Aitareya Upaniṣad

In the beginning, Atman (Self, Soul), veiily, one only, was here1 — no other blinking thing whatever. He bethought himself: * Let me now create worlds.5

He created these worlds : water (ambhas), light-rays (marlci), death (mar a), the waters (op). Yon is the water, above the heaven ; the heaven is its support. The light-rays are the atmosphere ; death, the earth ; what is underneath, the waters.

He bethought himself: £ Here now are worlds. Let me now create world-guardians/ Right (eva) from the waters he drew forth and shaped (+Jmurch) a person.

Upon him he brooded (ab/n + Vtap).

These divinities, having been created, fell headlong in this great restless sea.1 He visited it with hunger and thirst.

Reading api prajanihi, instead of the (otherwise unquotable) compound abhiprajanihi — according to Bohtlingk's emendation in his translation, p. 166". This change brings the form of the question into uniformity with the similar question in § i .

He led up a person to them. They said : ' Oh ! well done ! ' — Verily, a person is a thing well done. —

Fire became speech, and entered the mouth. Wind became breath, and entered the nostrils. The sun became sight, and entered the eyes.

Hunger and thirst said to him [i. e. Atman] : ' For us two also3 find out [an abode].3

He bethought himself: ' Here now are worlds and world- guardians. Let me create food for them/

He brooded upon the waters. From them, when they had been brooded upon, a material form (murti) was produced. Verily, that material form which was produced — verily, that is food.

Having been created, it sought to flee away.

He sought to grasp it with breath. He was not able to grasp it with breath. If indeed he had grasped it with breath, merely \\ith breathing toward food one would have been satisfied.

He sought to grasp it with sight He was not able to grasp it with sight. If indeed he had grasped it with sight, merely with seeing food one would have been satisfied.

He sought to grasp it with hearing. He was not able to grasp it with hearing. If indeed he had grasped it with hearing, merely with hearing food one would have been satis- fied.

He sought to grasp it with the skin. He was not able to grasp it with the skin. If indeed he had grasped it with the skin, merely with touching food one would have been satisfied.

He sought to grasp it with the mind. He was not able to grasp it with the mind. If indeed he had grasped it with the mind, merely with thinking on food one would have been satisfied.

He sought to grasp it with the virile member. He was not able to grasp it wit£ the virile member. If indeed he had grasped it with the virile member, merely with emitting food one would have been satisfied.

He [i. e. Atman] bethought himself: ( How now could this thing exist without me ? '

Having been born, he looked around on beings (b/iuta), [thinking] : c Of what here would one desire to speak ° as

In a person (purusa), verily, this one2 becomes at first an embryo (garbka). That which is semen (retas), is the vigor (tejas) come together from all the limbs In the self, indeed, one bears a self. When he* pours this in a woman, then he begets it. This is one's first birth.3

It comes into self-becoming (atma-bhuya) with the woman,

That is, the Atman, the subject of the entire previous part of this Upamshad Or ayam may denote the indefinite c one/ as probably in the last sentence of this paragraph.

This self of one is put in one's place for pious deeds (puny a kannan). Then this other self of one, having done his work (krta-krtya), having reached his age, deceases So, deceasing hence indeed, he is born again. This is one's third birth. As to this it has been said by a seer , —

Being yet in embryo, I knew well2 All the bnths of these gods!

So he, kncwing this, having ascended aloft from this separation from the body (sarira-bheda), obtained all desires in the heavenly world (svarga lokz), and became immortal — yea, became [immortal] '

[Question.] Who is this one?2

The interpretation of ayam here is doubtless the same as in the opening sentence of the previous Adhyaya. See note 2 on p. 298.

That is, which one of the two selves previously mentioned? the primeval, universal Self « or the individual self?

[Question :] Who is he whom we worship as the Self (Atman) « Which one is the Self? [He] wheieby one . . . or .... or .... the unsweet « '

Roer and the Bombay editions have here, in addition, tabdam, ' sound.'