Aitareya Upanishad

Aitareya Upaniṣad

A short Rigvedic Upanishad telling how the Self created the worlds and entered the human body, and concluding that consciousness is Brahman.

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Tradition: Vedic & Upanishadic foundations · Vedanta
Difficulty: intermediate
Attribution: Rigveda (Aitareya Aranyaka); author unknown
Period · language: Generally placed among the earlier Upanishads, in the mid-first millennium BCE; dating is uncertain · Sanskrit
Themes: Creation · Self · Consciousness · Birth

Why read this?

Aitareya offers a mythic account of creation in which the Self enters the body it has made, and then asks which of our faculties is really the Self. It is the source of one of the four traditional 'great sayings' identifying consciousness with Brahman.

Questions it answers

?How did the world come to be?
?Which of our faculties is the Self?
?What is consciousness?

Key teachings

Editorial overview

In the beginning, the Self alone

The text opens with the Self alone existing and deciding to create worlds, guardians of the worlds and a cosmic person from whom the senses and their deities emerge.

The Self enters the body

The Self is pictured entering the body through the crown of the head, and then wondering what it is, until it recognises itself as Brahman.

Consciousness is Brahman

Its final chapter lists the functions of mind and concludes that all are names of consciousness (prajnana), and that consciousness is Brahman, a statement counted among the mahavakyas.

Structure

3 chaptersPart of the Aitareya Aranyaka of the Rigveda

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The text of the Aitareya Upanishad is not part of this version. What you see here is an editorial overview with passage references. No verses have been reproduced or invented. The architecture is ready for the text to be added.

Concepts

Conceptआत्मन्Atman — the SelfThe innermost Self — what you are beneath body, mind and personality.Conceptब्रह्मन्BrahmanThe ultimate reality, the ground from which everything arises.Conceptमनस्Manas — mindThe mind that receives, coordinates and desires — restless by nature.Conceptज्ञानJnana — knowledgeLiberating knowledge — seeing reality and the Self as they are.

Textबृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्Brihadaranyaka UpanishadAnother creation account beginning from the Self alone Textछान्दोग्योपनिषद्Chandogya UpanishadContains another of the four mahavakyas Textमाण्डूक्योपनिषद्Mandukya UpanishadContains another of the four mahavakyas

Thinkers

Thinkerआदि शङ्कराचार्यAdi ShankaracharyaTraditionally 788–820 CE; many scholars prefer an earlier 8th-century or late 7th-century date. Dates are debated.Thinkerमध्वाचार्यMadhvacharyaTraditionally 1238–1317 CE; some scholars prefer 1199–1278 CE.

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Traditions

वैदिकVedic & Upanishadic foundations वेदान्तVedanta

Source type: Primary source. Overview text on this page is editorial.