AITAREYA UPANISHAD - 14. Rishi Maheedasa Aitareya.

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3 Parts, 6 Chapters, 33 No. Mantras : “By a Peasant for the Peasant”

PART - 1 : Chapter -2 : Mantras Nos-5. POST-14.

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Saturday, October 29, 2022. 07:00.

PART 1: Chapter 3A, 10 Mantras. :  Creation of FOOD

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HOW IS THE FOOD TO BE CAUGHT?

(Mantras - 3.3 to 3.10)

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Now starts an interesting form of presentation, absolutely unique to this Upanishad. 

The food has got to be consumed by some means to supply the body with nutrition. This 

was assumed to be a simple matter at first, but Brahmaji Himself must have perspired when 

He realized what a difficult problem it was! Why, He came jolly close to abandoning the 

whole project!

Even as there are ten principal Upanishads out of over a hundred, so also, there are 

about ten principal Devatas out of an innumerable number within the body. How does the 

Lord arrange for them all to be fed? It never occurred to Him that this would become such a 

huge problem. This is one occasion when the “Drawing Board” failed the Lord completely.

The “Hunger and Thirst” problem was resolved by giving them a shared place to 

dwell with all the Devatas. That worked very well. That was the last serious problem that 

arose which needed an ingenious solution from the Lord.

Now the problem is the very opposite. Only one Devata has to do the eating on 

behalf of all the others. Who would it be? The drawing board had to be discarded – only an 

experiment in the Laboratory would be of use at a time like this.

For these verses comments are, indeed, superfluous. The poetry in the verses is 

superb. The best we can do to bring out their beauty is to present the verses in as neat a 

manner as possible. The Rishi has used symmetry of expression together with repetition to 

bring out the message forcefully. Here are the amazing Laboratory results . . .

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Mantram - 3.3: Speech Tries to Catch the Food

5 "tat vaachaa ajighrikshat; tat na ashaknot vaachaa graheetum; 6 sah yat ha enat vaachaa agrahaishyat; abhi-vyaahritya ha eva annam atrapsyat." 

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Translation :

5 tat vaachaa ajighrikshat; tat na ashaknot vaachaa graheetum; = He tried to catch it by SPEECH.  But it

 was not possible to catch it by speech.

6 sah yat ha enat vaachaa agrahaishyat; abhi-vyaahritya ha eva annam atrapsyat. = For indeed, were he

 able to seize it by speech, then merely by talking about food,  we would have been satisfied!

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Tatvam :

He tried to catch it by SPEECH.  But it was not possible to catch it by speech. For indeed, were he able to seize it by speech, then merely by talking about food, we would have been satisfied!

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Next- Mantram 3.4: The Breath Tries to Catch It

To be continued 

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