The Upanishads - Mandhata Global

call by his name. And whoever competes with one who
knows this, shrivels and after shrivelling, in the end dies.
This is with regard to the body.
Now with regard to the gods. Fire resolved: "I will go
on burning"; the sun: "I will go on giving heat"; the
moon: "I will go on shining." And so did the other
gods, according to their functions. As is the vital
breath in the body among the organs, so is air (vayu)
among the gods. The other gods fade, but not air. Air
is the deity that never sets.
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Now there is this verse (sloka): The gods observed the
vow of that from which the sun rises and in which it
sets. This vow is followed today and this will be
followed tomorrow. The sun rises verily from the prana
(the vital breath in its cosmic form) and also sets in it.
The gods even today observe the same vow which they
observed then. Therefore a man should observe a single
vow-he should perform the functions of the prana and
apana (respiration and excretion), lest the evil of death
should overtake him. And if he performs them, let him
try to complete them. Through this he obtains identity
with that deity, or lives in the same world with it.
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