Aitareya
Presented on: Thursday, January 26, 1989
Presented by: Roger Weir
Intro to the Major Works of the Upanishads
Presentation 4 of 13
Aitareya
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, January 26, 1989
Transcript:
Itaraa is the mother of the great sage who writes this Upanishad. Whether there was a woman named Itaraa or not is besides the point. His name, Mahidasa Aitareya. Mahidasa. It's a very peculiar name. And the earliest use of that name is in The Chandogya Upanishad, which as we saw is written about 700 B.C. So at least 2,700 years ago already he is referred to. And in The Chandogya Upanishad he is said to have lived 116 years. Now in the classic sense, the most that one could live would be a 120 years. So, he lives like 95% of the fullness of what human life is possible.
His name not Maha but Mahidasa. Mahisa in Sanskrit means demon. But the da as a root, like in darshan. The da means that there, there is a there is a recognition. There is, there's the sight and the recognition of, of sight. There's that quality. So that his name means he who has seen all the demons. Who has been nourished by Itaraa. And in his wisdom has given us this, the Upanishad.
The, the sense of this Upanishad is very strange. As you've seen in the series that we've had, in ancient times, in ancient Indian civilization, there was always a cycle of life. And for the Brahman male there was always the period in his life where he would go and study. You must study. And it came down to everyone having to observe a certain period of apprenticing yourself to your teacher. And the male would apprentice himself to the teacher. And the teacher would accept the male student as if he were not only his own son but is if the student were now a pregnancy of the teacher. So that later on, the student would be born again out of the teacher. And in a way in Indian societies this was called twice-born and all upper caste individuals males had to be twice born. That is to say by the age of 12 if you were a Brahman. By the age of 15 I believe it is if you work a Kshatriya. By the age of 16 I think if you were **inaudible word**. If you were not twice born by a certain age you were an outcast. You were not a part of the fabric of society.
But that whole pattern became accentuated. In around 800 B.C. it began to change. And instead of that being just a part of the cycle of life, it became recognized that for certain individuals this was their entire life. That in the, as we would say today, in the ecology of all of human life there are certain individuals who are very specially always living that ascetical life. And for such individuals theyre not so much in the womb of the teacher. They do get born out of that. But they're in the womb of God. So that they are always there.
So, there is this peculiar sense in The Aitareya Upanishad of a transition. of a transition of a cultural pattern now isolating the wisdom realization aspect, the inner truth kernel. Which was to always have been a part of the social fabric was now being excerpted and opened up. Being broadcast in its fullest. And The Aitareya Upanishad is one of those documents where you see the transition.
The Upanishad does not appear just in its little traditional self that we have now. The Aitareya Upanishad that we have now is a part of a section in what is called The Aitareyan Aranyaka. And The Aitareyan Aranyaka actually has five sections or five aranyakas together. Now the word aranyaka means forest teaching. An aranyaka is a forest teaching. In this sense that as long as these teachings were a part of society they were taught in the home. They were taught in the village. They were taught in whatever urban areas there might be. But as the transition happened there were certain elements of that teaching that were only taught in secret and in private. The forest is like a simile for the, for the privacy of nature. Like today we would understand the Himalayas in that term. In ancient India 2,700 years ago, it was the forests. So that an aranyaka is something that can only be taught and only be studied in the forest. Which means then that is a secret.
So that the teaching, the aranyaka, is removed from the social pattern. The social pattern with those teachings were called brahmanas. So, the aranyakas secrets of the brahmanas. This is, this is how that works. The aranyakas are the, the secret of how the brahmanas work.
Within the aranyakas there was a second kernel of esoteric truth, which was like discovering the reason why. The aranyakas are like the esoteric structure. This is why life works this way. This is why nature happens this way. And then the Upanishad is the further inner kernel. The kernel of the kernel, this is why it is so.
So, The Upanishads were always in the early centuries part of the forest teachings. Part of the aranyakas. But whereas the aranyakas would have been given to everyone who came to the forest retreat. And I must tell you now that men and women went. It was not talked about. But I'll show you how in The Aitareya Upanishad, in one of the sections there's an aspect that has to be delivered in the secret of secrets and pregnant women must leave the audience. Not because women were exiled but because it's about realization, prenatal realization, in the womb. And it's something which he or she in the womb must not hear. So anyway, we'll see how that works out.
Now this Rishi Mahidasa Aitareya lived to be 116 years old according to The Chandogya Upanishad. And is descended from his mother Itaraa, who was like an eternal feminine.
What is that brahmana, The Aitareya Brahmana from which The Aitareya Aranyaka is excerpted. From which The Aitareya Upanishad is the kernel of the kernel. That brahmana was in particular a year-long ceremony. And in that year-long of ritual there was at the very next to the last day. Not on the last day but the next to the last day. The English word for that condition is penultimate. The ultimate is the last. The penultimate is the last but one. On the penultimate day, was a very special ceremony called the Marvrata. Marvrata. And in the Marvrata sacrifice is called the satra in ancient India. Satra. This is when one would hear, have a chance to hear. And so, it's on the Marvrata day that one would go to the forest to hear the aranyakas, The Aitareya Aranyaka.
And while you were there. There are five of the aranyakas that form this pattern of The Aitareya. Five together. And as you recall last week in The Taittiriya Upanishad the basic structure of the realization process, the journey of the soul, is to penetrate five sheathes, five koshas. The first of them is the realm of food. The second of them the realm of the vital breath. And then one goes inside of the neurophysiological structure. One goes to the third kosha, which is the mind. And then one goes into the very structure of the mind, one goes to what we would call today intellect. or what the Greeks would call reason. But it's, it's the intelligence in the mind. And then the fifth kosha there is a quality of knowledge, gnosis as we would call it sometimes.
In The Aitareya Upanishad the five aranyakas that are together are like this cluster of the five sheaths, but the order is scrambled in a way. So that The Aitareya Upanishad comes at the end of the second of the five. And the reason for this is that, even in The Aitareya Upanishad, the reason is given that sacred teachings must not be divulged in their real order. Must never be given in the real order. The truth must be given but the form of truth must never be given straight out. So that only those who can, who are who are actively seeing and understanding. Actively apprehending and going along with it. They will make the readjustment in their own experience of the right order. The reason for this? The Aitareya Upanishad will say the realm of the Gods loves mystery. Or the divine level which is active in the universe loves veiled language. And being masterful with veiled language is a sign that one is able to operate on that level. Because if one can operate on that level to such an extent that it becomes transparent. That you can penetrate that. Where do you penetrate to? You penetrate to realization. But the penetration does not happen in your mind mimicking what you have heard. or mimicking what you have seen. Or mimicking what you have been shown. But in your own apprehension, your own experience then makes the realization happen. The knower is the known. So, the process, the function, is not different from its actuality.
Now you can see the, the whole year cycle. And it bore the name the Gavamayana. Gavamayana.
And in a peculiar way The Aitareya Upanishad will cite the experience of a sage named Vamadeva. And Vamadeva is like a secret essence of the Gavamayana has within its texture the wisdom of the sage, Vamadeva, who is in The Upanishad lore a very strange sage. He was enlightened in the womb. Before he was born. He was enlightened as an embryo. Which makes him, I think it's the only instance in Ian thought where someone was enlightened as an embryo. So that there's a very peculiar quality to Vamadeva. So that whatever Vamadeva assured is from that liminal area that comes before birth. So that whatever confusions there might be in this world had no effect on him whatsoever.
Now it's possible in Indian civilization not only to have the life cycle but to see that there is an essential structure in the life cycle and to excerpt that. Just as the aranyaka teachings were excerpted from the life experience, the social fabric. So, to there was an eleven-day cycle that was excerpted from this year-long cycle. And that eleven-day cycle could be presented at propitious times by itself. In a general living context, one might go through the year-long cycle. but in a very special situation, perhaps there had been. Let me give you an example some terrible times for a certain generation. Wars and so forth. And people needed to be reminded. One would, a rishi would then institute under special conditions excerpting, like in this eleven-day cycle in presenting that. So as to re-educate the population. Or re-educate enough of the population so that they could appreciate wisdom.
This kind of a sacrifice is called Ahina. Ahina. And there were many different kinds of sacrifices like this. There was an Ahina of the year-long ceremony out of which The Aitareya Aranyaka and Upanishad were excerpted. The name of this eleven-day sacrifice was the Ekadasaratra.
Now you're familiar with the yogic term one pointedness of mind. The Sanskrit word for that is ekagrata. So that this is related to that. And the ekagrata is this eleven-day cycle excerpted. And the tenth day of that eleven day would be the Marathi day. And that would be a very propitious day. That day by itself when, when the secret would be disclosed came to have of the name Pundarika. that day became Pundarika and in Indian civilization. Pundarika is like what in Christian civilization what Pentecost would be. It's a great day of the holy spirit of making a profound revelation and the revelation has to do with the structure of language.
So that later on, in Mahayana Buddhism there came to be a great secret Sutra called the Saddharma Pundarika, which is usually translated as the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus of the good law Sutra. And I'm just telling you this so you can see how complicated Indian civilization is. And how continuously everything is used and reused and remembered and rewoven back into the fabric of the civilization.
The Aitareya Upanishad makes a particular point that this is a confirmation of wisdom. That you can re-weave back into your own experience all of the wisdom that has ever been had by our people, by our civilization. So, your, your realization is complete. Nothing is left out. How is it complete? Because the generation of meaning, which comes out of the way that we live. Out of the ritual form of the way we live. That generation of meaning always has a certain structure of focusing. So that once a human being experiences the focus, they have experienced all meaning. All of the possible structures of meaning. And they could if they wish go, back through that meaning and understand all of the ritual context. Where that meaning focuses in a human being that is the soul. Or the Atman as The Upanishads call it. It is the Atman not because it's an object but because it's the place where the focus of all meaning comes into being. And where that comes into being, The Aitareya Upanishad will say, that always has the shape of a person.
Now some translations like Sri Aurobindos wonderful translation uses the term being. But it's quite clear in the Sanskrit that the, the Purusha the energy has the shape of a person. But the correct way to translate is always to put a capital P. And what we should understand from this is that it isn't person with a small p but person with a large P. There is someone who realizes that the knower is not an abstraction at all but is quite distinctly you. So, there is no, there is no sense of ambivalencey about this. And there shouldn't be with us.
Now the whole purpose of an aranyaka is to wean you away from external sacrifice. And as you are weaned away from external sacrifice you come to grow independent of the ritual basis of meaning. You come to understand that you can generate meaning in yourself. And so, there's like a short cut. The meaning that's generated from ritual that takes place in life you might have to live 30 or 40 years. If you generate it within yourself that time condenses. That possibility of condensing it. But the condensation is in terms of structure. In terms of form. The ritual life is in terms of content. And after one has gone through the cycles 30 or 40 times or lived 50 or 60 years you get to know the feel of what an annual cycle is like. Of what the seasons are like. Of what you are like. But a shortcut is to understand the structure. And if one understands the structure, the form, The Aitareya Upanishad will say it's that form that becomes recognizable to the person. And so, it will talk this way.
So that an aranyaka is to grow independent of the ritual until the stage is reached where the aranyaka passes into Upanishad. So, you have ritual, aranyaka and Upanishad. And what is meant by this kind of a phrase that the ritual is left increasingly into the our aranyaka stage until it passes into Upanishad. The aranyaka stage is where there are still a teacher. The Upanishad is where you have become your own teacher. So, theres society. There's teacher. And then there's your own self. So that The Upanishads are the kernels for yourself. The theater has narrowed to form and structure with the teacher, but it narrows to realization with yourself.
So that the secret of The Upanishads is that at that stage of condensation the only possible teacher is yourself. And the only possible learner, the only student there, is yourself. and that the teacher and the student are in fact the same person. And the realization is the harmonizing and bringing together of that into oneness. That at this level of concentration all of the meaning that there is has been channeled and brought together. So much that in one glimpse of wholeness you may take it all in. You may do it as teacher to yourself or a student to yourself. And then there's that double catch when you realize that you are both teacher and student. You are knower and known. And since you are, it's not only that they are the same or that they are identical but that there is no differentiation operating. Not only is there no duality but there's no duality possible. So that one has woken up to the fact that there never was any condition in the universe where duality could be real. So, it's that kind, that kind of a situation.
Now I was going to outline for you some of the social difficulties. Let me just give you a little bit like this and remind us. These are so basic. But we live in such sophisticated times that we have forgotten some of the basics. There were initiations for children at many major junctures that we have forgotten about. Or what rather we have experienced but didn't make a lot of it. For instance, the birth right, the Jatakarma, the birth right. The next one was a naming ceremony, the Namkaran. And usually that happened within the first 12 days. So, the birth was an initiation. The giving of a name was an initiation. There was the niecegremona, which is the exit from the birthing room. That after a certain time period one was able to come out of the birthing room. The leaving of the birthing area was an initiation. There is the first eating of solid food was also an initiation. And these all have Sanskrit names. There is the first ear-piercing. There is the first haircut. All of these were initiations. They were thresholds.
Now notice what all of these have in common. They are the introduction of this person into the physical processes of this world. The adding and taking away of this world. They are the weaving of this person into the physiological, social functions of this world. The bringing of this being into this world. And the reason for specifying all of these initiations, making them special ceremonies. And there were chants and hymns and ritual things to do for every single one of these. Was to delineate the fact that we are passing through multiple thresholds of coming into this world. Nothing is simple. Nothing just happens. but everything that happens must be enumerated. So that we see that the character of all of these childhood initiations are to protect you. To protect your entry into the world. Your participation with the adding and subtracting that the world. And so, there's an amulet like function to all of these ceremonies of childhood.
The last protection is the apprentice to wisdom. That's the last initiation. And when one comes out of the apprentice to wisdom, one is born again. one becomes twice born. In the sense that we no longer protect you in this amulet like fashion of trying to seal you and, and make you secure. But now you are able to come out and shine. So, there's that Talismanic quality. Instead of that amulet protecting there's the expressive radiance of that talismanic quality. That all the initiations after that are meant to open you up further. So, the childhood ones are meant to seal you. And assure you that all of this whatever is taken away, whatever is added to you, there is no real harm in this at all. Just as the opening up initiations are telling you that further amplifications of yourself are not endangering the real you. That you can open yourself up even to Brahman itself is a natural function of your reality.
So, there are all these kinds of qualities. And I, I won't I won't go into this. I had a lot of things outlined for you but we're going to run out of time.
I think I need to give you this, this description. The five aranyakas, in the first one there is a description of this Mahrati ceremony. And it's given from the perspective of the Hotr priest. H-o-t-r usually with the dot under the R. Or sometimes it's called Hotr. The Hotr priest, the origin of that kind of designation and language comes from the Agni ceremony. Fire ceremony. In India it's still remembered that the first transformational symbol of civilization was fire. And the sign of a firm civilization is that the transformational fire is in everyone's home. In everyone's hearth. In fact, maybe you should know this. I don't know. Maybe I'm sure you're all beyond this. But the original idea of the woman's place being in the kitchen is that she tends the Agni energy in the home. and her tending that keeps that home consecrated to that Agni power in the universe. It was that kind of a sense. And so, there's almost like an archetypal remembrance of that, which in our time comes up in very peculiar ways.
Are your tapes all right? Should we take a break? Let's take a break and let the tapes get straight.
Bring ourselves back to where we were before the machines interrupted us.
We're talking about the Hotr priests. The Hotr priest is one who chants the liturgy. The chanting of the liturgy in the sacrifice always goes on. I will bring you in a little bit of the Agni yoga sacrifice. It's not done very often. In 1975 the University of California Press published in two huge tomes the whole sacrifice. And they have that in the library at Whirling Rainbow. And, and with it came cassettes of it and you can hear it. It sounds very much like American Indian chants. It's just like, the drums in American Indian ceremony, the chanting is the basic drone against which everything happens meaningfully. If it weren't for the liturgy being chanted, the meaning would not be generated. So that the language is the meat of what is happening. The language is the meat of what is being done. The understanding of the structure of that language is what is taught in the aranyaka. So, that the first of the five aranyakas in The Aitareya is to make that transition for you. This is what all of that is about.
In the second aranyaka the meaning is taken, and the essence of the meaning is laid out. This is what that is all about. So, it's like one is telescoping life into this secret. And then one is telescoping this secret into this realization. And then the third aranyaka is taking that realization and giving you a little bit of mystic exposition on it. And the fourth and fifth were added about 100-150 years later by another sage to, to balance out. The Indian sense is always for a balance. And because there had been this penetration from language into meaning into realization, the last two were added. So that one then had meaning and then again had the
so that the fifth aranyaka is like the first. It carries you back into life. But it carries you back into life with a mystic sense of having woven together the expressions of realization. Which the fourth aranyaka gives in nine mystical verse.
And these nine verses, I think I should just give them to you now. This is from the translation of A.B. Keith done in 1909. Mahanamni, The Mahanamni Hymns. And these are the nine hymns. And if you notice here the structure of nine. The Enneads of Plotinus. The nine shamanic songs of Taoist China. They're all these kinds of forms. Whenever you have nine like that it's an expression from the deep self. Whenever you have seven it's a realization from life. And whenever you have nine it's a realization from the deep self. Orpheus as a mystagog has a 7-string lyre but Apollo as a God has a nine-string lyre. There is that kind of a difference.
So, The Mahanamni, those nine hymns and The Aitareya, in the fourth one, are an expression of how that deep, the deep wisdom which the Upanishad has delivered, if you have heard it it's delivered it. And this is the first expression of its completeness in language again.
Oh, generous one show us a path. Proclaim the regions. Guide us Lord of many mites. And wealthy one. With these aides of thine wise one make us wise. For glory and for strength. Indra for thine is strength. For wealth for mite Thunderer most powerful bearer of the bolt thou lovest thou movest. Thou movest generous bearer of the bolt, come hither drink and be glad. Grant us wealth with good heroes.
That is to say don't grant us wealth in a monetary sense, but grant is the wealth of people who have the courage to be heroic in this existence.
Grant us wealth with good heroes. Thou art the Lord of might according to thy will. What kind of might? Not muscle might but might a penetration. Delivering courage to the heroic, you see. Its like that.
Bearer of the bolt who art, the most powerful of heroes. God is the most heroic of all beings.
Most generous of givers. Wise one guide us a right. Indra refines all. Him I praise for he has will and strength. The name Indra here as explained in The Aitareya Upanishad isn't Indra. Indra is a contraction of the Sanskrit word for this seas, which is very closely related to the word. And we'll see how it is in the, in the Upanishad in just a moment. So, when they say Indra, they don't mean a mythological figure. It would be primitive to think that one has in mind a mythological figure. That's not it at all. this is from the self. The self has no figures in it. It has realization in it. this language comes from realization and makes by expressing what it says. There's no imitation of an image base at all. There's no images where this comes from at all. Not even one.
Him we summoned to our aid. The conqueror unconquered. may he convey us beyond our foes. He has strength, resolve and mighty order. Indra, we summoned for the winning of wealth. The conqueror unconquered may he convoy us beyond our foes. May he convoy us beyond our enemies. Place us in thy favor, ancient one. Lord of the Thunder, bright one. Most powerful thy rewards are extolled for the strong God bares rule. Lord of man. Slayer of Vitra. This new hymn I offer now to thee. Among others let us to converse together. The hero who fares for the cows is a kind and guileless friend.
You see, when this was done cows were the basis of the social life.
Thus, o Agni. Thus, o Indra. Thus, o Vishnu. Thus, o Pluson. Thus, o Gods for he is strong. For he has strength and will according to his will. On all sides come hither show generous one. Show.
And so, these are nine mystical verses that are meant not to evoke but are meant to declare from one's deepest realization.
Now The Aitareya Upanishad, which comes before this, which is the basis, which delivers the penetrating realization which is the basis for The Mahanamni begins with taking two different firmnesses. One the firmness of the divine. And the second the firmness of the language which we command. And it runs like this. this is the opening prayer.
My speech is held firmly in my mind. my mind is held firmly in my speech. O thou who art manifestation, be manifest unto me. Guarding my knowledge like a linchpin, the wheel. Do not let fall away the truth taught to my ear. By this knowledge that I learn I shall firmly hold the days and the nights. I will utter the reality. I will utter the truth. May that nourish me. May that nourish the teacher. Me may that nourish. The teacher may that nourish. Let the peace descend. Ohm.
And what happens here is that the peace that descends is a comprehending silence as we would call it. A holy silence. How does it descend? It descends because the language spoken creates forms of receptivity so that we can hear the silence after. It cuts forms of meaning in such a way that the silence becomes audible. And like in that vast echo which is only silence we apprehend truth and reality. And so, The Upanishad begins with that prayer, let this occur.
Now The Aitareya Upanishad itself are chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the second aranyaka. It's usually number chapters 1, 2 and 3 but in the large structure it's 4, 5 and 6.
4 begins in this way, all this was only oneself. All this was only oneself at the beginning. Whatever there is, there's only oneself at the beginning. And nothing else there was that stirred. He saw. I will now create the worlds.
Sri Aurobindo gives a beautiful translation of this. I'll give you as a comparison. In the beginning the spirit was one. And all this universe was the spirit. There was not else that saw. The spirit thought, lo I will make me worlds out of my being. you can see Aurobindos kind of quite a sizing of the language. Translation that I'm using here is by Chandra Sicharem. And it's a very excellent little translation published in southern India Pondicherry. Not too many years ago.
He created these worlds. And The Aitareya Upanishad now gives us the basic quaternary. The universal quaternary structure of the worlds. The upper waters. The world that glimmers. which is the Stars. The upper waters beyond them. The firmament as one would say. If the machines
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something we're going to have to learn to do.
The upper waters. The world that glimmers. The world of death. The Earth is called the world of death not morbidly and not pessimistically, but as we would say in our language realistically. And we will find that it has its place. It is indispensable. It is indispensable. This world is death and it is indispensable. It has its place in the ecology of the real. Without it nothing would happen for real. So, death has its place.
Notice how heaven and earth, the glimmering and death, are set together but they're set together in between the upper waters and the lower waters. Below the Earth, below death, are other waters.
Now The Aitareya Upanishad which comes from around 700 to 600 B.C. would be contemporaneous with in The Bible with Isaiah and Jeremiah. Roughly that time period, which is the same time period incidentally of the rewriting of Genesis. Genesis was rewritten by Hilkiah who is Jeremiah's father, according to the Deuteronomistic perspective somewhere in the 7th century B.C. Just before the, just after the first exile and just before the second exile. To make sure that the tradition would be remembered, all of it was brought together again so that it could be hidden. And hidden in memory so that living individuals would remember it.
So, The Aitareya Upanishad is contemporaneous with Isaiah and Jeremiah. So, it's account of the universe is very similar to Genesis because that was the wisdom of that age. It was a worldwide wisdom. You have to understand it doesn't belong to any one tradition. Every tradition has its way of telling the truth. The universal wisdom, which is everywhere for one to see.
The upper water is the world of the glimmers. The world of death the lower waters. There above is the world of the upper waters beyond heaven. Heaven is its foundation. Heaven, the Heavens, is the foundation of the upper waters. The foundation of the glimmers is Earth. Earth is the foundation. Earth is the world of death. Death is the foundation. And below it are the lower waters, which are the foundation of all.
He saw now there are worlds, I will now create the rulers of these worlds. The translation rulers is somewhat biased language. Aurobindo uses the term guardians. I think the kind of language that we would understand is these are the sealers of the world. The rulers in the sense that they take care of. Theyre guardians in the sense that they protect. But their function is to keep them formed. To make sure that their forms are what they should be. And so, they are rulers in that sense. They are guardians in that sense.
I will now create the rulers of these worlds. From the waters themselves he brought forth a person to the surface and made him to solidify. Notice it was right away, right away before anything is done, out of the quaternary of the universe comes the person.
I have talked about this on Tuesday nights for several years now. And it probably hasn't sunk in. The shape of the person is a spiritual perception of the real. It's not an imaginative image that we get second-rate from our life as persons at all. Before our life occurs, the accurate perception of the person as the shape of the spirit of the real occurs. We are like we are because we are very accurate expressions of that person. It's a in our time it seems kind of strange, but actually this is quite so.
Now Aurobindo gives us in his translation. The interesting words for these four levels. The ethereal waters, the upper waters, the embla. embla. The world of light, the Mauritian. Mara of death, Appam of the lower waters. So that all of these have, have names.
The spirit brooded over him. Who is the him in this? The him is the person with the capital P. The spirit brooded over him. In the sense of infusing energy by attention. And as the attention is there, the energy increases. And some translations call this building up heat. But they mean heat in The Rig-Veda sense. We would call today psychic energy. As the attention is focused on the person, the psychic energy builds up. It's like the person becomes vivified by the attentiveness of the Divine. The Divines of tension vilifies.
So that, The spirit brooded over him. And of him thus brooded over the mouth broke forth. Now there's going to be a series of eight. A series of eight images. Now when you have eight images like this, they always form a kind of a circle. So that the center of the circle is a ninth. And the ninth is a realization of how the eight come together as a whole. So that there is no ninth per se but there is a ninth implicitly. And if you can recognize the ninth implicit then you have realization operating in yourself. So, when you see the Ogdoad like that and recognize it, that with the Ogdoad with the realization is the ninth.
In one of The Naga Hamadi manuscripts that was found in Egypt, out of the 54 Gnostic treatises that were in there, there was one ancient Hermetic treatise called The Eighth Reveals The Ninth. And if you get a chance look at a copy of The Nag Hamadi manuscripts and The Eighth Reveals The Ninth is pristine Hermetic realization from this early 2nd century A.D. Probably 110 or so.
This kind of equality. And it says in there, When one penetrates the seven spheres of this universe and reaches the eighth. in the eighth sphere is a silence. And in that eighth silence one hears the hymns of God's angels in the night. You can hear the divine language in the silence of the eighth. It's like that. In sacred geometry it's like seven is the end of factorable progression in earthly geometry. Eight doesn't emerge from seven very well. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven emerge in odd permutation but seven doesn't. There's like a leap from seven to eight. But nine comes out of eight almost pristinely and effortlessly. So, in sacred geometry you always have that kind of equality.
So here we are. Here's the Ogdoad. Here's the eighth in The Aitareya Upanishad. And it happens because the Spirit is brooding over him. Who is him? You are him. In your deepest reality, you are him.
Over the mouth broke forth as when an egg is hatched and breaketh. And from the mouth broke speech. And of speech, fire was born. The nostrils broke forth and from the nostrils breath. And of breath, air was born. The eyes broke forth and from the eyes sight. And of sight the sun was born. The ears broke forth and from the ears, hearing. And of hearing the regions were born.
The regions means spatiality. They usually called the four quarters of space are hearing. That is to say, hearing in its kinesthetic balance is space. Is space. And incidentally has a feeling tone unconscious. Which if you make conscious, that's the music of the spheres.
The skin broke forth and from the skin, hairs. And from the hairs herbs of healing and all the trees and plants were born. The heart broke forth and from the heart, mind. And of mind the moon was born. The navel broke forth and from the navel, Apana. And of Apana death was born. The organ of pleasure broke forth and from the organ, seed. And of seed the water is born.
Seed is semen here. Is sometimes the translation.
These were the Gods that he created. They fell into this great ocean. And hunger and thirst leaped upon them. And they said to him, command unto us a habitation that we may dwell secure and eat of food. He brought them the cow, but they said verily it is not sufficient for us. He brought them the horse, but they said verily it is not enough for us. He brought them man and they said well fashioned, truly. Man, indeed is well and beautifully made. Then the spirit said to them, enter ye each according to his habitation. Fire became speech and entered into the mouth. Air became breath and entered into the nostrils.
Notice what is happening here. In just the way in which they were created they come together. They were created from the person and then coming back together they create the human being.
I guess I need to put illustration on the board. Think of a phantom person who expresses all this. And when they are brought back together. They are this human being. It's like that. So that there's a, there's a wave-like form. the question that would come out as you can see when you put it in this form. Why do they converge again? And the answer Upanishads say, they converge again because in the very essence of the radiance they are one. And do converge again because of the radiant nature. So that there's no contradiction for the radiation of God to converge again and produce man. There's no contradiction. It's in the nature of God's radiance that man is made the way that he is. That the universe is made the way that it is. That's the nature of God's radiance. Is that that is how it happens. And to know that this is Upanishad.
So,
Fire became speech and entered into the mouth. Air became breath and entered into the nostrils. The Sun became sight and entered into the eyes. The quarters became hearing and entered into the ears. Herbs of healing and the plants and trees became hairs and entered into the skin. the moon became mind and entered into the heart.
Mind in India is the heart. It's in the Anahata chakra. It's not up here in the brain. Its in the Anahata chakra.
Death became Apana, the lower breathing and entered into the navel. Waters became seed and entered into the organ. Then hunger and thirst said to the spirit, unto us to command a habitation. But he said unto them, even among these gods do I apportion you. Low I've made you share as in their Godhead. Therefore, to whatever God the oblation has offered, hunger and thirst surely have their share in the offering.
So that hunger and thirst this, these qualities. hunger and thirst are used symbolically as the limitations that edge life in its transitional forms. Life in its transitional forms have limitations. Hunger and thirst are symbolic of those limitations. They are taken care of. Not separately but whenever any of the divine expressive attributes are taken care of.
But there's an interesting quality here. The ogdoad is taken care of. But the center now, The Aitareya Upanishad because it's dealing with realization gives us the quandary, where does the center come in? Where does God come in? Where does the spirit come in? And in order to set this out there has to be a realization about nourishment. About food. About the basic kosha of how life goes on.
And so, The Aitareya Upanishad sets up this question of how God comes into a person by first setting the stage of how life actually happens. So, The Aitareya Upanishad here is going to turn heart **inaudible word or two** real. How does food nourish us? How actually does this happen? And so, it will outline in this way. The spirit thought, these are my worlds and their guardians and now I will make me food for these. The spirit brooded in might upon the waters. And from the waters form was born. And all that was born is formed is no other than food. The basic nourishment of life is structure. Form.
Food being created fled back from his grasp. His is the person. this person.
By speech he would have seized it, but he could not seize it by speech. Had he seized it by speech then would a man be satisfied by merely speaking food. By breath he would have seized it, but he could not seize it by breath. Had he seized it by breath and a man would be satisfied by merely breathing food. By the eye he would have seized it, but he could not seize it by the eye. Had he seized it by the eye then a man would be satisfied by merely seeing food. By the ear, but a man would have been satisfied by merely hearing food. By the skin but he would have been satisfied by merely touching food. By the mind but he would have been satisfied by merely thinking food.
Notice how the Upanishad very carefully takes a basic issue and goes full round with it. By the organ of generation, he would have seized it. But a man would have been satisfied by merely emitting food. Finally, by the oppem he would have seized it and it was seized. Lo this is the seizer of food. Which is also the breath of life. Which is also death. So, in a very odd way The Upanishad shows why death is a part of the wholeness of this form. It's no more important than any of the other aspects of this wholeness.
Then the spirit thought, without me how should all this be? And he thought, by which way shall I enter in? If utterance is by speech. If breathing is by breath. If sight is by the eye. If hearing is by the ear. If thought is by the mind. If the lower workings are by Apana. If the emission is by the organ. Who then am I?
And then The Upanishad takes a gesture. And the gesture with this to put a hand here at the top of the head. It was by this that he clapped. It was by this door that he entered in this. This that is called the gate of the cleaving. This is the door of his coming and here is the place of his delight. Delight here, I think the word in this translation is given is the dreaty. The dreaty is not so much delight but the joy giver. Why is this? When a baby is born the skull has to condense a little bit to come through the birth canal. It is the only way that that birth happens. It's the only way that realization happens is to know that that is true in the deepest sense. The deepest level. And that's the way God comes in here. That's the way it's spirit comes in.
Then The Upanishad right away, because it's weaving realization. It's not weaving learning diagrams but it's weaving realization. As soon as that is said, then three realms are given together. He has three mansions in his city. Three dreams wherein he dwells. And of each in turn he says, this is my habitation. This is my habitation. This is my habitation. The waking realm, the dream realm, the dreamless deep sleep realm. All three of these are mansions where the spirit in fact dwells. Realization when it occurs is at home in all of these levels. Its not just at home in the awakened state. It's at home also in the dream state. Also, in the deep sleep State.
Now when he was born, he thought and spoke only of nature and his creations in this world of matter. And of what else should he speak or reason. Thereafter he beheld that being who is the Brahman and the last essence. And he said yay this is he. verily I have beheld him. The spirit entering into this personal man and fulfilling that whole cycle sees this person from this perspective. And sees that this person, this archetypal person, came from himself. So, there is a self-realization. A self-realization, which occurs in this vehicle.
So that man is, man is the altar upon which that sacrifice is made. That making sacred is made. God has his self-realization in us. This is the way the, The Aitareya Upanishad delivers it.
Then in the second chapter of the three, which is much shorter. And the third is even shorter yet. This is where the pregnant women are asked to vacate. So, if any of you are pregnant perhaps you should not hear. Are any of you pregnant?
The mistake comes in trying to identify this being that we have, this self that we have, as being somehow exclusively only here. And so, The Aitareya Upanishad uses an amplified structural view to show that you actually have three selves. One of yourselves is in your father. One of yourselves is in your mother. And only a third self of yours is in you. And the proof for this The Aitareya Upanishad says, one sage one rishi named Vamadeva was enlightened in the womb. And realized that he didn't have his particular human self yet. He had his mother's self and he had his father's self. But he didn't have the self that became Vamadeva. And the reason he knew that because he watched his self-develop after he was born.
So, The Aitareya Upanishad **inaudible word or two** realize that wisdom in India was like sciences to us today. Can you prove it? Can by experience and experiment can we do this? And so, The Aitareya Upanishad is delivered from Rishi's who were able then to redo this and prove this for themselves. And after this it was proven many times indeed.
So that the first birth is impregnation. That is the father self. the second birth is from the mother. The third birth is from the teacher. So that instead of being twice born, The Aitareya Upanishad delivers a new kind of vision which had never been had before. In the old caste system, there was a twice born sense that you understood what life was about. You're able do the rituals. Able to participate as an adult. You were twice born. Now The Upanishads are delivering a thrice born, a thrice greatest. This spiritual birth which comes not from your father. Not from your mother. But comes from you. But that birth from you is God realizing himself in you. So, there is a, an odd double entendre. It is you who are the site for God's realization of himself. And therefore, that realization is selfless. And yet it is a self because it is the largest shape of your person, which actually does exist. Just as your individual person exists. your universal person also exists.
So then, after this is given the pregnant women are allowed to come back in. And at the very end of The Upanishad is this, the question. This being so. Who is this spirit that we may adore him. And which of all these is the spirit. by whom one seeth. Or by whom one heareth. or by whom one smelleth, all kinds of perfume. Perfume here is unfortunate. we think of, of a feminine cosmetic. Perfume is the is the presence of spirit. It's the presence of spirit.
Or by whom one uttereth cleanness of speech. Or by whom one knoweth the sweet and the bitter. this which is the heart is mind also. Concept and will. And analysis. And wisdom. And intellect. And vision. And continuity of purpose. And feeling. And understanding pain. And memory. And volition. And operation of thought. And vitality. And desire. And passion. All these, yay all are but names of the eternal wisdom.
So that in this spiraling now, the spiraling of powerful names. We, they use the translation here of names, but this the better term would be ideas. These powerful ideas, all of them together are a oneness, which is an eternal wisdom. Which is that person of the divine.
This is Brahman. This ruling Indra. This Prajapati. Father of his peoples. All these gods. And these five elemental substances, even Earth, air, ether, water and the shining principles. And these great creatures. And those small. And seeds of either sort and things egg borne. And things sweet, sweat born. And things born at the womb. And plants that sprout. And horses and cattle. And men and elephants. whatsoever thing here breatheth Earth and all that moveth. And everything that hath wings. And whatsoever moveth not.
And Ill shift to this translation because it has a better way of expressing it. All this has consciousness. And they take care in the translation not to put the article a consciousness. But the capitalized consciousness. All this has consciousness as the eye showing it the way. It is built on consciousness and is contained in it. There's a very complicated sentence. It has two moves in it and the moves are to double back and enfold. It says something the meaning is doubled back. And then third the meaning is enfolded. So that one is to understand. It's almost like an expression of A equals A equals A. Only so the equal signs, there no equal signs it's the same occurring. There's only one occurrence. There's not three. It's only three in appearance.
Consciousness is the eye showing it the way is built on consciousness. And is contained by it. Consciousness is the eye of the world. consciousness is the foundation. Consciousness is Brahman. And there are the three, the waking, the dreaming and the deep sleep dreamless state. The eye of the world. the eye of foundation. The eye of Brahman.
And then it ends with this. The Aitareya Upanishad expresses, not seals but expresses, the end of the teaching in this way. He who has this knowledge, he going beyond this world. Through this constant self reaches the fulfillment of all his desires in yonder heaven world. And becomes immortal. Verily he becomes immortal. Ohm. Sometimes it's translated as put death behind him. But to say put death behind him somewhat trivializes the situation. It isn't that you put death behind you. Death is a part of a whole ecology. That's necessary. It isn't so much that it's put behind you. But that the realization is inclusive. The acceptance makes the realization penetrate through to all of this at once.
And so, The Aitareya Upanishad ends with this. And it's then after this that you have the nine sacred verses. And I'll just give you the first one again so you can hear it. This is the, the versus, The Mahamnahi, the nine together. They are the first expression that comes out of if this Upanishad was heard your realization now allows you to sing these hymns. And it begins. I'll just give you the beginning. Oh, generous one show us a path. Proclaim the regions guide us Lord of many mines wealthy one. It's like that.
In other words, praises are sung. But praises are not sung on a conditional basis. But one praises God in the right way, on an unconditional basis. There are no conditions. There are no limitations. Whatsoever.
Thank you for coming out.
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