study, liberality, and penance; truth, mercy, self-control, and lack of greed.  As the result of practicing the first four, one goes on the course that leads to the Manes; as the result of practicing the last four, one goes on the course that leads to the gods.  But in practicing any virtues one should practice them without expectation of reward (abhim[=a]na, arriere pensee).  The Yogi, the devotee, who renounces the fruit of everything, is the greatest man; his powers are miraculous.

There follows (with the same light inconsistency to be found in the Divine Song) the appeal for action and the exhortation to pray to the sun for success in what is desired.  For it is explained that the sun is the father of all creation.  The sun draws up clouds with his heat, and his energy, being transmuted into water, with the help of the moon, is distilled into plants as rain, and in this way the food that man eats is full of solar energy, and man and all that live by food must regard the sun as their father.  Preliminary to the hymn to the sun is given a list of his hundred and eight names,[17] among which are to be noticed:  Aryaman, Soma, Indra, Yama, Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Civa, Death, Time, Creator, the Endless One, Kapila, the Unborn One, the Person (Purusha; with which are to be compared the names of Vishnu in the Divine Song), the All-maker, Varuna, the Grandfather, the Door of Heaven, etc.  And then the Hymn to the Sun (iii. 3. 36 ff.):[18] “Thou, O Sun, of creatures art the eye; the spirit of all that have embodied form; thou art the source of all created things; thou art the custom of them that make sacrifice; thou art the goal of the S[=a]nkhyas and the hope of the Yogis; the course of all that seek deliverance ...  Thou art worshipped by all; the three and thirty gods(!) worship thee, etc....  I think that in all the seven worlds[19] and all the brahma-worlds there is nothing which is superior to the sun.  Other beings there are, both powerful and great, but they have no such glory as the sun’s.  Father of light, all beings rest in thee; O Lord of light, all things, all elements are in thee.  The disc of Vishnu was fashioned by the All-maker (one of the sun’s names!) with thy glory.  Over all the earth, with its thirteen islands, thou shinest with thy kine (rays)....[20] Thou art the beginning and the end of a day of Brahm[=a]....  They call thee Indra; thou art Rudra, Vishnu, the Father-god, Fire, the subtile mind; thou art the Lord, and thou, eternal brahma.”

There is here also a very significant admixture of Vedic and Upanishadic religion.