Aitareya Upanishad - 1

Introduction

 Aitareya Upanishad is one of the ten Major Upanishads for which Sri Aadhi Sankara has written commentary.  In fact, it is the only Upanishad from Rig Veda for which Sri Aadhi Sankara has written the commentary and his commentary for this small Upanishad is one of the lengthiest.  This Upanishad contains one of the four chosen Mahavakhyas spread over four Vedas i.e. “Prajnanam Brahma (Consciousness is Brahman)”.  This is one of the few Upanishads whose author is known to us. The Rishi’s name is Rishi Maheedasa Aitareya. There is an anecdote concerning the life of the young Maheedasa.  The Rishi’s mother was called Itara, which means “the other one”, presumably because she was the ‘other’ wife, from a backward caste, of the Brahmana, Vishaala.  The 5-year old boy was not allowed to sit on his father’s lap during a Havan ceremony, presumably because his mother was the ‘other’ wife.  The boy felt depressed and went to his mother and conveyed his depression.  This disturbed the mother, a potter-woman, who then prayed to her Ishta Devata, Goddess Earth, and the Goddess appeared, placed the boy in a celestial seat and elevated the boy’s physical status, and also elevated his mind by teaching him Divine Wisdom. The boy grew up to become a great Rishi, and acquired the name ‘Maheedasa’ meaning “servant of Mother Earth”.  Swami Chinmayananda writes in the preface to his commentary on this Upanishad, “Godhood attained by a son of the soil is our Aitareya and the Upanishad is the song of our Hindu culture from a hut of the slum”.

Aitareya Rishi has contributed to Karma yoga, Upasana yoga and Jnana yoga through Aitareya Brahmana dealing with rituals, Aitareya Aranyaka dealing with Upasana and Aitareya Upanishad dealing with Jnanam respectively.  Of these we will be seeing the Aitareya Upanishad which is part of Aitareya Aranyaka of Aitareya Brahmana.  This is a small Upanishad of 33 Mantras in 5 sections distributed over 3 chapters.  The Upanishad is in prose form.  Let us start with the peace invocation, Shanthi Mantra, which is unique to Rig Veda, and which appears at the end of this Upanishad as a separate section. 

OM vang me manasi pratishthita

mano me vachi pratishthitamaaviraavirma edhi I

vedasya ma aanisthah shrutam me ma prahasih I

anenadhitenahoratran sandadhami, ritam vadishyami I

 satyam vadishyami I tanmamavatu I tadvaktaramavatu I

avatu mam avatu vaktaramavatu vaktaram II

OM shantih shantih shantih II.

Om! May my speech be rooted in my mind; may my mind be rooted in my speech; Brahman, reveal Thyself to me.  Enable me to grasp the Vedic Truths.  Let not what I have heard forsake me.  May I, in my studies, join day with night (i.e. spend all my time).  May I assimilate the Truth (into my intellect); May I express the Truth (through my speech); May that Truth protect me.  May that Truth protect my teacher; protect me, protect my teacher, protect my teacher!!  

Om! Peace, Peace, Peace!!

This is a very beautiful prayer especially for spiritual students and therefore very relevant for the seekers as through this prayer the student seeks Jnana yogyatha prapthi, Jnana prapthi, Jnana nishta prapthi and Prathibanda nivrritti.  The student first prays to the Lord for harmony between his thought and also his word i.e. “What I say, I should mean. And what I mean alone, I should say”.  This is a very, very important value because the upanishadic teaching is in the form of a dialogue and in dialogue, two organs play important role. One is the mind which receives the message. And the other is the speech which gives the message.  Therefore, these two organs are very important.   So the student first prays for inner strength to live every moment of his life in healthy harmony between his mental waves and verbal expressions. Secondly his prayer is that Brahman reveal Itself to him through BrahmaVidya, which means success in his studies which is reiterated clearly in the succeeding prayers where he spells out clearly that he should remember the teaching and spend all his time in studies i.e. Sravanam, Mananam and Nitidyasanam only, without distraction until it is understood and absorbed.  He also prays that he should speak only truth.  It can be vyavaharika or Paramarthika depending upon the context, but never the untruth.  He seeks protection of the Lord for the successful completion of studies and also protection for his Guru as he has to learn from him.  This Shanti Mantra like all Shanthi Mantras, ends with “Om shantih, shantih, shantih!”.  Here Om is the sound representation of Brahman.  ‘shantih’ stands for the peace that comes from the removal of obstacles to the successful pursuit of study of Upanishad.  The obstacles are classified into three types.  These are:

1. Adhyathmikam – Obstacles arising from within oneself like one’s personal ill-health, negative mood etc. 
2. Aadhi bauthikam – Obstacles arising from other known sources or external situations like ill-health of a family member, noisy neighbourhood etc.
3.  Aadhi daivikam – Obstacles arising from unseen sources like floods, storm etc.

We shall start with Mantra 1 from next blog.

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