Aitareyabrahmana 6.2

6.2

They ask:
‘With how many [verses] should he praise?’
‘With a hundred,’ they say.
‘Man has a life of a hundred [years], a hundredfold virility, a hundredfold faculty;
thereby he establishes him in life, virility, and faculty.’
‘Or with thirty-three,’ they say.
‘He warded off thirty-three evils of the gods;
thirty-three are his gods.’
He should praise with an unlimited number.
Prajāpati is unlimited.
This hotṛ-function regarding the verses for the pressing stones belongs to Prajāpati;
in it all desires are obtained.
In that he praises with an unlimited number, it is to obtain all desires.
He obtains all desires who knows thus.
Therefore he should praise with an unlimited number only.
They ask:
‘How should he praise?
Syllable by syllable, four syllables by four syllables, quarter-verse by quarter-verse, half-verse by half-verse, or verse by verse?’
Now, as to [praising] verse by verse, that is not suitable;
and as to [praising] quarter-verse by quarter-verse, that is not suitable either;
and as to [praising] syllable by syllable or four syllables by four syllables, thus metres would be damaged,
and many syllables would be lost.
He should praise by half-verse only, for the sake of foundation.
Man has two foundations [feet], and cattle have four feet;
he thus establishes the sacrificer, who has two foundations, among four-footed cattle.
Therefore he should praise by half-verse only.
They ask:
‘Since he praises the pressing stones at each midday only,
how does it become praised for his other two pressings?’
In that he praises with gāyatrī verses—the morning pressing belongs to the gāyatrī—
thereby it is for the morning pressing;
and in that he praises with jagatī verses—the third pressing belongs to the jagatī—
thereby it is for the third pressing.
Thus indeed, praising the pressing stones at each midday only,
it becomes praised at all pressings for him who knows thus.
They ask:
‘Since the adhvaryu priest gives orders to the other sacrificial priests,
then why does this one undertake this [chant] without being ordered?’
Mind is the verses for the pressing stones, and this mind is without order;
therefore he undertakes this [chant] without being ordered.