Jaiminīya (Talavakāra) Brāhmaṇa 58.351

58.351

tametaṃ puruṣaṃ parigṛhya gopāyanti
tasyaiṣa śloka
ṛṣabho loko mahadeva yakṣaṃ naivāsmātpūrvaṃ na paraṃ babhūva
yaṃ devaṃ devāḥ prāṇāḥ puruṣaṃ parigṛhya jāgrati sa veda lokaṃ puruṣaṃ mahāntamiti
imaṃ ha vāva taṃ devaṃ devāḥ prāṇāḥ puruṣaṃ parigṛhya jāgrati
yo'yamakṣannanta sa haiṣa vāmanaḥ
sa yo haitaṃ vāmana ityupāste vāmaṃ vāmaṃ haivainameṣā devatābhinenīyate
etasmāddha vā idaṃ rājanyabandhavo vāmanaṃ kena cidavakāṃkṣanti
etasyai ha devatāyai nāmno'ntikamenaṃ viduḥ
sa haiṣa na jīryati
samāvānhaivaiṣa yūnaśca jarasaśca
sa haiṣa prāṇānsaṃgṛhyāvadhūya śarīraṃ prāṇaissahordhva utkrāmati
etena ha vai pratyūḍhāni mṛtyuśśarīrāṇi harati
tasyai haitasyai devatāyai yathā mṛtpiṇḍa iṣīke'dhihate syātāmevameva hṛdaye
pādāvadhihatau
tau yadācchinatyatha mriyate
tadidamapyavidvāṃsa āhurāccheddhyasyeti
sa ya etadevaṃ vedājarasaṃ hāsmādeṣā devatā notkrāmati | sarvamāyureti

Surrounding this Puruṣa, they guard him. Concerning this there is this verse: / 'The world of the Bull is a great spirit; there was neither anything before it nor after it. / The Puruṣa whom, as a god, the gods, the breaths, guard, surrounding him—he knows the great Puruṣa, the world.' / It is this very god whom the gods, the breaths, guard, surrounding him. He who is here within the eye, that is the Dwarf. Whoever reveres him as the Dwarf, to him this deity continually brings whatever is lovely. It is indeed for this reason that royal kinsmen desire a dwarf for some [task]; they know him to be close to the name of this deity. He does not grow old; he is the same in youth and in old age. Having gathered the breaths, shaking off the body, he ascends upward with the breaths. Cast off by him, death carries away the bodies. Just as two reed-stalks might be stuck into a lump of clay, so are his two feet affixed to the heart of this deity. When he tears them away, then one dies. Therefore, even those who do not know say: 'His [life] is about to be torn away.' He who knows this thus, from him this deity does not depart before old age; he attains a complete lifespan.