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The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
by Swami Krishnananda

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Table of Contents

  • Chapter I
  1. The Universe as a Sacrificial Horse
  2. The Creation of the Universe
  3. The Superiority of the Vital Force Among All Functions
  4. Creation from the Universal Self
  5. Prajapati's Production of the World as Food for Himself
  • Chapter II
  1. The Conversation of Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi on the Absolute Self
  2. Madhu-Vidya: The Honey Doctrine
  3. The Line of Teachers and Pupils
  • Chapter III
  1. Sacrificial Worship and its Rewards
  2. The Man in Bondage and His Future at Death
  3. The Resort of the Performers of the Horse Sacrifice
  4. The Unknowability of Brahman
  5. Renunciation, the Way to Know Brahman
  6. Brahman, the Universal Ground
  7. The Nature of the Inner Controller
  8. The Unqualified Brahman
  9. Many Gods and One Brahman
  • Chapter IV
  1. Inadequate Definitions of Brahman
  2. Concerning the Soul
  3. The Light of Man is the Self
  1. The Soul of the Unrealised after Death
  2. The Supreme Self and the Supreme Love
  • Chapter V
  1. Brahman, the Inexhaustible
  2. The Three Principal Virtues
  3. Brahman as the Heart
  4. Brahman as the True or the Real
  5. The Real Explained
  6. The Divine Person
  7. Brahman as Lightning
  8. The Veda Symbolised as a Cow
  9. The Universal Fire
  10. The Course after Death
  11. The Supreme Austerities
  12. The Via Media of Attitude
  13. Meditation on the Life-Breath
  14. The Sacred Gayatri Prayer
  15. Prayer to the Sun by a Dying Person
  • Chapter I (Continued)
  1. (Continued) The Threefold Creation
  1. The Threefold Character of the Universe
  • Chapter II (Continued)
  1. A Progressive Definition of Brahman
  2. The Vital Force Embodied in a Person
  3. The Two Forms of Reality
  • Recapitulation
  1. The Absolute and the Universe
  2. The Supreme Goal of Life
  3. Divine Immanence and the Correlativity of all Things
  4. The Inner Reality
  5. The Principles of Meditation
  6. The Spiritual and the Temporal

Chapter III

Sixth Brahmana: Brahman, the Universal Ground
  1. atha hainaṁ gārgī vācaknavī papraccha, yāgñavalkya, iti hovāca, yad idaṁ sarvam apsv otaṁ ca protaṁ ca, kasmin nu khalv āpa otāś ca protāś ceti. vāyau, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu vāyur, otaś ca protaś ceti. antarikṣa-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalv antarikṣa-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti, gandharva-lokeṣu gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu gandharva-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. āditya-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalv āditya-lokā otāś ca protaś ceti. candra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu candra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. nakṣatra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu nakṣatra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. deva-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu deva-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. indra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu indra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. brahma-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. kasmin nu khalu brahma-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti. sa hovāca, gārgi mātiprākṣīh, mā te mūrdhā vyapaptat, anatipraśnyāṁ vai devatām atipṛechasi, gārgī, mātiprākṣīr iti. tato ha gārgi vācaknavy upararāma.

Atha hainaṁgārgī vācaknavī papraccha: There was a lady in that audience. She is usually known in the Upaniṣhad literature as Gārgi. She was a knower of Brahman, a daughter of the sage Vācaknu. So, she is called Vācaknavī. Gārgi Vacaknavī stands up. There was only one lady in the whole audience. She asked:

Yāgñavalkya, iti hovāca, yad idaṁ sarvam apsv otaṁ ca protaṁ ca, kasmin nu khalv āpa otāś ca protāś ceti:  "Everything is capable of being designated as resolvable to water because the element of cohesion is necessary for the appearance of any physical object." If there is no cohesive element in the earth, there would be only powder and not a solid body of the earth, even as a building will not be one single whole if that cohesive cementing principle is absent. So, we can say in one way that this principle which is called here the Water principle is the reality behind the Earth principle. "And what is it in which the water is located? If the Earth principle is controlled by the Water principle, it can be regarded as higher than the Earth principle. What is it that is superior to the Water principle?" Vāyau, gārgi, iti: "The Air principle is superior because it is precedes the manifestation of the Water principle in the process of creation." Kasmin nu khalu vāyur, otaś ca protaś ceti: "In what is Vāyu (air) woven like warp and woof?" What is its source? This is the question. Antarikṣa-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti: "The atmospheric world." In the sky the principle of Vāyu is located, there it is centred and into that it can be resolved, ultimately. Kasmin nu khalu candra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti: "Where is this sky, the atmospheric region, located and where is it centred, to which it can be referred?" Gandharva-lokeṣu gārgi, iti: "The world of Gandharvas is superior in extent and subtlety to the atmospheric and the sky regions." Kasmin nu khalu gandharva-loka otas ca protas ceti: "Where is the Gandharva-loka located? Has it also a support?" "Yes!" Āditya-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti: "The region of the sun is superior to the Gandharva-loka. That is its location." Kasmin nu khalv antarikṣa-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti: "Where is this solar region located?" Candra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti: Here it is said that the Chandra-lokā, or the region of the moon is the location. Here, the moon does not mean the physical moon that you see, but the original condition of the planetary substance from which all the stellar regions can be said to have come out as effects from the cause. They are called Chandra-lokās because they are eternal in nature and not solid masses or orbs shining like the stellar region. Kasmin nu khalu candra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti:  "Where are these located, ultimately? They have also some support after all." Nakṣatra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti: "They have their support and location in the region of the stars." Kasmin nu khalu nakṣatra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti: "Where are the stars located, ultimately?" "These regions which are the sources of even the stellar regions are again located in certain subtler realms. They are the causes of even the appearance of the stars." Deva-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti. "The Naksatra-lokās, the physical realms, all this cosmos which is astronomically viewed, is located in the celestial regions. The physical realm can be regarded as an external appearance of an internal reality which is called here, Deva-lokā, or the celestial paradise." Kasmin nu khalu deva-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti:  "Where is, again, the Deva-lokā, or the world of the gods woven, like warp and woof?" Indra-lokeṣu, gārgi, iti: "The Indra-lokā, the world of the ruler of the celestials, that is superior to the location of the ordinary celestials. The Indra-lokā is the source and is prior to the celestials paradise." Kasmin nu khalu prajā-pati-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti:  "Where is the Indra-lokā located?" Praja-pati-lokesu, gargi, iti: "It is subsequent to Prajāpati-lokā." Here Prajāpati-lokā is identifiable with Virāt Himself. Virāt is the Supreme Power of all the worlds, Indra-lokā and everything downwards. Kasmin nu khalu indra-lokā otāś ca protāś ceti: "How can you say that it is the ultimate? Is there nothing beyond it?" Brahma-lokesu, gargi, iti: "The world of Hiraṇyagarbha is Brahma-lokā." That is the source of even Virāt, or Prajāpati-lokā. Everything is strung in this Ultimate Being. Therefore, it is called Sūtra-Ātman. Sūtra is a string. As beads are strung on a thread, so is everything that is created hanging, strung, on this thread of the Cosmos, or the Sūtra-Ātman, Brahma, or Hiraṇyagarbha. Ultimate Reality is that in which everything is included in one form or the other-brahma-lokeṣu, gargi, iti. Kasmin nu khalu brahma lokā otās ca protāś ceti: "Where is this Brahma-lokā located? The Supreme Hiraṇyagarbha is the source and the cause of everything, you say. Who is the cause of this?" Sa hovāca, gārgi, mātiprākṣīh: Then Yājñavalkya says: "You are asking too much. You should not ask such questions of this kind. Mātiprākṣīh: If you ask too much, your head will fall down just now. So, do not go beyond permissible limits of logical argument, because it is inadmissible to ask the cause of the Cause of everything. You are asking for the cause of the Supreme Cause. Such a question is meaningless. So, Gārgi-mātiprākṣīh, mā te mūrdhā vyapaptat—by putting stupid questions, may your head not fall. Do not ask questions of this kind which have no meaning. You are asking where the Cause of all causes is situated! Such a question should not be put—mā te mūrdhā vyapaptat, anatipraśnyam vai devatām: This is the Reality. This Supreme Being is That about which no question can be put, and it will not allow any query about It. Atipṛechasi, gārgī: Too much you are asking. Mātiprākṣīh: Do not ask like that." Tato ha gārgī vācaknavī upararāma: Then Gārgi Vācaknavī fearing that her head may fall, kept quiet. She did not speak further.