विनाशेन मृत्युं तीर्त्वा संभूत्यामृतम् अश्नुते ॥ १४ ॥
saṃbhūtiṃ ca vināśaṃ ca yas tad vedobhayaṃ saha .
vināśena mṛtyuṃ tīrtvā saṃbhūtyāmṛtam aśnute .. 14 ..
Tap a word for its meaning
The first half of the verse means “He who understands that meditation on the manifest and the unmanifest should be practised together”. vināśa here means an “effect”—that whose character is transitoriness; the abstract being put for the concrete. vināśena means “by meditating on such (Brahman)”. mṛtyum = death i.e., all kinds of deficiency arising from limited power, demerit, covetousness and so on. tīrtvā = (having overcome); for great supernatural power is attained by the contemplation of Hiraṇyagarbha. Having thus overcome death or limitation of power &c., asambhūtya i.e., by meditating on the unmanifest. amṛtam i.e. absorption into the First Cause. aśnute (attains). It should be noted that sambhūt in the first pāda is mentioned without the (initial) a (and is to be taken as equivalent to asambhūt) agreeably to the statement that the result is absorption into the First Cause.
The result derivable, according to śāstra, through worldly and divine ‘wealth’ extends up to absorption into the First Cause. Thus far is metempsychosis. Higher than that, is the realisation of the unity of Self spoken of in verse 9—the result of renouncing all desires and devoting oneself (exclusively) to true knowledge. Thus the two-fold teaching of the Veda, as relating to worldly activity and to withdrawal from it, has been explained here. And the (śatapatha) brāhmaṇa up to (the chapters on) Pravargya (purificatory ceremonies described in Khanda xiv chapters 1—3) concerns itself with elucidating, in full, the Vedic teaching relating to the path of activity, consisting of injunctions and prohibitions. The succeeding portion, viz., the Bṛh.adāraṇyaka, explains the path of withdrawal from the world. In verse 11 it has been stated [ 1 ] that he who desires to live performing karma (in its entirety) from conception to death, and along with it, practises meditation on the lower (phenomenal) Brahman will attain immortality. It is now pointed out by what course, one so qualified becomes immortal. (We read in the Bṛh.. Up. V, v, 2) “That is what is Truth; it is the Sun, the Person in this disc, as also the Person in the right eye”. The worshipper of this two-fold Brahman—Truth—who has also been performing karma as prescribed, addresses thus, when the end is come, Brahman who is Truth, beseeching Him for entrance—