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The Sankhya explains the twenty-five principles, the Yoga teaches certain practices and means of mental concentration, and the Aranyakas teach that all the subordinate principles have their true Self in Brahman, that the mental concentration enjoined in the Yoga is a mode of meditation on Brahman, and that the rites and works which are set forth in the Veda are means to win the favour of Brahman thus giving instruction as to Brahman's nature.
For this reason the Mahabharata says, 'Thus the Sankhya-yoga and the Veda and the Aranyaka, being members of one another, are called the Pankaratra, i.e. the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Vedas, and the Aranyakas, which are members of one another because they are one in so far as aiming at setting forth one Truth, together are called the Pankaratra.
As butter is raised from curds, sandal-wood from the mountains of Malaya, the Aranyakas from the Vedas, and nectar from all the medicinal herbs, after the same manner, O ocean of austerities, hath this discourse that is like nectar and that has Narayana for its object, been raised by thee, O Brahmana, from diverse histories and Puranas existing in the world. Narayana is the Supreme Lord.
Having studied the scriptures called Aranyakas, having drawn up his vital fluid and having retired from all worldly affairs, the virtuous recluse may then attain to an absorption with the eternal Soul knowing no decay. These are the indications of Munis that have drawn up their vital fluid. A learned Brahmana, O king, should first practise and perform them.
In addition, there are theological works supplementary, and of later origin, the intermediate Aranyakas, and the Upanishads, which are of a speculative cast. Not only is nature mountains, rivers, trees, etc. personified in the Vedas: the animals as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow are addressed in prayer.
Even thus do learned Brahmans that are my devoted worshippers and that are very rare sing me in the Aranyakas. In the Adhyaryus I am sung as the Yajur-Veda of six and fifty and eight and seven and thirty branches. Learned Brahmans conversant with the Atharvans regard me as identical with the Atharvans consisting of five Kalpas and all the Krityas.
And that lady of sweet smiles told those ascetics, O Bharata, all that had happened to herself with the minutest details, O mighty-armed one, about her abduction, and her rejection by Salwa. ""There lived in that asylum an eminent Brahmana of rigid vows, and his name was Saikhavatya. Endued with ascetic merit of a high order, he was a preceptor of the scriptures and the Aranyakas.
Those that are learned live, reflecting on the scriptures from desire of finding what is unreal. They are, however, often led away to this and to that in the belief that the object of their search exists in this and that. Having mastered, however, the Vedas, the Aranyakas, and the other scriptures, they miss the real, like men failing to find solid timber in an uprooted banana plant.
Thus addressed, Brahma bowed his head unto the illustrious Hari, the god of the gods and received from him that foremost of all cults with all its mysteries and its abstract of details, together with the Aranyakas, viz., that cult, which sprang from the mouth of Narayana.
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