ones.  After that, thy understanding will turn to the path of Emancipation.  Thou wilt also attain to that end which is desirable and which is coveted by both Sankhyas and Yogins!—­Having said these words unto me, the divine Surya proceeded to the Asta hills.  Hearing his last words, and after he had departed from the spot where I was, I came home in joy and then remembered the goddess Saraswati.  Thought of by me, the auspicious Saraswati appeared instantly before my eyes, adorned with all the vowels and the consonants and having placed the syllable Om in the van, I then, according to the ordinance, offered unto the goddess the usual Arghya, and dedicated another to Surya, that foremost of all heat-giving deities.  Discharging this duty I took my seat, devoted to both those deities.  Thereupon, the entire Satapatha Brahmanas, with all their mysteries and with all their abstracts as also their appendices, appeared of themselves before my mental vision, at which I became filled with great joy.[1661] I then taught them to a hundred good disciples and thereby did what was disagreeable to my high-souled maternal uncle (Vaisampayana) with the disciples gathered round him.[1662] Then shining in the midst of my disciples like the Sun himself with his rays, I took the management of the Sacrifice of thy high-souled sire, O king.  In that Sacrifice a dispute arose between me and my maternal uncle as to who should be permitted to appropriate the Dakshina that was paid for the recitation of the Vedas.  In the very presence of Devala, I took half of that Dakshina (the other half going to my maternal uncle).  Thy sire and Sumantra and Paila and Jaimini and other articles all acquiesced in that arrangement.[1663]

’I had thus got from Surya the five times ten Yajushes, O monarch.  I then studied the Puranas with Romaharshan.  Keeping before me those (original) Mantras and the goddess Saraswati I, then, O king, aided by the inspiration of Surya, set myself to compile the excellent Satapatha Brahmanas, and succeeded in achieving the task never before undertaken by any one else.  That path which I had desired to take has been taken by me and I have also taught it to my disciples.  Indeed, the whole of those Vedas with their abstracts have been imparted by me to those disciples of mine.  Pure in mind and body, all those disciples have, in consequence of my instructions, become filled with joy.  Having established (for the use of others) this knowledge consisting of fifty branches which I had obtained from Surya, I now meditate on the great object of that knowledge viz., (Brahma).  The Gandharva Viswavasu, well-conversant with the Vedanta scriptures, desirous, O king, of ascertaining what is beneficial for the Brahmanas in this knowledge and what truth occurs in it, and what is the excellent object of this knowledge, one questioned me.  He put to me altogether four and twenty questions, O king, relating to the Vedas.  Finally, he asked me a question, numbered twenty-fifth which relates