Shloka 7
Adhyaya 42 — Dattatreya on the Yogic Import of Oṃ (Praṇava): Matras, Worlds, and Liberation
तथोङ्कारमयो योगी त्वक्षरे त्वक्षरो भवेत् ।
प्राणो धनुः शरो ह्यात्मा ब्रह्म वेध्यमनुत्तमम् ॥
tathoṅkāramayo yogī tvakṣare tvakṣaro bhavet /
prāṇo dhanuḥ śaro hyātmā brahma vedhyamanuttamam
Thus the yogin, made of Oṁ, becomes steady in the imperishable syllable. Prāṇa is the bow, the self (ātman) is the arrow, and Brahman is the unsurpassed target to be pierced.
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FAQs
Practice is framed as purposeful concentration: harness prāṇa, refine the self, and aim unwaveringly at Brahman—teaching disciplined intention rather than scattered religiosity.
Not a genealogical/cosmological unit; it is mokṣa-oriented instruction (dharma/upāsanā) embedded in Purāṇic discourse.
The bow-arrow-target triad encodes prāṇāyāma + mantra + samādhi: prāṇa steadies the ‘weapon’, ātman becomes one-pointed, and Brahman is ‘pierced’ as direct realization (aparokṣa-anubhava).