Kaushitaki Upanishad

01The second Upanishad of the Rigveda

Rigvedi Brahmins who follow the Kaushitaki or Shankhayana line have their own Brahmana and their own Aranyaka, and the Upanishad sits inside that Aranyaka as its third to sixth adhyayas. Its full name, Kaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad, keeps the memory of that home. It is apaurusheya Shruti. Like the Aitareya it opens with the Rigveda's shanti mantra, vang me manasi pratishthita. Rishi Kaushitaki himself speaks in the second adhyaya: prana is Brahman, he used to say, and its secret teaching is this, let one not beg. To the one who knows it, all the devas bring offerings without being asked.

02The path past the moon

King Chitra Gangyayani chose Aruni as his priest, and Aruni sent his son Shvetaketu, who could not answer the king's question about the world after death. Father and son came to the king with samidh in hand to learn. Chitra taught that all who leave this world go first to the moon. Those who answer the moon's question rightly pass on by the devayana, through the worlds of Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Aditya, Indra and Prajapati, to the world of Brahma, where they cross the river Viraja by the mind alone and Brahma asks, who are you? The answer is: I am what you are.

03Brahma's world

The first adhyaya describes Brahma's world with the care of someone giving directions. There is the lake Ara, the moments that destroy sacrifice, the river Viraja, the tree Ilya, the city Salajya, the palace Aparajita guarded by Indra and Prajapati, the hall Vibhu, the throne Vichakshana and the couch Amitaujas. Five hundred apsaras run to meet the knower with garlands, fragrant powder and collyrium. At the Viraja he shakes off his good and bad deeds; dear kinsmen receive his merit, the unloved his faults. Those who cannot answer the moon return to earth as rain and are born again, as worm or bird, tiger or lion, fish or man, according to their karma and their knowledge.

04Prana, and the father's gift

The second adhyaya treats prana as Brahman: mind is its messenger, speech its housekeeper, the eye its guard, the ear its herald. It gives rites for winning what one desires and the three daily worships of Sarvajit Kaushitaki: wearing the sacred thread and sipping water, he pours water three times and greets the sun at its rising, at noon and at its setting, asking each time that his sins be taken away. It closes with the pitaputriya sampradana. When a father feels death near, he spreads fresh grass, lights the fire, sets down a pot of water, and, wrapped in a new cloth, lies over his son, and gives him, one by one, his speech, breath, sight, hearing, mind, taste, deeds, pleasure and pain.

05Indra teaches Pratardana

Pratardana, son of Divodasa, reached Indra's own dwelling by valour in battle. Indra offered a boon, and Pratardana asked him to choose the one most beneficial to man. Indra said: know me. I am prana, the conscious Self; worship me as life and immortality. As long as prana stays in the body, there is life. Then Indra goes further. Do not seek to know speech; know the speaker. Do not seek to know the smell; know the one who smells. Elements and senses are fixed in consciousness like the rim on the spokes and the spokes on the hub. He is the guardian of the worlds, the lord of all; let one know, he is my Self.

06Ajatashatru and Balaki

The proud Gargya Balaki offered to teach King Ajatashatru of Kashi about Brahman, and named in turn the person in the sun, the moon, lightning, thunder, space, fire, water, the mirror and the shadow. Each time the king showed him he had named something less. At last Balaki fell silent and asked to become his pupil. Ajatashatru led him to a sleeping man and woke him, showing that the Self is the knower who withdraws in deep sleep and returns on waking. The same dialogue appears in the Brihadaranyaka.

07In the Brahma Sutras

Badarayana gives a whole adhikarana of the Brahma Sutras (1.1.28–31) to Indra's words, know me, I am prana. Is this the breath, Indra himself, or Brahman? The sutras answer that it is Brahman, and that Indra speaks as one who has realised it, as Rishi Vamadeva did. Another adhikarana (1.4.16–18) takes up Ajatashatru's line, he who is the maker of these persons, whose work this is, and shows that it too means Brahman. So Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya all discuss the Kaushitaki in their Brahma Sutra bhashyas, each in the light of his own darshana. Shankarananda's Dipika is the traditional commentary on the whole text.

What it contains

1. 1
   Adhyaya 1

   Chitra Gangyayani teaches Aruni and Shvetaketu the path of the soul through the moon to Brahma's world. The moon questions every departing soul; the knower passes on by the devayana, and the rest return as rain to be born again. Brahma's world is described in detail, and at Brahma's throne the knower answers, I am what you are.

2. 2
   Adhyaya 2

   Prana as Brahman in the teaching of Kaushitaki and Paingya: the knower need not beg. Rites for winning desires, the three daily worships of the sun by Sarvajit Kaushitaki, and the rite of the daivah parimarah. It ends with the father's sampradana, the handing over of his powers to his son.

3. 3
   Adhyaya 3

   Indra teaches Pratardana: I am prana, the conscious Self, worship me as life and immortality. Know the speaker, not speech; the seer, not the seen. All beings rest in consciousness as spokes in a hub, and the Self is the lord of all.

4. 4
   Adhyaya 4

   Gargya Balaki, learned and proud, offers to teach Ajatashatru of Kashi and names sixteen persons as Brahman. The king answers each, then leads him to a sleeping man to show the Self that withdraws and returns. Brahman is the maker of all these persons, and the knower becomes first among beings.

Famous verses

त्वमात्मासि यस्त्वमसि सोहमस्मीति

You are the Self. What you are, that I am.Kaushitaki Upanishad 1.6

प्राणोऽस्मि प्रज्ञात्मा तं मामायुरमृतमित्युपास्व

I am prana, the conscious Self. Worship me as life, as immortality.Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.2

न वाचं विजिज्ञासीत वक्तारं विद्यात्

Let one not seek to know speech; let one know the speaker.Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.8

एष लोकपाल एष लोकाधिपतिरेष सर्वेश्वरः स म आत्मेति विद्यात्

He is the guardian of the worlds, the ruler of the worlds, the lord of all. Let one know: he is my Self.Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.9