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The Brihad Aranyak Upanishad
Chapter One: Section I
1. Dawn is the head1 of the horse sacrificial.2 The sun is his eye,3 his breath is the wind, his wide open mouth is Fire, the master might universal, Time is the self of the horse sacrificial.4 Heaven is his back & the midworld his belly, earth is his footing,—the regions are his flanks & the lesser regions their ribs, the seasons his members, the months & the half months are their joints, the days & nights are his standing place, the stars his bones & the sky is the flesh of his body. The strands are the food in his belly, the rivers are his veins, his liver & his lungs are the mountains, herbs & plants are his hairs, the rising is his front & the setting his hinder portion, when he stretches himself, then it lightens,
1 Because it is the front and beginning. 2 Aswa meant originally “being, existence, substance”. From the sense of speed & strength it came to mean “horse”. The word is therefore used to indicate material existence & the horse (the image usually conveyed by this name) is taken as the symbol of universal existence in annam. The horse is symbolic & the sacrifice is symbolic. We have in it an image of the Virat Purusha, of Yajniya Purusha, God expressing himself in the material universe. 3 Because the sun is the master of sight.
4 Air is the basis of life, Fire of strength & expansion. Time is that which upholds
existence in material space & is the soul of it.
Page – 268 when he shakes his frame, then it thunders, when he urines, then it rains. Speech, verily, is the sound of him.
2. Day was the grandeur that was born before the horse as he galloped, the eastern ocean gave it birth; night was the grandeur that was born behind him & its birth was from the other waters. These are the grandeurs that came into being on either side of the horse. He became Haya & bore the gods, Vaja & bore the Gandharvas, Arvan & bore the Titans, Aswa & bore mankind. The sea was his brother & the sea was his birthplace.
Chapter One: Section II
1. Formerly there was nothing here; this was concealed by Death—by Hunger, for it is Hunger that is Death. That created Mind, & he said, Let me have substance. He moved about working & as he worked the waters were born & he said, Felicity was born to me as I worked. This verily is the activity in action. Therefore felicity cometh to him who thus knoweth this soul of activity in action.
2. The waters verily (in their movement) are action; that which was a lake of waters was contracted & became compact. This became earth—upon earth he grew weary—in his
Page – 269 weariness he was heated & the Essence of energy went out from him, even Fire.
3. Fire divided himself into three—the sun one of the three & Vayu one of the three; this is that force of life arranged triply. The east is his head and the northeast & the southeast are his arms. Now the west is his seat & the southwest & the northwest are his thighs; his sides are the south & the north; heaven is his back & the middle region is his belly; this earth is his bosom. This is he that is established in the waters wheresoever thou turn. And as that is he established who thus knoweth.
4. He desired “Let a second self be born to me.” He by mind had intercourse with speech, even Hunger that is Death; the seed that was of that union became Time. For before this Time was not (period of Time) but so long He had borne him in Himself. So long as is Time’s period, after so long He gave it birth. He yawned upon him as soon as it was born; it cried out & that became speech.
Page – 270 5. He saw, If I devour this, I shall diminish food; therefore by that speech & by that self he created all this that we see, the Riks & the Yajus & the Samas & the rhythms & sacrifices & animals & these nations. Whatsoever he created, that he set about devouring, verily he devoureth all; this is the substantiality of being in substance (that it can be destroyed5). He becometh the eater of all the world & everything becometh his food who thus knoweth the substantiality of being in substance.
6. He desired “Let me sacrifice more richly with richer sacrifice.” He laboured & put forth heat of force, & of him thus laboured & heated splendour & strength came forth. The life-forces are that splendour & strength, therefore when the life-forces go forth, the body sets about to rot, yet in his body even so mind was.
7. He desired “Let this have sacrificial capacity for me, by this let me be provided with a body.” That which has expressed power & being, that is fit for the sacrifice. This verily is the secret of the Aswamedha & he knoweth indeed the Aswamedha who thus knoweth it. He gave him free course & thought, then after a year (a fixed period of time) he dedicated him to the self. [The rest of this section was not translated.]
5 Destroyed, i.e. enjoyed by absorption.
Page – 271 Chapter One: Section III
1. Two were the races of the Sons of God, the gods & the Titans. Thereafter the gods were weaker, mightier the Titans. They in these worlds strove together, & the gods said, Let us by the udgitha overpass the Titans in the yajna.
2. They said to Speech, Do thou go upward (by the udgitha) for us. “So be it” said Speech and he went upward for them; the enjoyment that is in speech, he reached for the gods, the good that it speaks, he reached for the self. They thought it was by this singer they would overpass them, but they ran at him and penetrated him with evil. The evil that one speaketh this that hath no correspondence (to the thing or fact to be expressed),—this is that evil.
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