Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1At last the devotee gains the highest knowledge, that of the Highest Self in himself, and then, at the dissolution of the Brahma-loka, he obtains complete freedom with Brahman. 236 AITAREYA-ARANYAKA. FOURTH ADHYAYA. First KHawpa. With this adhy4ya 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 adhy4ya of the second Aranyaka, becomes the first adhy4ya of the Upanishad, sometimes also, by counting all adhy4yas from the beginning of the Aitareya-4ramyaka, the ninth. The divisions adopted by Sayama, who explains the Upanishad as part of the Aranyaka, and by Sankara, who explains it independently, vary, though Sayana states that he follows in his commentary on the Upanishad the earlier commentary of Sankara. I have given the divisions adopted by Séyana, and have marked those of Sankara’s by figures in parentheses, placed at the end of each paragraph. The difference between this Upanishad and thé three preceding adhy4yas is easily perceived. Hitherto the answer to the question, Whence this world? had been, From Prfaa, priza meaning breath and life, which was looked upon for a time as a sufficient explanation of all that is. From a psychological point of view this praza is the conscious self (pragfftman); in a more mythological form it appears as Hiranyagarbha, ‘ the golden germ,’ sometimes even as Indra. It is one of the chief objects of the prasavidy4, 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 prisa, the devotee, or he who has rightly meditated on praza during his life, enters after death into the world of Hiranyagarbha. This is well expressed in the Kaushftaki-upanishad III, 2, where Indra says to Pratardana: ‘I am Prana; meditate on me as the conscious self (pragf4tman), as life, as immortality. Life is praza, prana is life. Immortality is pr&za, prfza is immortality. By prana he obtains immortality in the other world, by knowledge (pragfia) true conception. Préza is consciousness (pragfia), consciousness is prana.’ 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 Prama, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, I KHANDA, 4. 237
2That 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 Prama, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, I KHANDA, 4. 237 doctrine is laid down in all its simplicity. Our true self, it is said, has its true being in the Highest Self only. In 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! 1. Verily, in the beginning ? all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking * whatsoever. 2. He thought: ‘Shall I send forth worlds?’ (1) He sent forth these worlds, 3. Ambhas (water), Marti (light), Mara (mortal), and Ap (water). 4. That Ambhas (water) is above the heaven, and it is heaven, the support. The Martéis (the lights) are the sky. The Mara (mortal) is the earth, and the waters under the earth are the Ap world *. (2) 1 Before the creation. Comm. * Blinking, mishat, i.e. living ; cf. Rv. X, 190, 2, visvasya mishato vast, the lord of all living. S&yaza seems to take mishat as a 3rd pers. sing. * The names of the four worlds are peculiar. Ambhas means water, and is the name given to the highest world, the waters above the heaven, and heaven itself. Marf#is are rays, here used as a name of the sky, antariksha. Mara means dying, and the earth is called so, because all creatures living there must die. Ap is water, here explained as the waters under the earth. The usual division of the world is threefold, earth, sky, and heaven. Here it is fourfold, the fourth division being the water round the earth, or, as the commentator says, under the earth. Ambhas was probably intended for the highest heaven (dyaus), and was then explained both as what is above the heaven and as heaven itself, the support. If we translate, like Sankara and Colebrooke, ‘the water is the region above the heaven which heaven upholds,’ we should lose heaven altogether, yet heaven, as the third with sky and earth, is essential in the Indian view of the world. 238 AITAREYA-ARANYAKA. 5. He thought: ‘There are these worlds; shall I send forth guardians of the worlds ?’ He then formed the Purusha (the person)?, taking him forth from the water *, (3) 6. He brooded on him 8, and when that person had thus been brooded on, a mouth burst forth‘ like an egg. From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) * Nostrils burst forth, From the nostrils proceeded scent (praza)*, from scent VAyu (air). Eyes burst forth, From the eyes proceeded sight, from sight Aditya (sun).
3From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) * Nostrils burst forth, From the nostrils proceeded scent (praza)*, from scent VAyu (air). Eyes burst forth, From the eyes proceeded sight, from sight Aditya (sun). Ears burst forth. From the ears proceeded hearing, from hearing the Dis (quarters of the world). Skin burst forth. From the skin proceeded hairs (sense of touch), from the hairs shrubs and trees. The heart burst forth. From the heart proceeded mind, from mind Kandramas (moon). The navel burst forth. From the navel proceeded the Apana (the down-breathing)’, from Apna death. 1 Purusha ; an embodied being, Colebrooke; a being of human shape, Réer ; purushék4ram virf‘pindam, Sfyana. * According to the commentator, from the five elements, beginning with water. That person is meant for the Virdg. ® Tap, as the commentator observes, does not mean here and in similar passages to perform austerities (tapas), such as the Kritéfra, the KAndrayana, &c., but to conceive and to will and to create by mere will. I have translated it by brooding, though this expresses a part only of the meaning expressed by tap. * Literally, was opened. ® Three things are always distinguished here—the place of each sense, the instrument of the sense, and the presiding deity of the sense. * Prana, i.e. ghrazendriya, must be distinguished from the prana, the up-breathing, one of the five prazas, and likewise from the prfsa as the principle of life. ” The Apana, down-breathing, is generally one of the five vital airs 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, 2 KHANDA, 4. 239 The generative organ burst forth. From the organ proceeded seed, from seed water. (4) Sreconp Kuawpa. 1. Those deities (devat4), Agni and the rest, after they had been sent forth, fell into this great ocean’. ~: Then he (the Self) besieged him, (the person) © with hunger and thirst. 2. The deities then (tormented by hunger and thirst) spoke to him (the Self): ‘Allow us a place in which we may rest and eat food %’ (1) He led a cow towards them (the deities). They said : ‘ This is not enough.’ He led a horse towards them. They said: ‘ This is not enough.’ (2) He led man* towards them. Then they said: ‘Well done‘, indeed.’ Therefore man is well done. 3. He said to them: ‘Enter, each according to his place.’ (3) 4. Then Agni (fire), having become speech, entered the mouth. V4yu (air), having become scent, entered the nostrils. Aditya (sun), having become sight, entered the eyes. The Dis (regions), having become hearing, entered the ears. The shrubs and trees, having become hairs, entered the skin. Kandramas (the moon), having become mind, entered which are supposed to keep the body alive. In our place, however, ap4na is deglutition and digestion, as we shall see in II, 4, 3, 10. 1 They fell back into that universal being from whence they had sprung, the first created person, the Virag. Or they fell into the world, the last cause of which is ignorance.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1At last the devotee gains the highest knowledge, that of the Highest Self in himself, and then, at the dissolution of the Brahma-loka, he obtains complete freedom with Brahman. 236 AITAREYA-ARANYAKA. FOURTH ADHYAYA. First KHawpa. With this adhy4ya 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 adhy4ya of the second Aranyaka, becomes the first adhy4ya of the Upanishad, sometimes also, by counting all adhy4yas from the beginning of the Aitareya-4ramyaka, the ninth. The divisions adopted by Sayama, who explains the Upanishad as part of the Aranyaka, and by Sankara, who explains it independently, vary, though Sayana states that he follows in his commentary on the Upanishad the earlier commentary of Sankara. I have given the divisions adopted by Séyana, and have marked those of Sankara’s by figures in parentheses, placed at the end of each paragraph. The difference between this Upanishad and thé three preceding adhy4yas is easily perceived. Hitherto the answer to the question, Whence this world? had been, From Prfaa, priza meaning breath and life, which was looked upon for a time as a sufficient explanation of all that is. From a psychological point of view this praza is the conscious self (pragfftman); in a more mythological form it appears as Hiranyagarbha, ‘ the golden germ,’ sometimes even as Indra. It is one of the chief objects of the prasavidy4, 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 prisa, the devotee, or he who has rightly meditated on praza during his life, enters after death into the world of Hiranyagarbha. This is well expressed in the Kaushftaki-upanishad III, 2, where Indra says to Pratardana: ‘I am Prana; meditate on me as the conscious self (pragf4tman), as life, as immortality. Life is praza, prana is life. Immortality is pr&za, prfza is immortality. By prana he obtains immortality in the other world, by knowledge (pragfia) true conception. Préza is consciousness (pragfia), consciousness is prana.’ 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 Prama, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, I KHANDA, 4. 237
2That 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 Prama, Life, is the last and only cause of everything. In some places this 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, I KHANDA, 4. 237 doctrine is laid down in all its simplicity. Our true self, it is said, has its true being in the Highest Self only. In 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! 1. Verily, in the beginning ? all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking * whatsoever. 2. He thought: ‘Shall I send forth worlds?’ (1) He sent forth these worlds, 3. Ambhas (water), Marti (light), Mara (mortal), and Ap (water). 4. That Ambhas (water) is above the heaven, and it is heaven, the support. The Martéis (the lights) are the sky. The Mara (mortal) is the earth, and the waters under the earth are the Ap world *. (2) 1 Before the creation. Comm. * Blinking, mishat, i.e. living ; cf. Rv. X, 190, 2, visvasya mishato vast, the lord of all living. S&yaza seems to take mishat as a 3rd pers. sing. * The names of the four worlds are peculiar. Ambhas means water, and is the name given to the highest world, the waters above the heaven, and heaven itself. Marf#is are rays, here used as a name of the sky, antariksha. Mara means dying, and the earth is called so, because all creatures living there must die. Ap is water, here explained as the waters under the earth. The usual division of the world is threefold, earth, sky, and heaven. Here it is fourfold, the fourth division being the water round the earth, or, as the commentator says, under the earth. Ambhas was probably intended for the highest heaven (dyaus), and was then explained both as what is above the heaven and as heaven itself, the support. If we translate, like Sankara and Colebrooke, ‘the water is the region above the heaven which heaven upholds,’ we should lose heaven altogether, yet heaven, as the third with sky and earth, is essential in the Indian view of the world. 238 AITAREYA-ARANYAKA. 5. He thought: ‘There are these worlds; shall I send forth guardians of the worlds ?’ He then formed the Purusha (the person)?, taking him forth from the water *, (3) 6. He brooded on him 8, and when that person had thus been brooded on, a mouth burst forth‘ like an egg. From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) * Nostrils burst forth, From the nostrils proceeded scent (praza)*, from scent VAyu (air). Eyes burst forth, From the eyes proceeded sight, from sight Aditya (sun).
3From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) * Nostrils burst forth, From the nostrils proceeded scent (praza)*, from scent VAyu (air). Eyes burst forth, From the eyes proceeded sight, from sight Aditya (sun). Ears burst forth. From the ears proceeded hearing, from hearing the Dis (quarters of the world). Skin burst forth. From the skin proceeded hairs (sense of touch), from the hairs shrubs and trees. The heart burst forth. From the heart proceeded mind, from mind Kandramas (moon). The navel burst forth. From the navel proceeded the Apana (the down-breathing)’, from Apna death. 1 Purusha ; an embodied being, Colebrooke; a being of human shape, Réer ; purushék4ram virf‘pindam, Sfyana. * According to the commentator, from the five elements, beginning with water. That person is meant for the Virdg. ® Tap, as the commentator observes, does not mean here and in similar passages to perform austerities (tapas), such as the Kritéfra, the KAndrayana, &c., but to conceive and to will and to create by mere will. I have translated it by brooding, though this expresses a part only of the meaning expressed by tap. * Literally, was opened. ® Three things are always distinguished here—the place of each sense, the instrument of the sense, and the presiding deity of the sense. * Prana, i.e. ghrazendriya, must be distinguished from the prana, the up-breathing, one of the five prazas, and likewise from the prfsa as the principle of life. ” The Apana, down-breathing, is generally one of the five vital airs 11 ARANYAKA, 4 ADHYAYA, 2 KHANDA, 4. 239 The generative organ burst forth. From the organ proceeded seed, from seed water. (4) Sreconp Kuawpa. 1. Those deities (devat4), Agni and the rest, after they had been sent forth, fell into this great ocean’. ~: Then he (the Self) besieged him, (the person) © with hunger and thirst. 2. The deities then (tormented by hunger and thirst) spoke to him (the Self): ‘Allow us a place in which we may rest and eat food %’ (1) He led a cow towards them (the deities). They said : ‘ This is not enough.’ He led a horse towards them. They said: ‘ This is not enough.’ (2) He led man* towards them. Then they said: ‘Well done‘, indeed.’ Therefore man is well done. 3. He said to them: ‘Enter, each according to his place.’ (3) 4. Then Agni (fire), having become speech, entered the mouth. V4yu (air), having become scent, entered the nostrils. Aditya (sun), having become sight, entered the eyes. The Dis (regions), having become hearing, entered the ears. The shrubs and trees, having become hairs, entered the skin. Kandramas (the moon), having become mind, entered which are supposed to keep the body alive. In our place, however, ap4na is deglutition and digestion, as we shall see in II, 4, 3, 10. 1 They fell back into that universal being from whence they had sprung, the first created person, the Virag. Or they fell into the world, the last cause of which is ignorance.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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