Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad 3.1.1-17

3.1.1

pratardano ha vai daivodāsir indrasya priyaṃ dhāmopajagāma yuddhena ca pauruṣeṇa ca /

1. Pratardana Daivodāsi by fighting and virility arrived at the beloved abode of Indra.

3.1.2

taṃ hendra uvāca pratardana varaṃ vṛṇīṣveti /

To him then Indra said: ‘Pratardana, choose a boon (vara)!’

3.1.3

sa hovāca pratardanas tvam eva me vṛṇīṣva yaṃ tvaṃ manuṣyāya hitatamaṃ manyasa iti /

Then said Pratardana: ‘Do you yourself choose for me the one which you deem most beneficent to mankind.’

3.1.4

taṃ hendra uvāca na vai varaṃ paro parasmai vṛṇīte /

To him then Indra said: ‘A superior (vara), verily, chooses not for an inferior (avara). Do you yourself choose.’

3.1.5

tvam eva vṛṇīṣveti /

3.1.6

avaro vai kila ma iti hovāca pratardanaḥ /

‘No boon (a-vara), verily, then, is it to me!’ said Pratardana.

3.1.7

atho khalv indraḥ satyād eva neyāya /

But Indra departed not from the truth, for Indra is truth.

3.1.8

satyaṃ hīndraḥ /

3.1.9

taṃ hendra uvāca mām eva vijānīhi /

To him then Indra said: ‘Understand me, myself. This indeed I deem most beneficent to man—namely, that one should understand me. I slew the three-headed son of Tvaṣhṭṛi.

3.1.10

etad evāhaṃ manuṣyāya hitatamaṃ manye yan māṃ vijānīyāt /

3.1.11

triśīrṣāṇaṃ tvāṣṭram ahanam /

3.1.12

arurmaghān <ahanam> /

I delivered the Arunmukhas, ascetics, to the wild dogs. Transgressing many compacts, I transfixed the people of Prahlāda in the sky, the Paulomas in the atmosphere, the Kālakāñjas on earth. Of me, such a one as I was then (_tasya me tatra_), not a single hair was injured!

3.1.13

yatīn sālāvṛkebhyaḥ prāyaccham /

3.1.14

bahvīḥ sandhā atikramya divi prahlādīyān atṛṇaham antarikṣe paulomān pṛthivyāṃ kālakāñjān /

3.1.15

tasya me tatra na loma canāmīyata /

3.1.16

sa yo māṃ veda na ha vai tasya kena cana karmaṇā loma mīyate na steyena na bhrūṇahatyayā na mātṛvadhena na pitṛvadhena /

So he who understands me—by no deed whatsoever of his is his world injured, not by stealing, not by killing an embryo, not by the murder of his mother, not by the murder of his father; if he has done any evil (_pāpa_), the dark color departs not from his face.’

3.1.17

nāsya pāpaṃ cakruṣo mukhān nīlaṃ vyetīti //1//