BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is considered one of the principal Upanishads, the oldest Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. It is the tenth in the ‘muktika’ or Canon of one hundred eight Upanishads. It is estimated to have been composed about 700 BCE! It is a part of Satapatha Brahmana which itself is a part of Shukla Yajur Veda. The name of the Upanishad is significant and self explanatory! The word ‘Brihad’ means ‘great’. ‘Aranyaka means ‘ wilderness or forest’. Thus the Upanishad means “Great Wilderness or Forest”. It is credited to the ancient  sage Yajnavalkya and later refined by a number of ancient scholars. It is found in the fourteenth Kanda of Satapatha Brahmana. It has six chapters divided into three sections--Madhu Kanda, Muni Kanda or Yajnavalkya Kanda and Khila Kanda. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is a treatise on Atman, Soul, or Self including passages on metaphysics, ethics and  yearning for knowledge that influenced various Indian religions! It is pre Buddhist in time frame and commented upon by Adi Sankara, Sri Ramanuja and Sri Madhwa Acharyas!

Here the Individual concerned is the horse of the Aswamedha Sacrifice, the object of

consecration. The aim of the Upanishad is to convert every act into a mode of contemplation. One method is to transform the ritual technique into an inward contemplation of the spirit. The dawn is the head of the horse because it is the beginning of the body.The eyes are compared to the Sun as the Sun is the eye of the day. The cosmic wind, the Air that pervades, is the prana within. This is identified with the air outside. The mouth of the horse is Agni - Vaiswanara, identified with the cosmic fire representing the energy of all things manifested outwardly as the fire principle. The body is the entire process of the year. As the time has divisible parts so the body has also divisible parts and the two are identified. The sky's the back because it is on the top, above the body. The Atmosphere is the belly of the horse because it is hollow. The earth is the hoofs on which the animal stands.

The sides of the horse are the quarters of the heavens compared to the intermediary quarters. The seasons are the limbs of the horse. Like the year with seasons, the body is constituted of various limbs. The stars in the sky are compared to the whitish bones spread out in all parts of the body. The clouds are the flesh of the body of the horse. The sand is the half digested food in a seed condition in the stomach of the horse. The rivers are the arteries and veins!

The spleen and liver are mountain like elevations in the body within. Trees and plants may be  Compared to hairs of the body. Sun rise is the fore part of the body while sunset is the hind part. Horse’s yawning is similar to lightning. Its making water is like the rainfall. Its neighing is the principle of speech! The description of the cosmos as horse is entirely symbolic and highly complicated to conceive! Similarly the rear part is compared to the night and the other side is the western ocean. Thus the horse is enveloped by ritualistic elements. Just as the parts in a sacrifice are associated with the element in the sacrifice which is the horse, the parts of the world or the universe are to be conceived as associated with it as parts of the whole!

According to Sankara the horse mentioned here is Prajapati or the Creator of the cosmos! It is not merely the animal in Sacrifice. As the vehicle of the Devas it is called ‘hayo’ and called ‘vaji’ when it is the vehicle of Gandharvas! As a carrier of demons it is named ‘Arva’ while it is called  ‘aswa’ when it carries human beings! The substance of all these is ocean. Sankara says that the ocean is the cosmic soul, not the ocean with water. The Universal Soul is the basis of the world as the horse is the basis of the entire sacrifice. Every activity--name, form, action is some thin like a wave in the ocean. Just as the waves are the ocean, actions are the universal Soul! So the universe or the universal soul is the ocean! The greatest friend of man is God. He is the support, ultimate resort and refuge!