याज्ञवल्क्येति होवाच, यदिदं सर्वं पूर्वपक्शापरपक्शाभ्यामाप्तम्, सर्वं पूर्वपक्शापरपक्शाभ्यामभिपन्नम्, केन यजमानः पूर्वपक्शापरपक्शयोराप्तिमतिमुच्यत इति । उद्गात्रर्त्विजा वायुना प्राणेन; प्राणो वै यज्ञस्योद्गाता; तद्योऽयं प्राणः स वायुः, स उद्गाता, सा मुक्तिः, सातिमुक्तिः ॥ ५ ॥
yājñavalkyeti hovāca, yadidaṃ sarvaṃ pūrvapakśāparapakśābhyāmāptam, sarvaṃ pūrvapakśāparapakśābhyāmabhipannam, kena yajamānaḥ pūrvapakśāparapakśayorāptimatimucyata iti | udgātrartvijā vāyunā prāṇena; prāṇo vai yajñasyodgātā; tadyo’yaṃ prāṇaḥ sa vāyuḥ, sa udgātā, sā muktiḥ, sātimuktiḥ || 5 ||
5. ‘Yājñavalkya,’ said he, ‘since all this is overtaken by the bright and dark fortnights, and swayed by them, by what means does the sacrificer go beyond the bright and dark fortnights?’ ‘Through the vital force—through air, which is the (real) priest called Udgātṛ. The vital force of the sacrificer is the Udgātṛ. This vital force is air, and it is the Udgātṛ; this (air) is liberation; this (liberation) is emancipation.’
Now the emancipation from time represented by lunar days etc. is being indicated: Since all this, etc. The sun is the cause of the days and nights, which are alike, but not of the lunar days from the first to the fifteenth; these are subject to increase and decrease, and are caused by the moon. Therefore through identification with the moon one goes beyond the bright and dark fortnights, just as through identification with the sun one goes beyond day and night. Now the vital force of the sacrificer is air. It again is the Udgātṛ, as we know from the section on the Udgītha, where it has been settled: ‘Indeed he chanted through speech and the vital force’ (I. iii. 24). Also, ‘Water is the body of this vital force, and that moon is its luminous organ’ (I. v. 13). Since the vital force, air and moon are one, the Śruti considers that there is no difference between summing up with the moon[7] and summing up with air, and mentions air aâ the divine form. Moreover, the changes of the moon are due to air.[8] Therefore air is the cause even of that (moon) which makes the division of time into lunar days etc. Hence it all the more stands to reason that one who has identified oneself with air goes beyond time as divided into lunar days etc. For this reason another Śruti (the Mādhyandina recension) states that the viewing (of the accessories of a sacrifice) as the moon is liberation and emancipation; while here, in the Kāṇva recension, the viewing of the two accessories as their cause, viz. air, is called liberation and emancipation. So there is no contradiction between the two Śrutis.