of at least three persons who follow their prescribed occupations, declares to be law, the legal (force of) that one must not dispute.

III. Three persons who each know one of the three principal Vedas, a logician, a Mimamsaka, one who knows the Nirukta, one who recites (the Institutes of) the sacred law, and three men belonging to the first three orders shall constitute a (legal) assembly, consisting of at least ten members.

112. One who knows the Rig-veda, one who knows the Yagurveda, and one who knows the Sama-veda, shall be known (to form) an assembly consisting of at least three members (and competent) to decide doubtful points of law.

113. Even that which one Brahmana versed in the Veda declares to be law, must be considered (to have) supreme legal (force, but) not that which is proclaimed by myriads of ignorant men.

114. Even if thousands of Brahmanas, who have not fulfilled their sacred duties, are unacquainted with the Veda, and subsist only by the name of their caste, meet, they cannot (form) an assembly (for settling the sacred law).

115. The sin of him whom dunces, incarnations of Darkness, and unacquainted with the law, instruct (in his duty) falls, increased a hundredfold, on those who propound it.

116. All that which is most efficacious for securing supreme bliss has been thus declared to you; a Brahmana who does not fall off from that obtains the most excellent state.

117. Thus did that worshipful deity disclose to me, through a desire of benefiting mankind, this whole most excellent secret of the sacred law.

Let (every Brahmana), concentrating his mind, fully recognise in the Self all things, both the real and the unreal, for he who recognises the universe in the Self, does not give his heart to unright

eousness.

119. The Self alone is the multitude of the gods, the universe rests on the Self; for the Self produces the connexion of these embodied (spirits) with actions.

120. Let him meditate on the ether as identical with the cavities (of the body), on the wind as identical with the organs of motions and of touch, on the most excellent light as the same with his digestive organs and his sight, on water as the same with the (corporeal) fluids, on the earth as the same with the solid parts (of his body);

121. On the moon as one with the internal organs, on the quar

ters of the horizon as one with his sense of hearing, on Vishnu as one with his (power of) motion, on Hara as the same with his strength, on Agni (Fire) as identical with his speech, on Mitra as identical with his excretions, and on Pragapati as one with his organ of generation.

122. Let him know the supreme Male (Purusha, to be) the sovereign ruler of them all, smaller even than small, bright like gold, and perceptible by the intellect (only when) in (a state of) sleep(-like abstraction.

123. Some call him Agni (Fire), others Manu, the Lord of creatures, others Indra, others the vital air, and again others eternal Brah

man.

124. He pervades all created beings in the five forms, and constantly makes them, by means of birth, growth and decay, revolve like the wheels (of a chariot).

125. He who thus recognises the Self through the Self in all created beings, becomes equal(-minded) towards all, and enters the highest state, Brahman.

126. A twice-born man who recites these Institutes, revealed by Manu, will be always virtuous in conduct, and will reach whatever condition he desires.

TRANSLATED BY GEORGE BUEHLER.