Aitareyabrahmana 7.5

7.5

They say: / When a person's agnihotra [milk] has been set on the fire and an impure thing falls into it, / what is the expiation for it? / Pouring it all out into the ladle, stepping forward toward the east, he puts this piece of kindling-wood onto the āhavanīya fire; / then, having swept aside hot ash to the north of the āhavanīya, he should offer it / either mentally or with a verse addressed to Prajāpati. / That is both offered and not offered. / Whether one [ladleful] has been drawn or two, this is the very rule. / If he should be able to remove it, / having poured out this defiled [part] and poured over the undefiled [milk], / he should offer it in whatever manner it was drawn. / That is the expiation there. / They say: / When a person's agnihotra [milk] set on the fire spills or boils over, / what is the expiation for it? / He should pour water upon it for pacification, for water is pacification. / Then, touching it with his right hand, he mutters: / 'A third of the sacrifice has gone to heaven, to the gods; thence has wealth reached me. A third of the sacrifice has gone to the intermediate space, / to the fathers; thence has wealth reached me. / A third of the sacrifice has gone to earth, to men; thence has wealth reached me.' / He mutters the verse addressed to Viṣṇu and Varuṇa: 'By whose vital power the spaces were propped up.' / Viṣṇu indeed protects what is ill-offered in the sacrifice, Varuṇa what is well-offered, / for the pacification of both of them. / That is the expiation there. / They say: / When a person's agnihotra [milk] has been set on the fire, and as he steps forward eastward he stumbles or drops it, / what is the expiation for it? / If he were to turn back, he would turn the sacrificer away from the heavenly world. / Right there, while he is seated, they should bring him this remnant of the agnihotra, / and he should offer it in whatever manner it was drawn. / That is the expiation there. / They say: / Now if the ladle should break, what is the expiation for it? / Having fetched another ladle, he should offer; / then he should put this broken ladle on the āhavanīya fire with its handle to the east and its bowl to the west. / That is the expiation there. / They say: / When a person's fire is found in the āhavanīya, but the gārhapatya goes out, / what is the expiation for it? / If he were to bring [fire] forward to the east, he would fall away from his place; / because he would perform the sacrifice westward like the Asuras; / because if he were to churn [fire], he would generate a rival for the sacrificer; / because if he were to let it go out, the vital breath would leave the sacrificer. / Having collected all of it together with the ashes and placed it in the fireplace of the gārhapatya, / he should then bring forward the āhavanīya to the east. / That is the expiation there.