Aitareya is one of the earliest Upanishads and is attributed to sage Mahidasa Aitareya. It consists of five sections, viz. sections 21 to 25. These sections form the 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters of the 2nd part of the Rigveda Aranyaka. For the young student the मन्त्र Samhita verses. the householder the ब्राह्मण Brahmana verses. the retired the आरण्यक Aranyaka verses. the sannyasi the उपनिषद् Upanishad verses. Young Student = one who is yet being cared for by parents. Householder = one who is in the thick of earning, raising a family, or actively engaged in society. Retired = one who is out of the grind and living on savings. Sannyasi = one who is free in mind and light at heart. These four phases are not separated in time or by age. These may occur in any order in a man’s life, sometimes concurrent, sometimes distinct. One may have the Sannyasa experience earlier and get thrown into the Householder struggle later. It happens. The key point to understand is that these are states of the mind, heart, intellect and emotion, and one’s relationships in society. Using simple yet elegant words, the Rishi narrates the story of creation from the Big Bang onward. The complete paraphernalia for its functioning is described, also the biology of man’s birth. An incisive statement is made that points to the undeniable fact “Opposite Values are Complementary in Nature”. Its mahavakya is prajñānaṃ brahma, i.e. Consciousness = the Divine = the Supreme. ------------------------------------------------------------ सोऽस्यायमात्मा पुण्येभ्यः कर्मभ्यः प्रतिधीयते । अथास्यायमितर आत्मा कृतकृत्यो वयोगतः प्रैति । स इतः प्रयन्नेव पुनर्जायते तदस्य तृतीयं जन्म ॥ २.१.४ so'syāyamātmā puṇyebhyaḥ karmabhyaḥ pratidhīyate । athāsyāyamitara ātmā kṛtakṛtyo vayogataḥ praiti । sa itaḥ prayanneva punarjāyate tadasya tṛtīyaṃ janma ॥ 2.1.4 The soul travels through bodies. It also travels through traits and virtues. Since a Soul gets known and remembered in diverse ways Through physical lineage. Through propagation of ideals. Through celebration of festivals and anniversaries. Hence that is known as the Undying Birth. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Giving the example of sage Vamadeva who attained enlightenment, a devotee is inspired and empowered to embark on an inward journey… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the Sanskrit Enthusiast, each verse is given in Devanagari, with a Latin transliteration, and Padacheda. Vibhakti-case and word meanings are given for many verses.

Aitareya Brahmana is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1879. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

The Upanishads are a group of texts in Hindu sacred literature that are considered to reveal the ultimate truth and whose knowledge is considered to lead to spiritual emancipation. In the Upanishads, we find the finest flowering of the Indian metaphysical and speculative thought. They are utterances of seers who spoke out of the fullness of their illumined experience. Upanishad is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and sad (to sit). Hence, the term implies the pupils, intent on learning, sitting near the teacher to acquire knowledge and truth. There are over 200 Upanishads but the traditional number is 108. Of them, only 10 are the principal Upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Tattiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka. This book is a forerunner in introducing these primary Upanishads to the uninitiated.

Mahidāsa was denied the privilege of sitting in the lap of his father. Itarā, his mother, who was perhaps from the potters community noticed the sad plight of her son and prayed to her Iṣṭa Devatā i.e., Goddess Earth, who appeared in a divine form, placed Mahidāsa in celestial seat and imparted unrivalled wisdom. Thus was born, out of the potter Mahidāsa, the proletarian Ṛṣi, the Sage of the labourers, and son of the soil Seer Aitareya, who attained Godhood and authored this scripture of the common man, and sang the song of Hindu culture from a hut of the ‘slum’. ‘Even the Creator is not free to create a world as he likes.’ We with our actions – known and unknown, conscious and unconscious – are making the blueprint of our future. The Lord is but a contractor, who executes our plans, as we give it to Him, asserts Swami Chinmayananda.

The Taittiriya-Upanisad is so called because of the recension (sakha) of the Krishna Yajurveda to which it is appended. It is the most popular and the best-known of all the Upanisads in this part of the country, where the majority of the Brahmins study the Taittiriya recension of the Yajurveda, and it is also one of the very few Upanisads which are still recited with the regulated accent and intonation which the solemnity of the subject therein treated naturally engenders. The Upanisad itself has been translated by several scholars including Prof. Max Muller; and the latest translation by Messrs. Mead and J.C. Chattopadhyaya, of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, London, is the most 'soulful' of all, and at the same time the cheapest. A few words, therefore, are needed to explain the object of the present undertaking.Sankaracharya and Suresvaracharya are writers of highest authority belonging to what has been now-a days marked off as the Advaita school of the Vedanta. Every student of the Vedanta knows that the former has written commentaries on the classical Upanisads, on the Bhagavad-Gita, and on the Brahma sutras, besides a number of manuals and tracts treating of the Vedanta Philosophy, while among the works of the latter, which have but recently seen the light.

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An excellent introduction to the study of Vedanta for beginners, equally refreshing for advanced students.