Śāṅkhāyana (Kauṣītaki) Āraṇyaka 3.2

3.2

ŚĀ 3,2 = KU 1,2
sa hovāca ye vai ke cāsmāl lokāt prayanti candramasam eva te sarvaṃ gacchanti | teṣāṃ prāṇaiḥ pūrvapakṣa āpyāyate | tān aparapakṣeṇa prajanayati | etad vai svargasya lokasya dvāraṃ yac candramāḥ | taṃ yaḥ pratyāha tam atiṣrjate | atha yo na pratyāha tam iha vṛṣṭir bhūtvā varṣati | sa iha kīṭo vā pataṅgo vā matsyo vā śakunir vā siṃho vā varāho vā paraśvā vā śārdūlo vā puruṣo vānyo vā teṣu teṣu sthaneṣu pratyājāyate yathākarma yathāvidyam | tam āgataṃ pṛcchati, ko 'sīti | taṃ pratibrūyāt - vicakṣaṇād ṛtavo reta ābhṛtaṃ pañcadaśāt prasūtāt pitryāvataḥ | tan mā puṃsi kartaryerayadhvaṃ puṃsā kartrā mātari māsiṣiñca || sa jāyamāna upajāyamāno dvādaśotrayodaśopamāsaḥ | dvādaśatrayodaśena pitrā saṃ tad vide 'haṃ prati tad vide 'haṃ tan ma ṛtavo 'mṛtyava ārambhadhvam || tena satyena tena tapasā ṛtur asmi ārtavo 'smi | ko 'si tvam asmīti tam atisṛjate ||

He said: "All those who depart from this world go to the moon alone. By their breaths the waxing fortnight swells; through the waning fortnight it causes them to be reborn. The moon is indeed the gate of the heavenly world. Whoever answers it, it lets him pass beyond. But whoever does not answer it, having become rain, it rains him down here. He is reborn here according to his deeds, according to his knowledge, as a worm, or an insect, or a fish, or a bird, or a lion, or a boar, or a snake, or a tiger, or a man, or as something else in these various places. When he has arrived, it asks him: 'Who are you?' He should answer it: 'From the far-seeing one, O seasons, the seed has been gathered, brought from the fifteenfold, produced, from the realm of the ancestors. As such, direct me into a male agent; through a male agent pour me into a mother. / He, being born, being generated in the twelfth or thirteenth month, / alongside the father of twelve or thirteen months—that I know, that I recognize; therefore, O seasons, take hold of me for immortality! / By that truth, by that austerity, I am the season, I am born of the seasons.' 'Who are you?' 'I am you.' Then it lets him pass beyond."