The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s3.t3.6.3

c12.s3.t3.6.3

elsewhere he is to throw the broken wood into the fire.⁵ Thereby he symbolically takes the fire, which henceforth he will no longer maintain, into himself,⁶ or into his body.⁷ The sacrificial fire he takes up into the fire of his belly,⁸ the Gâyatrî⁹ into the fire of his speech.¹⁰ It is probably this taking up of the sacrificial fire into his own body which is symbolically intended when he who has renounced the world, addressing the fire, has to consume a handful of ashes from the embers,¹ or to smell the fire.² Besides this ceremony, mention is made of a special initiation (dīkshā),³ which must be completed by means of the hymn Atharvav. 11. 8:—“When Manyu chose himself a wife from out of the saṅkalpa,” etc. Since this hymn expresses itself in depreciatory style of the origin of the body,⁴ this application of it perhaps meant that a man thereby declared himself free from his own body. After thus separating himself from sacrificial duties, a highly significant act followed, upon which accordingly stress is laid by all the texts, namely the laying aside of the sacred thread, the token that he belongs to the Brâhmanical class,⁵ and the lock of hair which indicates his family descent.⁶ Henceforth meditation alone is to serve as the sacrificial cord,⁷ and knowledge as the lock of hair,⁸ the timeless âtman is to be both sacred thread and lock of hair for him who has renounced the world.⁹ According to Kaṇṭh. 4 the sacred thread, according to Jâb.