Word

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Sanskrit

बृहतारण्यक उपनिषद्

IAST

Bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣat

In General

The Brahman - atman identity as brahmavidya is expunded in a beautiful way in this Upanishad. The great Upanishad consists of three kandas the first is Madhu kanda second is Yajnavalkya kanda or Muni kanda and the third is Khila kanda. The first kanda conveys the main teaching of Vedanta and is in the form of advice. The second kanda is a logical argument for the advice given in the first kanta and the third kanda deals with some modes of spiritual practices such as upasana and meditation.

The aswamedha sacrificial horse is one of the symbol discussed in the Upanishad for the ultimate reality, whose foot is on earth, eye is sun and mouth is fire. His breath is in the wind; heaven is his back and midworld is his belly; day and night are his standing places.

Veda

To Aurobindo, B.U. is the most obscure and profoundest of the U. but the symbolic idea in it is grossly misunderstood by the modern mind. The idea behind is mystic and intellectual, so the philology and other relatively modern approaches are of little use. B.U. is a mystic experience of the universe which cannot be interpreted in midevel terms, but experienced in the highest realm of spiritual experience.

The word ashva (horse) is implied to strength. ‘Dawn’ is the head of the head of the horse sacrificial, by this verse the Rishi meant a perfect beginning of the cosmic action which he found manifest in the universe. The mystic imaginary project the material object to look at it as psychological and philosophical truth and not to describe the physical aspect of the idea of god. The western scholars miss this thread of the Indian thought because of their preoccupied notion of a king like god sitting in heaven.

B.U. thus tells us of a force that is manifesting in matter and for which a horse symbolizes. The strands of rivers are imagined as the undigested food in the horse belly that earth is yet to digest and assimilate. B.U. again says, when He stretches himself, then it thunders; when it urinates then it rains. The first image is an image of knowledge experiencing itself in matter, the second is an image of power experiencing itself in matter and the third, the image of rains, suggests that it is from the mere waste matter of horse body that the great power is able to fertilize the world and produce sustenance for the myriad notions of his creatures.