Jaiminīya (Talavakāra) Brāhmaṇa 2-8.323

2-8.323

This indeed is the highest reach of speech: that which is ten.
For speech stepped forth so far at most,
[thinking,] 'May I obtain all that is the highest reach of speech.'
Moreover, they say: one desiring food should sacrifice with it.
Everyone else indeed praises beyond the Virāj.
Only he who praises with ten does not praise beyond the Virāj.
The Virāj has ten syllables.
Food is the Virāj.
By day after day he secures the Virāj: by a day the Virāj, by a day the Virāj; and by the tenth day, having secured the whole Virāj as food, he rises up at the end.
Man indeed surpasses the Virāj.
These are ten days; the eleventh is the night.
Ten are the breaths in a man; the self is the eleventh.
Man indeed is mounted upon this Virāj so as not to fall off.
Neither cow nor horse nor mule mounts upon the Virāj.
Man alone mounts upon the Virāj.
Therefore man is the eater of cattle.
He becomes an eater of cattle, he mounts upon the Virāj, who knows thus.