ते होचुः, क्व नु सोऽभूद्यो न इत्थमसक्तेति; अयमास्येऽन्तरिति; सोऽयास्य आङ्गिरसः, अङ्गानां हि रसः ॥ ८ ॥
te hocuḥ, kva nu so’bhūdyo na itthamasakteti; ayamāsye’ntariti; so’yāsya āṅgirasaḥ, aṅgānāṃ hi rasaḥ || 8 ||
8. They said, ‘Where was he who has thus restored us (to our divinity)?’ (and discovered): ‘Here he is within the mouth.’ The vital force is called Ayāsya Āṅgirasa, for it is the essence of the members (of the body).
They, the organs of Prajāpati, which were restored to their divinity by the vital force in the mouth, and thus attained their goal, said, ‘Where was he who has thus restored us to our divinity?’ The particle ‘nu’ indicates deliberation. People who have been helped by somebody generally remember their benefactor. The organs likewise remembered, and thinking on who it might be, realised the vital force within themselves, in the aggregate of body and organs. How? ‘Here he is within the mouth, is visibly present within the ether that is in the mouth.’ People decide after deliberation; so did the gods. Since the vital force was perceived by them as being present in the internal ether without assuming any particular form like that of the organ of speech etc., therefore the vital force is called Ayāsya. And since it did not assume any particular form, it restored the organ of speech etc. to their real status. Hence it is Āṅgirasa, the self of the body and organs. How? For it is, as is well-known, the essence, i.e. the self, of the members, i.e. of the body and organs. And how is it the essence of the members? Because, as we shall say later on, without it they dry up. Since, being the self of the members and not assuming any particular form, the vital force is the common self of the body and organs and pure, therefore it alone, to the exclusion of the organ of speech etc., should be resorted to as one’s self—this is the import of the passage. For the Self alone should be realised as one’s self, since correct notions lead to well-being, and erroneous notions, as we find, lead to evil.