ऐतरेयोपनिषद्Aitareya Upanishad

About this scripture

The Aitareya Upanishad, belonging to the Rigveda (from the Aitareya Aranyaka), is a short Upanishad in three chapters, the first of which has three sections. It teaches that before creation the Self (Atman) alone existed and thought forth the worlds, their guardian deities, and their food; that the Self then entered the body through the crown of the head and beheld itself as Brahman — whence its secret name Idandra, indirectly called Indra. The second chapter describes the three births of the embodied self, and the third culminates in the great saying प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म, "Consciousness is Brahman." It opens with the वाङ् मे मनसि shanti-patha, which is repeated at the close. The Devanagari is given with strict IAST transliteration and a researched per-mantra meaning gloss in English and Hindi.