He is Brahma; he is Indra; he is Prajāpati; all these gods — all this is guided by intelligence, is based on intelligence. The world is guided by intelligence. The basis is intelligence. Brahma is intelligence.

First Adhyāya

First Khaṇḍa

The creation of the four worlds, of the cosmic person, and of cosmic powers by the primeval Self

1. In the beginning, Ātman (Self, Soul), verily, one only, was here — no other blinking thing whatever. He bethought himself: 'Let me now create worlds.'

2. He created these worlds: water (ambhas), light-rays (marīci), death (mara), the waters (ap). 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.

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

4. Upon him he brooded (abhi-√tap).

When he had been brooded upon, his mouth was separated out, egg-like; from the mouth, speech (vāc); from speech, Agni (Fire).

Nostrils were separated out; from the nostrils, breath (prāṇa); from breath, Vāyu (Wind).

Eyes were separated out; from the eyes, sight (cakṣus); from sight, Āditya (the Sun).

Ears were separated out; from the ears, hearing (śrotra); from hearing, the quarters of heaven.

Skin was separated out; from the skin, hairs; from the hairs, plants and trees.

A heart was separated out; from the heart, mind (manas); from mind, the moon.

A navel was separated out; from the navel, the out-breath (apāna); from the out-breath, death (mṛtyu).

A virile member was separated out; from the virile member, semen; from the semen, water (ap).

Second Khaṇḍa

The ingredients of the cosmic powers in the human person

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

They [i.e. the divinities] said to him: 'Find out for us an abode wherein we may be established and may eat food.'

2. He led up a bull to them. They said: 'Verily, this is not sufficient for us.'

He led up a horse to them. They said: 'Verily, this is not sufficient for us.'

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

He said to them: 'Enter into your respective abodes.'

4. Fire became speech, and entered the mouth.

Wind became breath, and entered the nostrils.

The sun became sight, and entered the eyes.

The quarters of heaven became hearing, and entered the ears.

Plants and trees became hairs, and entered the skin.

The moon became mind, and entered the heart.

Death became the out-breath (apāna), and entered the navel.

Waters became semen, and entered the virile member.

5. Hunger and thirst said to him [i.e. Ātman]: 'For us two also find out [an abode].'

Unto the two he said: 'I assign you two a part among these divinities. I make you two partakers among them.' Therefore to whatever divinity an oblation is made, hunger and thirst become partakers in it.

Third Khaṇḍa

The creation of food of fleeting material form, and the inability of various personal functions to obtain it

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

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

3. Having been created, it sought to flee away.

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

4. 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 with breathing toward food one would have been satisfied.

5. 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.

6. 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 satisfied.

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

10. He sought to grasp it with the out-breath (apāna — the digestive breath). He consumed it. This grasper of food is what wind (vāyu) is. This one living on food (annāyu), verily, is what wind is.

The entrance of the Self into the body

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

He bethought himself: 'With which should I enter?'

He bethought himself: 'If with speech there is uttered, if with breath (prāṇa) there is breathed, if with sight there is seen, if with hearing there is heard, if with the skin there is touched, if with the mind there is thought, if with the out-breath (apāna) there is breathed out, if with the virile member there is emitted, then who am I?'

12. So, cleaving asunder this very hair-part (sīman), by that door he entered. This is the door named 'the cleft' (vidṛti). That is the delighting (nandana).

He has three dwelling-places, three conditions of sleep: 'This is a dwelling-place. This is a dwelling-place. This is a dwelling-place.'

The mystic name of the sole self-existent Self

13. Having been born, he looked around on beings (bhūta), [thinking]: 'Of what here would one desire to speak as another?' He saw this very person as veriest (tatama) Brahma. 'I have seen It (idam adarśa)!' said he.

14. Therefore his name is Idam-dra ('It-seeing'). Idam-dra, verily, is his name. Him who is Idam-dra they call Indra cryptically, for the gods are fond of the cryptic (parokṣa-priya), as it were — for the gods are fond of the cryptic, as it were.

Second Adhyāya

Fourth Khaṇḍa

A self's three successive births

1. In a person (puruṣa), verily, this one becomes at first an embryo (garbha). 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.

2. It comes into self-becoming (ātma-bhūya) with the woman, just a limb of her own. Therefore it injures her not. She nourishes this self of his that has come to her.

3. She, being a nourisher, should be nourished. The woman bears him as an embryo. In the beginning, indeed, he nourishes the child; and from birth onward. While he nourishes the child from birth onward, he thus nourishes his own self, for the continuation of these worlds; for thus are these worlds continued. This is one's second birth.

4. This self of one is put in one's place for pious deeds (puṇya karmani). Then this other self of one, having done his work (kṛta-kṛtya), 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: —

5. 'Being yet in embryo, I knew well
   All the births of these gods!
   A hundred iron citadels confined me,
   And yet, a hawk (śyena) with swiftness, forth I flew!'

In embryo indeed thus lying (śayāna), Vāmadeva spoke in this wise.

6. So he, knowing this, having ascended aloft from this separation from the body (śarīra-bheda), obtained all desires in the heavenly world (svarga loka), and became immortal — yea, became [immortal]!

Third Adhyāya

Fifth Khaṇḍa

The pantheistic Self

1. [Question:] Who is this one?

[Answer:] We worship him as the Self (Ātman).

[Question:] Which one is the Self?

[Answer:] [He] whereby one sees, or whereby one hears, or whereby one smells odors, or whereby one articulates speech, or whereby one discriminates the sweet and the unsweet — that which is heart (hṛdaya) and mind (manas) — that is, consciousness (saṃjñāna), perception (ājñāna), discrimination (vijñāna), intelligence (prajñāna), wisdom (medhas), insight (dṛṣṭi), steadfastness (dhṛti), thought (mati), thoughtfulness (manīṣā), impulse (juti), memory, conception (saṃkalpa), purpose (kratu), life (āsuḥ), desire (kāma), will (vaśā).

2. All these, indeed, are appellations of intelligence (prajñāna).

3. He is Brahma; he is Indra; he is Prajāpati; [he is] all these gods; and these five gross elements (mahābhūtāni), namely earth (pṛthivī), wind (vāyu), space (ākāśa), water (apas), light (jyotiṣī); these things and those which are mingled of the fine, as it were; origins of one sort and another: those born from an egg (aṇḍa-ja), and those born from a womb (yoni-ja), and those born from sweat (sveda-ja), and those born from a sprout (udbhij-ja); horses, cows, persons, elephants; whatever breathing thing there is here — whether moving or flying, and what is stationary.

All this is guided by intelligence, is based on intelligence. The world is guided by intelligence. The basis is intelligence. Brahma is intelligence.

4. So he [i.e. Vāmadeva], having ascended aloft from this world with that intelligent Self (Ātman), obtained all desires in yon heavenly world, and became immortal — yea, became [immortal]!

Colophon

Source: Sanskrit (Aitareya Āraṇyaka, Book II, Chapters 4–6; Ṛgvedic manuscript tradition, ~7th–5th century BCE)

Translation: Hume, Robert Ernest. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads Translated from the Sanskrit. Oxford University Press, 1921. Public domain.

Scribal Formatting: Transcribed and formatted by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, April 2026, from the DjVu OCR scan of Hume's 1921 edition (Internet Archive identifier: in.ernet.dli.2015.88708). OCR artifacts corrected throughout; Hume's scholarly parenthetical glosses preserved as they illuminate key Sanskrit concepts (mūrti, sīman, vidṛti, prajñāna, etc.). Hume's section-heading apparatus omitted per archival convention — sections presented clean and numbered. Khaṇḍa sub-headings preserved as they are the text's own organization. First archival presentation of this translation in the Good Works Library.

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