The institutes of Vishnu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880)

VISH2VU.

LV, 9.

182

twice-born man may be removed by repeated
Pranayamas.
9. It is called a Pranayama, if a man, stopping
the breath (which comes from the mouth and from
the nostrils), recites the Gayatri three times, together
with the Vyahrztis (‘words’)1, with the sacred
syllable Om, and with the (text called) Airas 2.
10. The lord of creatures (Brahman) has milked
out from, the three Vedas the letter A, the letter U,
and the letter M (of which the sacred syllable Om
is composed), and (the three sacred words) Bhu/z,
Bhuva/z, Sva/z (earth, the atmosphere, and heaven).
11. The lord of creatures, the supreme deity,
has also milked out from the three Vedas succes-
sively the three verses of the sacred stanza which
begins with the word ‘ tad,’ and is called Savitri (or
Gayatri).
12. By muttering, every morning and evening,
that syllable and that stanza, preceded by the three
‘ words,’ a Brahmazza will obtain that religious merit
which the (study of the) Veda confers, just as if he
had actually studied the Veda.
13. By repeating those three (Om, the ‘words,’
and the Gayatri every day) for a month out of the
village, a thousand times, a twice-born man is puri-
fied even from a mortal sin, as a snake (is freed)
from its withered skin.
14. Any member of the Brahmazza, Kshatriya, or
Vakya castes, who does not know those three texts,

9. 1 The three Vyahrz'tis, ‘words,’ or Mahavyahn’tis, ‘great words,’
are quoted in the next Yloka. —2 It begins with the words, ‘ O ye
waters, who are splendour and ambrosia.’ (Nand,, and Mitakshara
on Y. I, 23.)