UpanishadsHinduismAccepted ScriptureSanskritShareAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaF. Max Muller / Sacred Books of the East - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableF. Max Muller / Sacred Books of the EastLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Chandogya Upanishad First PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Second PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Third PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Fourth PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Fifth PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Sixth PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Seventh PrapathakaChandogya Upanishad Eighth PrapathakaTalavakara / Kena Upanishad First KhandaTalavakara / Kena Upanishad Second KhandaTalavakara / Kena Upanishad Third KhandaTalavakara / Kena Upanishad Fourth KhandaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad First AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Second AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Third AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Fifth AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Sixth AdhyayaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Seventh AdhyayaKaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad First AdhyayaKaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad Second AdhyayaKaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad Third AdhyayaKaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaVagasaneyi Samhita / Isha UpanishadKatha Upanishad First AdhyayaKatha Upanishad Second AdhyayaMundaka Upanishad First KhandaMundaka Upanishad Second KhandaTaittiriya Upanishad First ValliTaittiriya Upanishad Second ValliTaittiriya Upanishad Third ValliBrihadaranyaka Upanishad First AdhyayaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad Second AdhyayaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad Third AdhyayaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad Fifth AdhyayaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad Sixth AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad First AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad Second AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad Third AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad Fifth AdhyayaSvetasvatara Upanishad Sixth AdhyayaPrasna Upanishad First QuestionPrasna Upanishad Second QuestionPrasna Upanishad Third QuestionPrasna Upanishad Fourth QuestionPrasna Upanishad Fifth QuestionPrasna Upanishad Sixth QuestionMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad First PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Second PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Third PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Fourth PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Fifth PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Sixth PrapathakaMaitrayana Brahmana Upanishad Seventh Prapathaka›Aitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad: Fourth Adhyaya - First KhandaAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Fourth AdhyayaListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1Next comes the Sfldadohas 1 verse. Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath. 2Next follow the neck verses. They recite them as Ush^ih, according 1 to their metre 2. 3 - Next comes (again) the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath. 4- Next follows the head. That is in Gayatri verses. The Gayatri is the beginning of all metres 3; the head the first of all members. It is in Arkavat verses (Rv. I, 7, 1—9) 4. Arka is Agni. They are nine verses. The head consists of nine pieces. He recites the tenth verse, and that is the skin and the hairs on the head. It serves for reciting one verse more than (the nine verses contained in) the Stoma 5. ’ “ --- The Nishkevalya-^astra is represented in the shape of a bird, consisting of trunk, neck, head, vertebrae, wings, tail, and stomach. Before describing the hymns which form the neck, another hymn has to be mentioned, called Sudadohas, which has to be recited at the end of the hymns, described before, which form the trunk. Sudadohas is explained as c yielding milk/ and because that word occurs in the verse, the verse is called Sudadohas. It follows on the Nada verse, Rv. VIII, 69, 3. Ar. I, 5, 1, 7. AITAREYA-ARAOTAKA. These form the Trivnt Stoma and the Gayatri metre, and whatever there exists, all this is pro duced after the production of this Stoma and this metre. 2.2Therefore the recitation of these headhymns serves for production. 5He who knows this, gets offspring and cattle. 6Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Verily, Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath. is food, and food is strength. 8Next comes the Shdadohas verse. Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath. 1Next follows the right wing. It is this world (the earth), it is this Agni, it is speech, it is the Rathantara 1, it is Vasish^a, it is a hundred 2. These are the six powers (of the right wing) 3. The Sampata hymn (Rv. IV, 20) serves indeed for ob¬ taining desires and for firmness. The Pankti verse (Rv. I, 80, 1) serves for proper food. 2Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas is breath, thereby he joins all joints with breath. 3Next follows the left wing. It is that world (heaven), it is that sun, it is mind, it is the Brz'hat, it 2 1. Stotriya, abhi tva jAra nonuma^ (Rv. VII, 32, 22) 2 (3) 2Anurfipa, abhi tva pfirvapitaye (Rv.VIII, 3, 7) 2 (3) 3Indrasya nu (Rv. I, 32).... 15 4Tve ha (Rv. VII, 18, 1-15)... r5 8A te maha/$ (Rv. VII, 25).... 6 10Indra;;z nara/£ (Rv. VII, 27)... 5 rr. Brahma na.h (Rv.VII, 28).... 5 12Aya;/z soma/z (Rv. VII, 29)... 5 13A na indra h (Rv. IV, 20).... 11 T4. Ittha hi (Rv. I, 80, 1).... r These hymns and verses are given Ait. Ar. V, 2, 2, r. Here we also learn that hymn Rv. IV, 20, is called Sampata, and that the last verse is a Pankti. AITAREYA-ARAAYAKA. is Bharadva^a, it is a hundred l 11. These are the six powers (of the left wing). The Sampata hymn (Rv. IV, 23) serves indeed for obtaining desires and for firmness. The Pahkti verse (Rv. I, 81, 1) serves for proper food. 4These two (the right and the left wings) are deficient and excessive 2. The Bnhat (the left wing) is man, the Rathantara (the right wing) is woman. The excess belongs to the man, the deficiency to the woman. Therefore they are deficient and excessive. 5Now the left wing of a bird is verily by one feather better, therefore the left wing is larger by one verse. 1Stotriya, tvam id dhi (Rv. VI, 46, 1) •.2 (3) 2Anurfipa, tva in hy ehi (Rv. VIII, 61, 7) • 2 (3) 3Tam u sh/uhi (Rv. VI, 18). • • *5 4Suta it tvam (Rv. VI, 23) • •.10 5Vr/sha mada^ (Rv. VI, 24).. •.10 7Abhur eka/2 (Rv. VI, 31 • • -5 10Saw /£a tve (Rv. VI, 34). • • • 5 12Satra madasa/2 (Rv. VI, 36).... 5 15Katha mahan (Rv. IV, 23).. • 11 16Indro madaya (Rv. I, 81, 1). • • Though there are said to be 100 verses before the Pahkti (No. 16), I can get only 99 or 101. See the following note. 6Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas is breath, and thereby he joins all joints with breath. 7Next follows the tail. They are twenty-one Dvipada verses * 1. For there are twenty-one back¬ ward feathers in a bird. 8Then the Ekavb/wa is the support of all Stomas, and the tail the support of all birds 2 3 4. 9He recites a twenty-second verse. This is made the form of two supports. Therefore all birds support themselves on their tail, and having sup¬ ported themselves on their tail, they fly up. For the tail is a support. 10He (the bird and the hymn) is supported by two decades which are Vira£\ The man (the sacrificer) is supported by the two Dvipadas, the twentyfirst and twenty-second. That which forms the bird serves for the attainment of all desires; that which forms the man, serves for his happiness, glory, proper food, and honour. 11Next comes a Sudadohas verse, then a Dhayya, then a Sudadohas verse. The Sudadohas is a man, the Dhayya a woman, therefore he recites the Dhayya as embraced on both sides by the Suda¬ dohas. Therefore does the seed of both, when it is effused, obtain oneness, and this with regard to the 3Pra va indraya &c. (not in the Aakalya-sawhita) 9 4Esha brahma &c. (not in the Aakalya-sawhita) 3 AITAREYA-AK AiVYAK A. woman only. Hence birth takes place in and from the woman. Therefore he recites that Dhayya in that place 1 2. 213x. He recites the eighty tristichs of Gayatns. Verily, the eighty Gayatri tristichs are this world (earth). Whatever there is in this world of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine. 2Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas verily is breath. He joins this world with breath. 3He recites the eighty tristichs of Brzhatis. Verily, the eighty Brfhati tristichs are the world of the sky. Whatever there is in the world of the sky of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine. 4Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas verily is breath. He joins the world of the sky with breath. 5He recites the eighty tristichs of Ush/dh. Ve¬ rily, the eighty Ush/dh tristichs are that world, the heaven. Whatever there is in that world of glory, greatness, wives, food, and honour, also the divine being of the Devas (Brahman), may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine. 6Next comes the Sudadohas verse. Sudadohas verily is the breath. He joins that world with breath, yea, with breath. Ara/zyaka. 381With this adhyaya begins the real Upanishad, best known under the name of the Aitareya-upanishad, and often separately edited, commented on, and translated. If treated separately, what we call the fourth adhyaya of the second Arawyaka, becomes the first adhyaya of the Upanishad, sometimes also, by counting all adhyayas from the beginning of the Aitareya-arawyaka, the ninth, divisions adopted by Saya/n, who explains the Upanishad as part of the Arawyaka, and by -Sankara, who explains it independently, vary, though Sayawa states that he follows in his commentary on the Upanishad the earlier commentary of.Sankara. I have given the divisions adopted by Sdyawa, and have marked those of Sankara s by figures in parentheses, placed at the end of each paragraph. The °difference between this Upanishad and the three preceding adhyayas is easily perceived. Hitherto the answer to the question, Whence this world? had been, From Pra;/a, pra;za meaning breath and life, which was looked upon for a time as a sufficient explana¬ tion of all that is. From a psychological point of view this prawa is the conscious self (pra-natman); in a more mythological form it appears as Hirawyagarbha, ‘the golden germ/ sometimes even, as Indra. 381.2It is one of the chief objects of the prawavidya, or lifeknowledge, to show that the living principle in us is the same as the living principle in the sun, and that by a recognition of their identity and of the true nature of pr&wa, the devotee, or he who has rightly meditated on pra;za during his life, enters after death into the world of Flirawyagarbha. This is well expressed in the Kaushitaki-upanishad III, 2, where Indra says to Pratardana: ‘I am Pra;/a; meditate on me as the conscious self (prajnatman), as life, as immortality. Life is pra;/a, prawa is life. Immortality is pra^a, prawa is immortality. By pra;/a he obtains immortality in the other world, by knowledge (prajna) true conception. Prawa is consciousness (pragma), con¬ sciousness is prawa/ This, however, though it may have satisfied the mind of the Brahmans for a time, was not a final solution. That final solution of the problem not simply of life, but of existence, is given in the Upanishad which teaches that Atman, the Self, and not Piazza, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this doctrine is laid down in all its simplicity. Our true self, it is said, has its true being in the Highest Self only. 381.3In other passages, however, and nearly in the whole of this Upanishad, this simple doctrine is mixed up with much that is mythological, fanciful, and absurd, arthavada, as the commentators call it, but as it might often be more truly called, anarthavada, and it is only towards the end that the identity of the self-conscious self with the Highest Self or Brahman is clearly enuntiated. Adoration to the Highest Self. Hari, Om! 1Verily, in the beginning 1 all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking 2 whatsoever. 2He thought: ‘Shall I send forth worlds?’ (i) He sent forth these worlds, 3Ambhas (water), Marini (light), Mara (mortal), and Ap (water). 4That Ambhas (water) is above the heaven, and it is heaven, the support. The Mariiis (the lights) are the sky. The Mara (mortal) is the earth, and the waters under the earth are the Ap world 3. (2) AITAREYA-ARAiVYAKA. 5He thought: ‘ There are these worlds; shall I send forth guardians of the worlds? He then formed the Purusha (the person) 1, taking him forth from the water 2. (3) 1Those deities (devata), Agrii and the rest, after they had been sent forth, fell into this great ocean 1. Then he (the Self) besieged him, (the person) with hunger and thirst. 2The deities then (tormented by hunger and thirst) spoke to him (the Self: ‘ Allow us a place in which we may rest and eat food 2.’ (i) He led a cow towards them (the deities). They said: 4 This is not enough.’ He led a horse towards them. They said: ‘ This is not enough/ (2) He led man 3 towards them. Then they said: ‘Well done 4, indeed/ Therefore man is well done. 3He said to them: ‘ Knter, each according to his place/ (3) 4Then Agni (fire), having become speech, en¬ tered the mouth. Vayii (air), having become scent, entered the nostrils. Aditya (sun), having become sight, entered the eyes. The Dkr (regions), having become hearing, entered the ears. The shrubs and trees, having become hairs, entered the skin. K andramas (the moon), having become mind, entered which are supposed to keep the body alive. In our place, however, apana is deglutition and digestion, as we shall see in II, 4, 3, 10. Sukrzta, well done, virtue; or, if taken for svakrfta, self-made. AITAREYA-ARA2VYAKA. the heart. Death, having become down-breathing, entered the navel. The waters, having become seed, entered the generative organ. (4) 5Then Hunger and Thirst spoke to him (the Self): ‘ Allow us two (a place).’ He said to them: ‘ I assign you to those very deities there, I make you co-partners with them.’ Therefore to whatever deity an oblation is offered, hunger and thirst are co-partners in it. (5) 1He thought: ‘There are these worlds and the guardians of the worlds. Let me send forth food for them.’ (1) He brooded over the water 1. From the water thus brooded on, matter 2 (murti) was born. And that matter which was born, that verily was food 3. (2) 2When this food (the object matter) had thus been sent forth, it wished to flee 4, crying and turn¬ ing away. He (the subject) tried to grasp it by speech. He could not grasp it by speech. If he had grasped it by speech, man would be satisfied by naming food. (3) He tried to grasp it by scent (breath). He could not grasp it by scent. If he had grasped it by scent, man would be satisfied by smelling food. (4) He tried to grasp it by the eye. He could not for men, animal food for cats, &c. the body. grasp it by the eye. If he had grasped it by the eye, man would be satisfied by seeing food. U) He tried to grasp it by the ear. He could not grasp it by the ear. If he had grasped it by the ear man would be satisfied by hearing food. (6) He tried to grasp it by the skin. He could not grasp it by the skin. If he had grasped it by the skin, man would be satisfied by touching food. (7) He tried to grasp it by the mind. He could not grasp it by the mind. If he had grasped it by the mind, man would be satisfied by thinking food. (8) He tried to grasp it by the generative organ. He could not grasp it by the organ. If he had grasped it by the organ, man would be satisfied by sending forth food. 2.2(9) He tried to grasp it by the down-breathing (the breath which helps to swallow food through the mouth and to carry it off through the rectum, the payvindriya). He got it. 3Thusit is Vayu (the getter') who lays hold of food, and the Vayu is verily Annayu (he who gives life or who lives by food). (10) 4- He thought: ‘How can all this be without me?’ 5- And then he thought: ‘ By what way shall I get there 2?’ 6And then he thought: ‘If speech names, if scent smells, if the eye sees, if the ear hears, if the skin feels, if the mind thinks, if the off-breathing digests, if the organ sends forth, then wha^ am I? ’ (n) attem Pt to derive vayu from vi, to get. from 0,^ ' Vh ‘f ‘7 "' ayS Sh A" 1 S et in > ‘he one way being Jr-S/Tw foot (cf - Ait - Ar - n> '• <•*>. the R 7Then opening the suture of the skull, he got in bv that door.. 8. That door is called the Vidnti (tearing asun der), the Nandana (the place of bliss). o There are three dwelling-places for hi, dreams; this dwelling-place (the eye), this dwell¬ ing-place (the throat), this dwelling-place ( h 7 a When born (when the Highest Self had en¬ tered the body) he looked through all things, m order to see whether anything wished to proc aim here another (Self). He saw this person only (him¬ self) as the widely spread Brahman. I saw it, he said 2; (13).,. \ Therefore he was Idaw-dra (seeing is). alwayThaverequireFan" oral interpretation but k is by no means certain that the explanation given m the commentaries represents really the old traditional mterpretotmn. Sayawa explains the three dwelling-places as the rig ) » of waking; as the throat, in a state of dreaming; as the heart in a state of profound sleep. •Sankara explains them as the rig y > the inner mind, and the ether in the heart. Saya»a allows another interpretation of the three dwelling-places being the bo ^ 0 ^ father the body of the mother, and one s own body. 7.2T dreams or sleeps he explains by waking, dreaming and pmfound sleep and he remarks that waking too is called a dream 1 as ^ pared with the true awakening, which is the knowledge o Brahman £ the last sentence the speaker, when repeating three Pmesjns dwelling-place,’ is supposed to point to his ng ) > j and the heart. This interpretation is supported by a pass 0 the Brahma-upanishad, Netre ^garita OT vidyat ka«Me svapnaw samadhet, sushuptaw hndayasya tu.. In this passage, which is very obscure, Ankara fail us, either because, as Ananda^na says, he thought the text was too ea y to require any explanation, or because the writers of the MSS. left ‹Previous chapterAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Third AdhyayaNext chapterAitareya Aranyaka / Upanishad Fifth Adhyaya›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public-domain 1879/1884/1900 English translation