Aitareya Upanishad

01Inside the Aitareya Aranyaka

Rigvedi Brahmins of the Shakala shakha learn the Aitareya Brahmana and then the Aitareya Aranyaka, the forest teaching meant for study away from the village. The Upanishad is the fourth, fifth and sixth adhyayas of the Aranyaka's second book. The name goes back to Mahidasa Aitareya, son of Itara, to whom the Brahmana of the Rigveda was revealed; the Chandogya Upanishad (3.16.7) remembers him as a knower who lived one hundred and sixteen years. Like all Shruti it is apaurusheya. Its chapters move from ritual to the Self, which is why Adi Shankaracharya chose it as one of the ten Upanishads he explained.

02In the beginning, the Atman alone

In the beginning this was the Atman alone; nothing else blinked. He thought, let me make the worlds. He made the waters above the sky, the realm of light, the mortal earth and the waters below. From the waters he drew out a purusha and brooded over him. A mouth burst open, and from it speech, and from speech Agni. Nostrils, breath and Vayu; eyes, sight and Surya. The devas so born asked for a dwelling. A cow and a horse were offered, and they said, this is not enough. When a human being was brought, they said, well made indeed, and entered, each to its place.

03Hunger, food and the gate in the crown

Hunger and thirst came to the Atman and asked for a place too. He gave them a share in every deva, so that whenever an offering is made to any deva, hunger and thirst share in it. Then he made food, and the food turned and ran. The purusha tried to catch it with speech, with breath, with the eye, the ear, the skin, the mind. Each failed. Only apana, the downward breath, caught it. Then the Atman asked, how could this go on without me? He split the crown of the head and entered by that gate, called vidriti, the gate of delight. Seeing the purusha as Brahman, he said idam adarsham, I have seen this. So he is Idandra, called Indra by the devas, who love the hidden name.

04The three births

The second adhyaya counts three births. The first is conception, when the father places himself in the mother. The second is the birth of the child, whom the mother nourishes and the father raises. The third is death, when the self, its work done, goes on to be born again. Rishi Vamadeva, the Upanishad says, knew this while still in the womb, and declared: I knew all the births of the devas. He rose from the body and became immortal in the heavenly world.

05Prajnanam brahma

The last adhyaya asks: who is this Self we worship? By what does one see, hear, smell, speak, taste? It lists the powers of the mind, perception, understanding, memory, will, desire, and calls them all names of prajnana, consciousness. Brahma, Indra, Prajapati, all the devas, the five elements, every creature born from egg, womb, sweat or sprout, all are guided by consciousness and rest in it. Prajnanam brahma. Advaita teachers give this mahavakya to the disciple as the Rigveda's statement of the truth.

06How the acharyas read it

Adi Shankaracharya's bhashya opens with a long argument: knowledge of the Atman is for one who has turned from the desire for results, and the Upanishad's own ending, prajnanam brahma, shows that the Self who created the worlds and the Self in the seeker are one. Anandagiri wrote the gloss most students read beside it. Madhvacharya's bhashya reads the Atman of the first line as Shri Narayana, the independent Lord on whom the devas and the jiva depend. In the Vishishtadvaita school Rangaramanuja Muni explained it as the inner controller dwelling in all beings as in his body. Sayanacharya commented on the whole Aitareya Aranyaka, the Upanishad included.

07Vang me manasi

Before a Rigvedi teacher and pupil open this Upanishad they chant its shanti mantra together: vang me manasi pratishthita, may my speech rest in my mind, and my mind in my speech. The prayer asks that what has been heard should not be lost, and that day and night be joined by study. The same mantra opens the other Upanishads of the Rigveda. At sannyasa diksha in Adi Shankaracharya's tradition, prajnanam brahma is the mahavakya of the Rigveda, and the Govardhana Matha at Puri, the matha of the eastern quarter, holds it as its own.

What it contains

1. 1
   Adhyaya 1, Khanda 1

   The Atman, alone in the beginning, resolves to create and makes the four worlds of ambhas, marichi, mara and apah. He draws a purusha out of the waters and broods over him, and the organs and their devas break forth: speech and Agni, breath and Vayu, sight and Surya.

2. 2
   Adhyaya 1, Khanda 2

   The devas, troubled by hunger and thirst, ask for a dwelling and reject the cow and the horse. They accept the human body and enter it: Agni as speech into the mouth, the quarters as hearing into the ears, the moon as mind into the heart. Hunger and thirst receive a share in every deva.

3. 3
   Adhyaya 1, Khanda 3

   Food is created and flees; only apana catches it. The Atman enters the body through the vidriti at the crown of the head, and the body has three dwellings and three dreams. Seeing Brahman he says, I have seen this, and so he is Idandra, called Indra.

4. 4
   Adhyaya 2

   The three births of a man: conception, birth from the mother, and death followed by the next birth. It closes with the Rigvedic mantra of Rishi Vamadeva, spoken from the womb, and his release into immortality.

5. 5
   Adhyaya 3

   Who is the Self we worship? All the powers of the mind are names of consciousness, and all beings, devas and elements are led by it. The answer is the mahavakya prajnanam brahma, and the knower, the Upanishad says, became immortal.

Famous verses

आत्मा वा इदमेक एवाग्र आसीत्। नान्यत्किञ्चन मिषत्। स ईक्षत लोकान्नु सृजा इति॥

In the beginning this was the Atman, one alone; nothing else blinked. He thought: let me create the worlds.Aitareya Upanishad 1.1.1

स एतमेव सीमानं विदार्यैतया द्वारा प्रापद्यत। सैषा विदृतिर्नाम द्वाः। तदेतन्नान्दनम्।

Splitting open this very suture, he entered by that door. That door is called vidriti; it is the place of delight.Aitareya Upanishad 1.3.12

गर्भे नु सन्नन्वेषामवेदमहं देवानां जनिमानि विश्वा।

While still in the womb I came to know all the births of these devas.Aitareya Upanishad 2.1.5 (Rigveda 4.27.1)

प्रज्ञानेत्रो लोकः प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठा प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म॥

The world has consciousness as its guide; consciousness is its foundation. Consciousness is Brahman.Aitareya Upanishad 3.1.3