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 2.1.5

A great sage Vamadeva once said that "while still lying in the womb, I came to know all the births of the gods. One hundred iron strongholds confined me, yet I burst through them swiftly like a hawk. In the womb, this is resting."



  • taduktamṛṣiṇā — it was spoken by the sage

    • tat — it, that

    • uktam — was said, was spoken

    • ṛṣiṇā — by the sage
      The term rishi could describe a poet, singer, scholar, or sage

  • garbhe — in the womb

  • nu — at once, at the time

  • sannanveṣāmavedamahaṃ — I came to observe the true

  • devānāṃ — of the deities

  • janimāni — births, origins

  • viśvā —

  • śataṃ —

  • mā —

  • pura —

  • āyasīrarakṣannadhaḥ —

  • śyeno —

  • javasā —

  • niradīyamiti —

  • garbha —

  • evaitacchayāno —

  • vāmadeva —

  • evamuvāca —

Aitareya Upanishad