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 2.1.1

In man indeed is the soul first conceived. That which is the semen is extracted from all the limbs as their vigour. He holds that self of his in his own self. When he sheds it into his wife, then he procreates it. That is its first birth.



  • oṃ —

  • puruṣe —

  • ha —

  • vā —

  • ayamādito —

  • garbho —

  • bhavati —

  • yadetadretaḥ —

  • .tadetatsarvebhyo'ṅgebhyastejaḥ —

  • saṃbhūtamātmanyeva''tmānaṃ —

  • bibharti —

  • tadyadā —

  • striyāṃ —

  • siñcatyathainajjanayati —

  • tadasya —

  • prathamaṃ —

  • janma —

Aitareya Upanishad