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 3.1.1

What is It that we worship as this Self? Which of the two is the Self? Is It that by which one sees, or that by which one hears, or that by which one smells an odour, or that by which one utters speech, or that by which one tastes sweet or the sour?



  • oṃ —

  • ko'yamātmeti —

  • vayamupāsmahe —

  • kataraḥ —

  • sa —

  • ātmā —

  • yena —

  • vā —

  • paśyati —

  • yena —

  • vā —

  • śṛṇoti —

  • yena —

  • vā —

  • gaṃdhānājighrati —

  • yena —

  • vā —

  • vācaṃ —

  • vyākaroti —

  • yena —

  • vā —

  • svādu —

  • cāsvādu —

  • ca —

  • vijānāti —

Aitareya Upanishad