Verse 40

⁴⁰It is he who hears this bursting sound when the ear is asleep and the eye sees nothing; by whom speech is made plain; and whose showing forth is space, and is of the self. ⁴¹It speaks directly of Brahman, of the supreme Self, whose home is himself. It is the everlasting seed of every mantra, of the upanisad and of the Veda. ⁴²Of it there were three letters, beginning with A, bearer of the Bhrgu line, by which three states are held up, whose working is strand and name and meaning. ⁴³From that the revered unborn one sent out the whole roll of the letters, marked off as semivowels, sibilants, vowels, stops, short and long and the rest.

⁴⁴With it that mighty one, out of his four mouths, brought out the four Vedas, with their calls and with Om, meaning to set out the office of the four priests, ⁴⁵and taught them to his sons, brahmin sages who knew Brahman well; and they, teachers of dharma, passed them on to their own sons. ⁴⁶They came down by handing on, through the pupils of each, who kept their vows; and in the four ages, at the start of the Dvapara, they were divided up by the great sages. ⁴⁷Seeing that with time men's lives had shrunk and their clarity had shrunk, and that they were poor in mind, the brahmin sages divided the Vedas, moved by the Unfallen standing in their hearts.