed to the wheel of Time, ever on the move, in the form of seven horses and having six seasons. They say that all the universe is fixed there as spokes in a wheel. Whether having five feet and twelve limbs, or whether possessed of seven wheels and six spokes, in any view, the year, of the nature of Time, the lord of creation, in the form of the sun and the moon, is the cause of the universe.

Links
Various resources on the Prashnopanishad
Upanishad Series – Kena Upanishad Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda

Prashna Upanishad – 11 – Prashna-1-11-pañcapādaṃ – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Meaning and Commentary by Adi Shankaracharya (Sankara Bhashya) – Prashna-1-11