Chandogya Upanishad Book 5 Part 1

V.I

1. OM The one who knows the eldest and best becomes
the eldest and best. Breath is the eldest and best.

2. The one who knows the finest becomes the finest of his
own folk. Speech is the finest.

3. The one who knows the support stands firm both in
this world and in that world. The eye is the support.

4. The one who knows prosperity attains his desires, both
divine and human. The ear is prosperity.

5. The one who knows the dwelling-place becomes the
dwelling-place of his own folk. Mind is the dwelling-place.

6. Now the bodily functions (prana) argued about who was
the best. I am the best!’ I am the best!’

7. The bodily functions said to father Prajapati, ‘Blessed
one, who is the best of us?’

He said to them, ‘The best of you is the one after whose
departure the body seems to be in worst case.’

8. Speech departed. It stayed away for a year, and when
it returned it asked, ‘How were you able to live without
me?’

‘Like the dumb, not speaking, but breathing with the
breath, seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear, thinking with the mind. That is how we lived.’ Then speech went back in.

9. The eye departed and stayed away for a year. When it
came back it asked, ‘How were you able to live without
me?’

‘Like the blind, not seeing, but breathing with the breath,
speaking with speech, hearing with the ear, thinking with
the mind. That is how we lived.’

Then the eye went back in.

10. The ear departed and stayed away for a year. When
it came back it asked, ‘How were you able to live without
me?’

‘Like the deaf, not hearing, but breathing with the breath,
speaking with speech, seeing with the eye, thinking with
the mind. That is how we lived.’

Then the ear went back in.

11. The mind departed and stayed away for a year. When
it came back it asked, ‘How were you able to live without
me?’

‘Like the foolish, without mind, but breathing with the
breath, speaking with speech, seeing with the eye, hearing
with the ear, not thinking with the mind. That is how we
lived.’

Then the mind went back in.

12. The breath (prana), intending to depart, dragged together
the other bodily functions (prana) as a fine stallion might
drag its tethering pegs.

They said, ‘Blessed one, do not go. You are the best of
us. Do not leave.’

13. Speech said to it, ‘In that I am the finest, you are the
finest.’

The eye said to it, ‘In that I am the support, you are
the support.’

14. The ear said to it, ‘In that I am prosperity, you are
prosperity.’

The mind said to it, ‘In that I am the dwelling, you are
the dwelling.

15. Folk do not call them ‘speeches’, ‘eyes’, ‘ears’, or
‘minds’. They call them ‘breaths’. The breath becomes all
these.

V.2

1. It said, ‘What will be my food?’

They said, ‘Whatever there is, down to dogs and birds.’
This is the food (anna) of the breath (ana). Ana is its simple name. For the one who knows this, there is nothing that is not food.

2. It said, ‘What will be my clothing?’

They said, ‘Water.’

Therefore when folk are about to eat, both before and
after, they clothe it with water. It becomes a recipient of
garments: it becomes not-naked (anagna).

3. Satyakama Jabala taught this to Gosruti Vaiyaghrapadya,
and said: ‘If one were to say this even to a dried-up stump,
branches would grow on it, and leaves would sprout.’

4. If one should aspire to greatness, one should undergo
initiation on the new moon day; then on the full moon night
one should prepare a stirred mixture of all herbs with yoghurt
and honey. Saying, ‘To the eldest, to the best, SVAHA!’,
one should make an offering of ghee into the fire and pour
the remainder into the stirred mixture.

5. Saying, ‘To the finest, SVAHA!’, one should make an
offering of ghee into the fire and pour the remainder into
the stirred mixture.

Saying, ‘To the support, SVAHA!’, one should make an
offering of ghee into the fire and pour the remainder into
the stirred mixture.

Saying, ‘To prosperity, SVAHA!’, one should make an offering of ghee into the fire and pour the remainder into the stirred mixture.

Saying, To the dwelling-place, SVAHA!’, one should
make an offering of ghee into the fire and pour the remainder
into the stirred mixture.

6. Then, moving quietly away, holding the stirred mixture
between one’s two hands, one mutters: ‘Amo namasy ama hi
te sarvam idam; this the eldest, the best, the king, the
overlord; may he make me the eldest, the best, the king,
the overlord! May I become all this!

7. Then he sips with a re verse, foot by foot.
‘We ask for the food’-he sips-

‘Of the God Savitr’-he sips-
‘Best and most sustaining for all’ – he sips-

‘Swiftly we meditate on Bhaga’s might’ – he drinks it
all.

After washing the bowl or ladle, he lies down behind
the fire-altar, either on a hide or on the bare ground,
restraining his speech and not careless. If he sees a
woman, he knows that his work is successful.

8. There is a verse about it:

‘When, in works concerned with desire,

One sees a woman in dreams,
One should know success there,
In the seeing of that dream,
In the seeing of that dream.’

V.3

1. Svetaketu Aruneya went to a meeting of the Pancalas.
Jaivali Pravahana said to him, ‘Young man, has your father
educated you?’

‘He has, blessed one.’

2. ‘Do you know where people go on to from here?’

‘No, blessed one.’

‘Do you know how they come back again?’ he cried.

‘No, blessed one.’

‘Do you know the parting of the ways between the path
of the gods and the path of the ancestors?’

‘No, blessed one.’

3. ‘Do you know how that world does not become full?’

‘No, blessed one.’

‘Do you know how, in the fifth offering, the waters take
on human speech?’

‘No indeed, blessed one.’

4. ‘So why did you call yourself educated? How can
someone who does not know these things call himself
educated?’

Distressed, Svetaketu went to his father’s home. He said
to him, ‘Blessed one, you said you had educated me when
you had not educated me.

5. ‘A princeling asked me five questions, and I could not
answer a single one of them . . .’

His father said, ‘As you told them to me then, I do not
know a single one of them. If I had known them, how
would I not have told you?’

6. Gautama went to the king’s home. When he got there, the king treated him as an honoured guest. In the morning he went to the assembly and approached him. The king said, ‘Blessed Gautama, choose a boon from my human wealth.’

He said, ‘0 king, human wealth belongs to you. Tell me the words you spoke in the presence of the young man.’

The king was troubled.

7. He invited him to stay for a long time. He said,’Gautama, since you have said that, you should know that before you, the knowledge has not previously gone to Brahmanas. So in all worlds, rulership has belonged to Ksatriyas.’ He told him:

V.4

1. ‘That world is a fire, Gautama. The sun is its fuel; the
rays its smoke; the day its flame; the moon its embers; the
constellations its sparks.

2. ‘In that fire the gods offer faith. From that offering King
Soma arises.

V.5

1. Tarjanya is a fire, Gautama. Air is his fuel; cloud his
smoke; the lightning his flame; the thunderbolt his embers; the hailstones his sparks.

2. In that fire the gods offer King Soma. From that offering rain arises.

V.6

1. ‘The earth is a fire, Gautama. The year is its fuel; space
its smoke; the night its flame; the directions its embers; the
intermediate directions its sparks.

2. ‘In that fire the gods offer rain. From that offering food arises.

V.7

1. ‘A man (purusa) is a fire, Gautama. Speech is his fuel; the breath his smoke; the tongue his flame; the eye his embers; the ear his sparks.

2. ‘In that fire the gods offer food. From that offering the seed arises.

V.8

1. ‘A young woman is a fire, Gautama. The loins are her fuel; when one invites her, her smoke; the vagina her flame; what one does within, her embers; the pleasures her sparks.

2. ‘In that fire the gods offer the seed. From that offering
a foetus arises.

V.9

1. ‘And so, in the fifth offering, the waters take on human
speech. The foetus, covered by the amnion, sleeps inside
for ten months or nine or however long it is, and then is
bom.

2. ‘When he is bom, he lives out his span of life, and
when he has passed away at the appointed time, they take
him from here to the fire from which he came, from which
he came to be.

V.10

1. ‘Those who know this, and those who in the forest
contemplate faith, asceticism, go into the flame, from the
flame into the day, from the day into the waxing fortnight,
from the waxing fortnight into the six months in which the
sun goes northward,

2. ‘From the months into the year, from the year into the
sun, from the sun into the moon, from the moon into the
lightning. Then a person who is not human takes them to
brahman. This is called the way of the gods.

3. ‘But those who in the village contemplate the gift in
stored-up merit go into the smoke, from the smoke into
the night, from the night into the waning fortnight, from
the waning fortnight into the six months in which the sun
goes southward: they do not reach the year.

4. ‘From the months into the world of the ancestors, from
the world of the ancestors into space, from space into the
moon. This is King Soma: this is the food of the gods. The
gods partake of him.

5. ‘They live in it until their fall. Then they return by the
same road that they came, into space; from space into the
air: having become air it becomes smoke; having become
smoke, it becomes cloud.

6. ‘Having become cloud it becomes raincloud; having
become raincloud it rains. Here they are bom as rice and
barley, herbs and trees, sesame and black beans. It is very
hard indeed to escape from this. But whenever someone eats
the food and emits seed, one again comes into being.

7. ‘Those who here are of delightful conduct will quickly
attain a delightful womb-a Brahmana womb, a Ksatriya
womb or a Vaisya womb. But those who here are of foul
conduct will quickly attain a foul womb-a dog’s womb, a
pig’s womb, or a Candala womb.

8. ‘But the little beings that travel round many times go
by neither of these paths, but to a third state: “Be bom!
Die!” So that world is not filled up. Therefore one should
be on one’s guard. There is a verse about it:

9. “A gold-thief, a wine-drinker,
One who enters his guru’s bed , a Brahmana-slayer-These four fall, and fifth

The one who associates with these.”

10. ‘But the one who knows the five fires does not become
smeared even if he associates with these. He becomes pure,
cleansed, possessor of a meritorious world-the one who
knows this: the one who knows this.’

V.ll

1. Pracinasala Aupamanyava, Satyayajna Paulusi,
Indradyumna Bhailaveya, Jana Sarkaraksya and Budila
Asvatarasvi, great householders and great scholars, came
together and held a discussion: ‘What is the self? What is
brahman7’

1. They decided: ‘Blessed ones, Uddalaka Arum has direct
knowledge of the self of all men. Come, let us approach him!’ And they approached him.

3. He decided: ‘These great householders and great scholars
will question me, and I will not be able to answer everything.
Come, let me recommend someone else.’

4. He said to them, ‘Blessed ones, Asvapati Kaikeya has
direct knowledge of the self of all men. Come, let us approach
him!’ And they approached him.

5. When they arrived, he had each one individually welcomed as an honoured guest. In the morning he got up and said:

‘There is in my country no thief,
No miser, no drinker of wine,

None who has not lit a fire, none ignorant,

No unchaste man, how then an unchaste woman?

‘Blessed ones, I am about to offer a sacrifice. I will give
you, blessed ones, as much wealth as I will give to every
single priest. Blessed ones, please stay.’
6. They said, ‘A man should state the business on which
he comes. You have direct knowledge of the self of all men.
Teach us about that!’

7. He said to them, I will answer in the morning.’
Early next day they approached him with fuel in their hands.
Without initiating them, he said to them:

V.12

1. ‘Aupamanyava, what do you worship as the self?’

‘Sky, blessed king,’ he said.

‘Indeed, this is the self of all men as “Radiant”. Since
you worship the self as such, in your family it is seen that
Soma is pressed, re-pressed, and pressed again.

2. ‘You eat food and see what is pleasant. The one who
worships the self of all men as such eats food and sees
what is pleasant, and in his family is the radiance of brahman.
This is the head of the self,’ he said. ‘Your head would
have split apart if you had not come to me.’