यो वै स सम्वत्सरः प्रजापतिः षोडशकलः, अयमेव स योऽयमेवंवित्पुरुषः; तस्य, वित्तमेव पञ्चदश कलाः, आत्मैवास्य षोडशि कला, स वित्तेनैवा च पूरय्तेऽप च क्षीयते; तदेतन्नध्यम् यदयमात्मा, प्रधिर्वित्तम्; तस्माद्यद्यपि सर्वज्यानिं जीयते, आत्मना चेज्जीवति, प्रधिनागादित्येवाहुः ॥ १५ ॥
yo vai sa samvatsaraḥ prajāpatiḥ ṣoḍaśakalaḥ, ayameva sa yo’yamevaṃvitpuruṣaḥ; tasya, vittameva pañcadaśa kalāḥ, ātmaivāsya ṣoḍaśi kalā, sa vittenaivā ca pūrayte’pa ca kṣīyate; tadetannadhyam yadayamātmā, pradhirvittam; tasmādyadyapi sarvajyāniṃ jīyate, ātmanā cejjīvati, pradhināgādityevāhuḥ || 15 ||
15. That Prajāpati who has sixteen digits and is represented by the year is indeed this man who knows as above. Wealth constitutes his fifteen digits, and the body his sixteenth digit. He is filled as well as wasted by wealth. This body stands for a nave, and wealth is the felloe. Therefore if a man loses everything, but he himself lives, people say that he has only lost his outfit.
He who has been remotely described as that Prajāpati who has sixteen digits and is represented by the year, should not be considered to be altogether remote, because he is directly observed as this one. Who is it? This man who knows the Prajāpati consisting of the three kinds of food to be identical with himself, as described above. What is the similarity between them? This is’being explathed: Wealth such as cattle constitutes the fifteen digits of this man who knows as above, for it increases and decreases, and it aids the performance of rites. To contribute to his completeness, the body is the sixteenth digit of this sage, corresponding to the constant digit (of the moon). Like the moon he is filled as well as wasted by wealth. This is a familiar thing in everyday life. This stands for a nave, is fit to be such. What is it? This body. And wealth is the felloe. stands for the external outfit, like the spokes and felloes of a wheel. Therefore even if a man loses everything, suffers that affliction, but he himself, corresponding to the nave of a wheel, lives, people say that he has only lost his outfit, been deprived of his outer trappings, like a wheel losing its spokes and felloes. That is to say, if he is alive, he again grows by means of wealth, corresponding to the spokes and felloes.
Thus it has been explained how a man by the performance of rites with five factors combined with meditation, the divine wealth, becomes the Prajāpati consisting of the three kinds of food. And it has also been said that wealth such as the wife stands for the outfit. In the previous portion it has only been known in a general way that sons, rites and meditation lead to the attainment of the worlds, but not that there is a very definite relation between them and those results. This relation between the means such as the son and the particular results has to be stated. Hence the following paragraph: