Aitareya-Âranyaka

iii : 2 : 1

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya 257 : 1 : First Khanda.

1.Sthavira Sâkalya said that breath is the beam 257 : 2, and as the other beams rest on the house-beam, thus the eye, the ear, the mind, the speech, the senses, the body, the whole self rests on this 257 : 3 breath.

2.Of that self the breathing is like the sibilants, the bones like the mutes, the marrow like the vowels, and the fourth part, flesh, blood, and the rest, like the semivowels 257 : 4, — so said Hrasva Mândûkeya.

3.To us it was said to be a triad only 257 : 5.

4.Of that triad, viz. bones, marrow, and joints, there are 360 (parts) on this side (the right), and 360 on that side (the left). They make 720 together, and 720 257 : 6 are the days and nights of the year. Thus that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech is like unto the days.

5.He who thus knows this self, which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, as like unto the days, obtains union, likeness, or nearness with the days, has sons and cattle, and lives his full age.

257 : 1In the first adhyâya meditations suggested by samhitâ, pada, and krama have been discussed. Now follow meditations suggested by certain classes of letters.

257 : 2Ait. Âr. III, 1, 4.

257 : 3The Kashmir MS. reads etasmin prâne. The self here is meant for the body, and yet it seems to be different from sarîra.

257 : 4The Kashmir MS. writes antastha without visarga, while it is otherwise most careful in writing all sibilants.

257 : 5Sâkalya, as we saw, told his disciples that there were three classes only, not four. Comm. The Kashmir MS. reads trayam tv eva na ityetat proktam.

257 : 6The Kashmir MS, reads sapta vimsatis ka satâni.

iii : 2 : 2

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya : Second Khanda.

1.Next comes Kauntharavya:

2.There are 360 syllables (vowels), 360 sibilants (consonants), 360, groups.

3.What we called syllables are the days, what we called sibilants are the nights, what we called groups are the junctions of days and nights. So far with regard to the gods (the days).

4.Now with regard to the body. The syllables which we explained mythologically, are physiologically the bones; the sibilants which we explained mythologically, are physiologically the marrow.

5.Marrow is the real breath (life), for marrow is seed, and without breath (life) seed is not sown. Or when it is sown without breath (life), it will decay, it will not grow.

6.The groups which we explained mythologically, are physiologically the joints.

7.Of that triad, viz. bones, marrow, and joints, there are 540 (parts) on this side (the right), and 540 on that side (the left). They make 1080 together, and 1080 are the rays of the sun. They make the Brihatî verses and the day (of the Mahâvrata) 258 : 1.

8.Thus that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech is like unto the syllables.

9.He who knows this self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, as like unto syllables, obtains union, likeness, or nearness with the syllables, has sons and cattle, and lives his full age.

258 : 1There are in the Mahâvrata eighty tristichs of Brihatîs, and as each Brihatî is decreed to consist of thirty-six syllables, ten would give 360 syllables, and three times ten, 1080. Comm.

iii : 2 : 3

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya : Third Khanda.

1.Bâdhva 259 : 1 says, there are four persons (to be meditated on and worshipped).

2.The person of the body, the person of the metres, the person of the Veda, and the Great person.

3.What we call the person of the body is this corporeal self. Its essence is the incorporeal conscious self.

4.What we call the person of the metres is this collection of letters (the Veda). Its essence is the vowel a.

5.What we call the person of the Veda is (the mind) by which we know the Vedas, the Rig-veda, Yagur-veda, and Sâma-veda. Its essence is Brahman 259 : 2(m.)

6.Therefore let one chose a Brahman-priest who is full of Brahman (the Veda), and is able to see any flaw in the sacrifice.

7.What we call the Great person is the year, which causes some beings to fall together, and causes others to grow up. Its essence is yonder sun.

8.One should know that the incorporeal conscious self and yonder sun are both one and the same. Therefore the sun appears to every man singly (and differently).

9.This has also been declared by a Rishi (Rv. I, 115, 1): —

10.'The bright face of the gods arose, the eye of Mitra, Varuna, and Agni; it filled heaven and earth and the sky, — the sun is the self of all that rests and moves.'

11.'This I think to be the regular Samhitâ as conceived by me,' thus said Bâdhva.

12.For the Bahvrikas consider him (the self) in the great hymn (mahad uktha), the Adhvaryus in the sacrificial fire, the Khandogas in the Mahâvrata ceremony. Him they see in this earth, in heaven, in the air, in the ether, in the water, in herbs, in trees, in the moon, in the stars, in all beings. Him alone they call Brahman.

13.That self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech is like unto the year.

14.He who recites to another that self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, mind, and speech, and is like unto the year,

259 : 1Instead of Bâdhya, the commentary and the Kashmir MS. read Bâdhva.

259 : 2Hiranyagarbha, with whom he who knows the Veda becomes identified. Comm.

iii : 2 : 4

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya : Fourth Khanda.

1.To him the Vedas yield no more milk, he has no luck in what he has learnt (from his Guru); he does not know the path of virtue.

2.This has also been declared by a Rishi (Rv. X, 71, 6): —

3.'He who has forsaken the friend (the Veda), that knows his friends, in his speech there is no luck. Though he hears, he hears in vain, for he does not know the path of virtue.'

4.Here it is clearly said that he has no luck in what he has learnt, and that he does not know the path of virtue.

5.Therefore let no one who knows this, lay the sacrificial fire (belonging to the Mahâvrata) for another, let him not sing the Sâmans of the Mahâvrata for another, let him not recite the Sastras of that day for another.

6.However, let him willingly do this for a father or for an Âkârya; for that is done really for himself.

7.We have said that the incorporeal conscious self and the sun are one 261 : 1. When these two become separated 261 : 2, the sun is seen as if it were the moon 261 : 3; no rays spring from it; the sky is red like madder; the patient cannot retain the wind, his head smells bad like a raven's nest: — let him know then that his self (in the body) is gone, and that he will not live very long 261 : 4.

8.Then whatever he thinks he has to do,. let him do it, and let him recite the following hymns: Yad anti yak ka dûrake (Rv. IX, 67, 21-27); Ad it pratnasya retasah (Rv. VIII, 6, 30); Yatra brahmâ pavamâna (Rv. IX, 113, 6-11); Ud vayam tamasas pari (Rv. I, 50, 10).

9.Next, when the sun is seen pierced, and seems like the nave of a cart-wheel, when he sees his own shadow pierced, let him know then that it is so (as stated before, i. e. that he is going to die soon).

10.Next, when he sees himself in a mirror or in the water with a crooked head, or without a head 261 : 5, or when his pupils are seen inverted 261 : 6 or not straight, let him know then that it is so.

11.Next, let him cover his eyes and watch, then threads are seen as if falling together 262 : 1. But if he does not see them, let him know then that it is so.

12.Next, let him cover his ears and listen, and there will be a sound as if of a burning fire or of a carriage 262 : 2. But if he does not hear it, let him know then that it is so.

13.Next, when fire looks blue like the neck of a peacock 262 : 3, or when he sees lightning in a cloudless sky, or no lightning in a clouded sky, or when he sees as it were bright rays in a dark cloud, let him know then that it is so.

14.Next, when he sees the ground as if it were burning, let him know that it is so.

15.These are the visible signs (from 7-14).

16.Next come the dreams 262 : 4.

17.If he sees a black man with black teeth, and that man kills him; or a boar kills him; a monkey jumps on 262 : 5 him; the wind carries him along quickly; having swallowed gold he spits it out 262 : 6; he eats honey; he chews stalks; he carries a red lotus; he drives with asses and boars; wearing a wreath of red flowers (naladas) he drives a black cow with a black calf, facing the south 262 : 7,

18.If a man sees any one of these (dreams), let him fast, and cook a pot of milk, sacrifice it, accompanying each oblation with a verse of the Râtri hymn (Rv. X, 12 7), and then, after having fed the Brâhmanas, with other food (prepared at his house) eat himself the (rest of the) oblation.

19.Let him know that the person within all beings, not heard here 263 : 1, not reached, not thought, not subdued, not seen, not understood, not classed, but hearing, thinking, seeing, classing, sounding, understanding, knowing, is his Self.

261 : 1Ait. Âr. III, 2, 3, 8.

261 : 2This separation of the self of the sun and the conscious self within us is taken as a sign of approaching death, and therefore a number of premonitory symptoms are considered in this place.

261 : 3ἥλιος μηνοειδής Xen. Hist. gr. 4, 3, 10.

261 : 4The Kashmir MS. reads gîvayishyati.

261 : 5The Kashmir MS. reads gihmasirasam vâsarîram âtmânam.

261 : 6A white pupil in a black eye-ball. Comm.

262 : 1The Kashmir MS. reads batirakâni sampatantîva.

262 : 2See Kh. Up. III, 13, 8. The Kashmir MS. and the commentary give the words rathasyevopabdis, which are left out in the printed text.

262 : 3The Kashmir MS. reads mayûragrîvâ ameghe.

262 : 4The Kashmir MS. reads svapnah.

262 : 5The Kashmir MS. reads âskandati.

262 : 6The Kashmir MS. reads avagirati.

262 : 7The commentator separates the last dream, so as to bring their number to ten.

263 : 1The Kashmir MS. reads sa yatas sruto.

iii : 2 : 5

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya : Fifth Khanda 263 : 2.

1.Now next the Upanishad of the whole speech.

True all these are Upanishads of the whole speech, but this they call so (chiefly).

2.The mute consonants represent the earth, the sibilants the sky, the vowels heaven.

The mute consonants represent Agni (fire), the sibilants air, the vowels the sun.

The mute consonants represent the Rig-veda, the sibilants the Yagur-veda, the vowels the Sâma-veda.

The mute consonants represent the eye, the sibilants the ear, the vowels the mind.

The mute consonants represent the up-breathing, the sibilants the down-breathing, the vowels the back-breathing.

3.Next comes this divine lute (the human body, made by the gods). The lute made by man is an imitation of it.

4.As there is a head of this, so there is a head of that (lute, made by man). As there is a stomach of this, so there is the cavity 264 : 1 (In the board) of that. As there is a tongue of this, so there is a tongue 264 : 2 in that. As there are fingers of this, so there are strings of that 264 : 3. As there are vowels of this, so there are tones of that. As there are consonants of this, so there are touches of that. As this is endowed with sound and firmly strung, so that is endowed with sound and firmly strung. As this is covered with a hairy skin, so that is covered with a hairy skin.

5.Verily, in former times they covered a lute with a hairy skin.

6.He who knows this lute made by the Devas (and meditates on it), is willingly listened to, his glory fills the earth, and wherever they speak Âryan languages, there they know him.

7.Next follows the verse, called vâgrasa, the essence of speech. When a man reciting or speaking in an assembly does not please, let him say this verse:

8.'May the queen of all speech, who is covered, as it were, by the lips, surrounded by teeth, as if by spears, who is a thunderbolt, help me to speak well.' This is the vâgrasa, the essence of speech.

263 : 2After having inserted the preceding chapter on omina and the concluding paragraph on the highest knowledge, he now returns to the meditation on the letters.

264 : 1The Kashmir MS. reads udara evam, &c.

264 : 2Vâdanam, what makes the instrument speak, hastena. Comm.

264 : 3Here the order is inverted in the text.

iii : 2 : 6

Third Âranyaka : Second Adhyâya : Sixth Khanda.

1.Next Krishna-Hârita 264 : 4 confided this Brâhmana 264 : 5 concerning speech to him (his pupil):

2.Pragâpati, the year, after having sent forth all creatures, burst. He put himself together again by means of khandas (Vedas). Because he put himself together again by means of khandas, therefore (the text of the Veda) is called Samhitâ (put together).

3.Of that Samhitâ the letter n is the strength, the letter sh the breath and self (Âtman).

4.He who knows the Rik verses and the letters n and sh for every Samhitâ, he knows the Samhitâ with strength and breath. Let him know that this is the life of the Samhitâ.

5.If the pupil asks, 'Shall I say it with the letter n or without it? 'let the teacher say, 'With the letter n.' And if he asks, 'Shall I say it with the letter sh or without it?' let the teacher say, 'With the letter sh 265 : 1.'

6.Hrasva Mândûkeya said: 'If we here recite the verses according to the Samhitâ (attending to the necessary changes of n and s into n and sh 265 : 2), and if we say the adhyâya of Mândûkeya (Ait. Âr. III, 1), then the letters n and sh (strength and breath) have by this been obtained for us.'

7.Sthavira Sâkalya said: 'If we recite the verses according to the Samhitâ, and if we say the adhyâya of Mândûkeya, then the letters n and sh have by this been obtained for us.'

8.Here the Rishis, the Kâvasheyas 265 : 3, knowing this, said: 'Why should we repeat (the Veda), why should we sacrifice? We offer as a sacrifice breath in speech, or speech in breath. What is the beginning (of one), that is the end (of the other).'

9.Let no one tell these Samhitâs (Ait. Âr. III, 1-III, 265 2) to one who is not a resident pupil, who has not been with his teacher at least one year, and who is not himself to become an instructor 266 : 1. Thus say the teachers, yea, thus say the teachers, and then rest in another place finishing it.

11.'And in the place where he reads this, he should not read anything else, though he may read this (the Mahâvrata) where he has read something else.

12.'No one should bathe and become a snâtaka 266 : 1c who does not read this. Even if he has read many other things, he should not become a snâtaka if he has not read this.

13.'Nor should he forget it, and even if he should forget anything else, he should not forget this.

14.'No, he should never forget this.

15.'If he does not forget this, it will be enough for himself (or for acquiring a knowledge of the Self).

16.'It is enough, let him know this to be true.

17.'Let him who knows this not communicate, nor dine, nor amuse himself with any one who does not know it.'

Then follow some more rules as to the reading of the Veda in general:

18.'When the old water that stood round the roots of trees is dried up (after about the month of Pausha, January to February 266 : 2c) he should not read; nor (at any time) in the morning or in the afternoon, when the shadows meet (he should begin at sunrise so soon as the shadows divide, and end in the evening before they fall together). Nor should he read 266 : 3c when a cloud has risen; and when there is an unseasonable rain (after the months of Srâvana and Bhâdrapada, August and September 266 : 4c) he should stop his Vedic reading for three nights. Nor should he at that time tell stories, not even during the night, nor should he glory in his knowledge.

19.'This (the Veda thus learnt and studied) is the name of that Great Being; and he who thus knows the name of that Great Being, he becomes Brahman, yea, he becomes Brahman.'

264 : 4One of the sons of Harita, who was dark. Comm.

264 : 5Brâhmana, in the sense of Upanishad, this secret doctrine or explanation. It forms an appendix, like the svishtakrit at the end of a sacrifice. 'Iva,' which the commentator explains as restrictive or useless, may mean, something like a Brâhmana.

265 : 1The letters n and sh refer most likely to the rules of natva and shatva, i. e. the changing of n and s into n and sh.

265 : 2If we know whenever n and s should be changed to n and sh in the Samhitâ.

265 : 3The Kâvasheyas said that, after they had arrived at the highest knowledge of Brahman (through the various forms of meditation and worship that lead to it and that have been described in the Upanishad) no further meditation and no further sacrifice could be required. Instead of the morning and evening stoma they offer breath in speech, whenever they speak, or speech in breath, when they are silent or asleep. When speech begins, breathing ceases; when breathing begins, speech ceases.

266 : 1The strict prohibition uttered at the end of the third Âranyaka, not to divulge a knowledge of the Samhitâ-upanishad (Ait. Âr. III, 1-2), as here explained, is peculiar. It would have seemed self-evident that, like the rest of the sruti or sacred literature, the Âranyaka too, and every portion of it, could have been learnt from the mouth of a teacher only, and according to rule (niyamena), i. e. by a pupil performing all the duties of a student (brahmakârin 266 : 2a), so that no one except a regular pupil (antevâsin) could possibly gain access to it. Nor can there be any doubt that we ought to take the words asamvatsaravâsin and apravaktri as limitations, and to translate, 'Let no one tell these Samhitâs to any pupil who has not at least been a year with his master, and who does not mean to become a teacher in turn.'

That this is the right view is confirmed by similar injunctions given at the end of the fifth Âranyaka. Here we have first some rules as to who is qualified to recite the Mahâvrata. No one is permitted to do so, who has not passed through the Dîkshâ, the initiation for the Agnishtoma. If the Mahâvrata is performed as a Sattra, the sacrificer is a Hotri priest, and he naturally has passed through that ceremony. But if the Mahâvrata is performed as an Ekâha or Ahîna ceremony, anybody might be the sacrificer, and therefore it was necessary to say that no one who is adîkshita, uninitiated, should recite it for another person; nor should he do so, when the Mahâvrata is performed without (or with) an altar, or if it does not last one year. In saying, however, that one should not recite the Mahâvrata for another person, parents and teachers are not to be understood as included, because what is done for them, is done for ourselves.

After these restrictions as to the recitation of the Mahâvrata, follow other restrictions as to the teaching of it, and here we read, as at the end of the Upanishad:

4.'Let no one teach this day, the Mahâvrata, to one who is not a regular pupil (antevâsin), and has been so for one year, certainly not to one who has not been so for one year; nor to one who is not a brahmakârin and does not study the same Veda 266 : 1b, certainly not to one who does not study the same Veda; nor to one who does not come to him.

5.'Let the teaching not be more than saying it once or twice, twice only.

6.'One man should tell it to one man, so says Gâtukarnya.

7.'Not to a child, nor to a man in his third stage of life.

8.'The teacher and pupil should not stand, nor walk, nor lie down, nor sit on a couch; but they should both sit on the ground.

9.'The pupil should not lean backward while learning, nor lean forward. He should not be covered with too much clothing, nor assume the postures of a devotee, but without using any of the apparel of a devotee, simply elevate his knees. Nor should he learn, when he has eaten flesh, when he has seen blood, or a corpse, or when he has done an unlawful thing 266 : 2b; when he has anointed his eyes, oiled or rubbed his body, when he has been shaved or bathed, put colour on, or ornamented himself with flower-wreaths, when he has been writing or effacing his writing 266 : 3b.

10.'Nor should he finish the reading in one day, so says Gâtukarnya, while according to Gâlava, he should finish it in one day. Âgnivesyâyana holds that he should finish all before the Trikâsîtis 266 : 4b

266 : 4b See Ait. Âr. I, 4, 3, 1-4.

266 : 2aÂpastamba-sûtras, translated by Bühler, p. 18.

266 : 1bSee Gautama-sûtras XIV, 21, and Bühler's note.

266 : 2bNâvratyam âkramya is explained by the commentator by ukkhishtâdyâkramana.

266 : 3bThis, if rightly translated, would seem to be the earliest mention of actual writing in Sanskrit literature.

266 : 1cÂpastamba-sûtras, translated by Bühler, p. 92 (I, 2, 30, 4).

266 : 2cÂpastamba-sûtras, translated by Bühler, p. 33 (I, 3, 9, 2).

266 : 3cÂpastamba-sûtras, translated by Bühler, p. 44 (I, 3, 11, 31).

266 : 4cÂpastamba-sûtras, translated by Bühler, p. 33 (I, 3, 9, 1).