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 3.1.2

It is this heart (intellect) and this mind that were stated earlier. It is sentience, rulership, secular knowledge, presence of mind, retentiveness, sense-perception, fortitude, thinking, genius, mental suffering, memory, ascertainment resolution, life-activities, hankering, passion and such others. All these verily are the names of Consciousness.





  • yadetaddhṛdayaṃ —

  • manaścaitat —

  • saṃjñānamājñānaṃ —

  • vijñānaṃ —

  • prajñānaṃ —

  • medhā —

  • dṛṣṭirdhṛtimatirmanīṣā —

  • jūtiḥ —

  • smṛtiḥ —

  • saṃkalpaḥ —

  • kraturasuḥ —

  • kāmo —

  • vaśa —

  • iti —

  • sarvāṇyevaitāni —

  • prajñānasya —

  • nāmadheyāni —

  • bhavaṃti —

Aitareya Upanishad