Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Encyclopedia
The Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" (mukhya) Upanishads. It is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana
, and its status as an independent Upanishad may be considered a secondary extraction of a portion of the Brahmana text. This makes it one of the oldest texts of the Upanishad corpus. It is largely the oldest Upanishad, excluding some parts which were composed after the Chandogya. and the largely neglected Jaiminiya Upanisad Brahmana. It is associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It figures as number 10 in the Muktika
canon of 108 Upanishads and was notably commented upon by Adi Shankara
.
statements, and is ascribed to Yajnavalkya
. Its name means "great-wilderness-Upaniṣad". It includes three sections, namely, Madhu Kanda, Muni Kanda (or Yajnavalkya Kanda) and Khila Kanda. The Madhu Kanda explains the teachings of the basic identity of the individual or Atman
. Muni Kanda includes the conversations between the sage Yajnavalkya and one of his wives, Maitreyi
. Various methods of meditation and some secret rites are dealt in the Khila Kanda. The doctrine of "neti neti
" (later on understood as "neither this, nor that") and a often quoted verse, "Asato Maa" is found in this Upanishad.
ॐ असतोमा सद्गमय ।
तमसोमा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ।।
ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः ।। – बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28.
IAST
:
oṁ asato mā śad gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya
oṁ śānti śānti śāntiḥ – bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣad 1.3.28
Translation:
Lead Us From the Unreal To the Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
According as one acts, so does he become.
One becomes virtuous by virtuous action,
bad by bad action. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5
makes use of the story "The Voice of the Thunder", found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Sections of the story appear in his poem The Waste Land
under part V What The Thunder Said.
Shatapatha Brahmana
The Shatapatha Brahmana is one of the prose texts describing the Vedic ritual, associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It survives in two recensions, Madhyandina and Kanva , with the former having the eponymous 100 adhyayas,7624 kandikas in 14 books, and the latter 104 adhyayas,6806 kandikas in 17...
, and its status as an independent Upanishad may be considered a secondary extraction of a portion of the Brahmana text. This makes it one of the oldest texts of the Upanishad corpus. It is largely the oldest Upanishad, excluding some parts which were composed after the Chandogya. and the largely neglected Jaiminiya Upanisad Brahmana. It is associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It figures as number 10 in the Muktika
Muktika
The Muktikā refers to the canon of 108 upaniṣadas of the Advaita school enumerated in the Muktikopaniṣad, the 108th of which is the Muktikopaniṣad itself...
canon of 108 Upanishads and was notably commented upon by Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...
.
Content
It is widely known for its philosophicalPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
statements, and is ascribed to Yajnavalkya
Yajnavalkya
Yajnavalkya of Mithila was a legendary sage of Vedic India, credited with the authorship of the Shatapatha Brahmana , besides Yogayajnavalkya Samhita and the Yājñavalkya Smṛti...
. Its name means "great-wilderness-Upaniṣad". It includes three sections, namely, Madhu Kanda, Muni Kanda (or Yajnavalkya Kanda) and Khila Kanda. The Madhu Kanda explains the teachings of the basic identity of the individual or Atman
Atman (Hinduism)
Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means 'self'. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism it refers to one's true self beyond identification with phenomena...
. Muni Kanda includes the conversations between the sage Yajnavalkya and one of his wives, Maitreyi
Maitreyi
Maitreyi was a Vedic philosopher from ancient India. She was the second wife of famous sage and philosopher, Yajnavalkya, the first being Katyaayanee....
. Various methods of meditation and some secret rites are dealt in the Khila Kanda. The doctrine of "neti neti
Neti neti
In Hinduism, and in particular Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, neti neti may be a chant or mantra, meaning "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that"...
" (later on understood as "neither this, nor that") and a often quoted verse, "Asato Maa" is found in this Upanishad.
Popular Shlokas
ॐ असतोमा सद्गमय ।
तमसोमा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ।।
ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः ।। – बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28.
IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...
:
oṁ asato mā śad gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya
oṁ śānti śānti śāntiḥ – bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣad 1.3.28
Translation:
Lead Us From the Unreal To the Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
According as one acts, so does he become.
One becomes virtuous by virtuous action,
bad by bad action. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5
Editions
- Albrecht Weber, The in the Mādhyandina-Çākhā, with extracts from the commentaries of , Harisvāmin and Dvivedānga, Berlin 1849, reprint Chowkhamba Sanskrit Ser., 96, Varanasi 1964.
- Willem Caland, The in the Recension, rev. ed. by Raghu Vira, Lahore 1926, repr. Delhi (1983)
- Emile Senart , Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad, Belles Lettres (1967) ISBN 2-251-35301-1
- TITUS online edition (based on both Weber and Caland)
- Sivananda, The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: Sanskrit text, English translation, and commentary. Published by Divine Life SocietyDivine Life SocietyThe Divine Life Society is a religious organization and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India...
, 1985.
Translations
- Max MüllerMax MüllerFriedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...
, Sacred Books of the East (1879) http://hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/brihad_max1.htm - R. E. Hume (1921) http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15098.htm
- P. LalP. LalPurushottama Lal was an Indian poet, essayist, translator, professor and publisher. He was the founder and publisher of Writers Workshop in Calcutta, established in 1958.-Life and education:...
, (1974) ISBN 81-7595-400-0 - Swami Nikhilananda (1987) ISBN 0-911206-14-0
- Swami Madhavananda, Advaita AshramaAdvaita AshramaAdvaita Ashrama, Mayavati, is a branch of the Ramakrishna Math, founded on 19 March 1899 at the behest of Swami Vivekananda, by his disciples Captain James Henry Sevier and Mrs Charlotte Sevier. Today it is entrusted with the propagation of original writings of Swami Vivekananda...
, Kolkata 1934, 4th edition 2004 Online - Swami KrishnanandaSwami KrishnanandaSri Swami Krishnananda Saraswati Maharaj was a Hindu saint. He was a foremost disciple of Swami Sivananda and served as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India from 1958 until 2001...
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: English translation, and commentary, Published by Divine Life SocietyDivine Life SocietyThe Divine Life Society is a religious organization and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India...
.
In literature
Poet T. S. EliotT. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
makes use of the story "The Voice of the Thunder", found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Sections of the story appear in his poem The Waste Land
The Waste Land
The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...
under part V What The Thunder Said.