Prashna Upanishad – V – Meditation on OM – 7   «   »

Prashna Upanishad – V – Meditation on OM – 7   «   »

ऋग्भिरेतं यजुर्भिरन्तरिक्षं
सामभिर्यत् तत् कवयो वेदयन्ते ।
तमोङ्कारेणैवायतनेनान्वेति विद्वान्
यत्तच्छान्तमजरममृतमभयं परं चेति ॥ ५.७॥
इति प्रश्नोपनिषदि पञ्चमः प्रश्नः ॥
ṛgbhiretaṃ yajurbhirantarikṣaṃ
sāmabhiryat tat kavayo vedayante .
tamoṅkāreṇaivāyatanenānveti vidvān
yattacchāntamajaramamṛtamabhayaṃ paraṃ ceti .. 5.7..
iti praśnopaniṣadi pañcamaḥ praśnaḥ ..
Translation by Swami Sivananda
7 The wise man, meditating on AUM, attains this world by means of the rik verses; the intermediate world by means of the yajur verses; and that which is known to the seers by means of the sama verses. And also through the syllable AUM he realises that which is tranquil, free from decay, death and fear and which is the Highest. 

Translation by Max Mueller
7. Through the Rik-verses he arrives at this world, through the Yagus-verses at the sky, through the Sâman-verses at that which the poets teach,–he arrives at this by means of the Oṅkâra; the wise arrives at that which is at rest, free from decay, from death, from fear,–the Highest.

deity_Prashna

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

The second verse is intended to state the whole drift briefly. By riks this world where men live, by yajus, the antariksha, i.e., the world presided over by the moon. By sâma that which the knowers alone and not the ignorant know as the third world, the world of Brahma. This threefold world, pertaining to the lower Brahman the knower reaches by the help of the syllable ‘0m.’ That, i.e., the highest Brahman, undecaying, true, called Purusha, quiet, i.e., devoid of all the characteristics of the universe, such as waking, dreaming, sleeping, etc., therefore undecaying, i.e., free from old age or decay, deathless, fearless, because devoid of decay and modification and supreme, i.e., unsurpassable because fearless, even that, by the syllable ‘Om,’ a help to that attainment, the knower reaches. The word iti is used to show that the sentence ends.

 

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॥ इति प्रश्नोपनिषदि पञ्चमः प्रश्नः ॥

|| iti praśnopaniṣadi pañcamaḥ praśnaḥ ||

Here ends the Fifth Prasna.

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

Prashna Upanishad – 7 – Prashna-5-7-ṛgbhiretaṃ – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Meaning and Commentary by Adi Shankaracharya (Sankara Bhashya) – Prashna-5-7