Aitareya Upanishad - 3

 

Section - 2

Mantra 1

ta eta devatah srishta asminmahatyarnave prapatan

tam asanaya pipasabhyam anvavarjath I

ta enamabruvannayatanam nah prajanihi I yasminpratishthita annamadameti. II

These deities, thus created, fell into this great ocean.  Then He, Iswara, subjected them to hunger and thirst. They (the deities) said to Him: "Find out for us an abode wherein being established and may eat food (earn our experiences)." 

The various deities that were created were thrown into this world of endless agitations and constant changes.  Sri Sankara comments “The created Beings fell into the Great Ocean i.e., samsara or the phenomenal world where the great water-currents consist of miseries created by ignorance, desire, and action and which is filled with vicious crocodiles in the shape of painful diseases, senility and death.”  The first-born Purusha, from whom the instruments of perception and deities were separated out was subjected to hunger and thirst.  As the Purusha was afflicted with hunger and thirst, His offsprings, the deities, were also subjected to them. The deities then asked for an abode where they could live and grow. This allegory emphasizes the basic fact of life that desires, want and their fulfillment are applicable to the whole of creation and none is immune to them.  All the beings tried their best first to survive, but it was just impossible unless they had their own personal abodes. What they needed was a Body of manageable size through which they could function within reasonable range for all their needs to be met.  They arrived with this request to Iswara.

Mantras 2 & 3 

tabhyo gamanayatta abruvanna vai no’ayamalamiti. I

tabhyo’svamanayatta abruvanna vai no’ayamalamiti.II2II

tabhyah purushamanayatta abruvan sukritam bateti

purusho vava sukritam ta abravidyathayatanam pravisateti.II3II

He brought (the form of) a cow. They said: "But this is not enough for us." He brought them (form of) a horse. They said: "This, too, is not enough for us." He brought them (form of) a person. The deities said: "Ah, this is well done, indeed."   Therefore, (form of)a person is verily something well done. He said to the deities: "Now enter your respective abodes." 

The allegory continues. Iswara offered the cosmic powers, the form of a cow as an abode for them to live in, and they rejected it as insufficient for them.  Then He offered them the form of a horse and this too they rejected as insufficient.  Then He offered them the human form which they accepted with joy claiming it as a masterpiece. They being satisfied with the human form as their residence, Iswara asked them to take their place in their respective abodes.  The choice of a human being as residence signifies the superiority of human birth whose body can be made use of as a vehicle for performing good and noble actions including realization of God. No other body can give such variety of options.

Mantra 4

agnirvagbhutva mukham pravisat, vayuh prano bhutva nasike pravisat, adityashchakshurbhutva akshini pravisat, disah shrotram bhutva karnau pravisan, oshadhivanaspatayo lomani bhutva tvachampravisan, chandrama mano bhutva hridayam pravisan, mrityurapano bhutva nabhim pravisat, apo reto bhutva sishnam pravisan. II4II

The deity fire became the organ of speech and entered the mouth. Air became smell and entered the nostrils. The sun became sight and entered the eyes; the quarters of space became hearing and entered the ears. The deity of plants and trees, became hairs and entered the skin. The moon became the mind and entered the heart. God of death became the apana and entered the navel. The God of waters became semen (seed) and entered the reproductive organs. 

The Upanishad illustrates in this Mantra the details of cosmic powers which reside in human body and empower its various organs of perception and action.  This Mantra is the counterpart of Mantra (1-4).  The eight elements when created came in an order reverse to the above, i.e. the physical organ came first, then the object associated with it, and then the deity who was to govern it.

Mantra 5 

tamasanayapipase abrutaam avabhyamabhiprajanihiti, 

te abravidetasveva vam devatasvabhajami etasu bhaginyau karomiti.I

tasmadyasyai kasyai cha devatayai havirgrihyate bhaginyavevasyam

asanayapipase bhavatah. II5II

Hunger and thirst said to Him (Iswara): "For both of us also find an abode."  He said to them: "I assign the two of you a place along with these deities; I make you co-sharers with them."  Therefore, to whatsoever deity an oblation is made, hunger and thirst became sharers in it. 

Seeing other deities occupy their allotted places in man, hunger and thirst also demanded their own abode for themselves.   Instead of assigning them an independent abode, Iswara asked them to share the abode with all the other deities. This signifies that desires afflict all the senses and that hunger and thirst are mere sensations which cannot subsist independently without their supporting sense organs; for example, mere hunger cannot eat food unless it takes the help of the mouth to eat.  This passage gives out a psychological truth.  None of the faculties in the human being would have ever struggled to develop itself unless goaded by some driving impulse from within.  Thirst and hunger provided this impulse.

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