Aitareya Upanishad

The Aitareya Upanishad is a short prose text from the Aitareya Aranyaka in the Rig Veda. It explains the symbolic meaning of the rituals described in the previous chapters of the Aranyaka, and contains particularly famous aphorisms (maha vakya) like prajnanam brahma - "Brahman is perfect knowledge". Aitareya Upanishad discusses the philosophy of the individual and the self, the theory of reincarnation, and the relationship between individual consciousness and the universal consciousness.

Aitareya 1.2.4

The deity of fire entered the mouth as the organ of speech. The god of the wind entered the nostrils as the sense of smell. The Sun god entered the eyes as the sense of sight, and the four directions entered the ears as the sense of hearing. The herbs and trees entered the skin as hair, and the Moon entered the heart in the shape of the mind. Death entered the navel in the form of excretory energy, and water entered the penis as semen.





  • agnirvāgbhūtvā —

  • mukhaṃ —

  • prāviśadvāyuḥ —

  • prāṇo —

  • bhūtvā —

  • nāsike —

  • prāviśadādityaścakṣurbhūtvā'kṣiṇī —

  • prāviśāddiśaḥ —

  • śrotraṃ —

  • bhūtvā —

  • karṇau —

  • prāviśannoṣadhivanaspatayo —

  • lomāni —

  • bhūtvā —

  • tvacaṃprāviśaṃścandramā —

  • mano —

  • bhūtvā —

  • hṛdayaṃ —

  • prāviśanmṛtyurapāno —

  • bhūtvā —

  • nābhiṃ —

  • prāviśadāpo —

  • reto —

  • bhūtvā —

  • śiśnaṃ —

  • prāviśan —

Aitareya Upanishad