AITAREYA UPANISHAD - 20. Rishi Maheedasa Aitareya.

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) :

Chinmaya Mission Hosur under the leadership of Swami Shashvatananda and Br. Saravanan organised a 5-day  Sadhana Camp on Mind Management from 26th to 30th January at Adi Sankara Nilayam. 

The camp began with the auspicious unfurling of the National flag on occasion of the 74th Republic day, followed by the Camp inauguration by Swamini Sampratishtananda.

The participants were engaged in immersive sessions of talks followed by group discussion and contemplation on the two texts Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12 and Sri Shiva Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram. 

They also had a special satsang on ‘Matrustavanam’ by Swami Advayananda. Chanting, japa,Guru paduka-puja, bhajans and family time were part of the schedule. 

A special site visit was organised to Onakoor, the upcoming campus of Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth (CVV). Overall, the campers found the experience fulfilling and transformative.

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Thursday, February 09, 2023. 06:45.

PART 2 : The “THREE BIRTHS

Chapter 4 - 

Mantras.-6

The “THREE BIRTHS”

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Here begins the first and only Chapter (No.4) of Part 2. 

POST-20.

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WE HAVE EXPERIENCED a sudden turn in our emotion at the end of the last 

chapter. With Creation as our theme, we rose to the heights of the Joy of realization, only to 

be suddenly plunged into the sad awareness of our bondage due to forgetfulness of God. 

Our plight is symbolised by our acceptance of the nick-name ‘Indra’ instead of ‘Idandra’.

In this chapter a similar transition from joy to sorrow is attempted by the imaginative

Rishi, but with a significant difference: This time we are raised to the heights of the joys of 

family life, only to be suddenly plunged down into an awareness of the senselessness and

endlessness of the monotony of worldly existence.

BIRTH becomes the theme that carries us to the climax of emotion in family life, 

What does this climax end in? – the futility of going through the cycle of “births” again and 

again. With great delicacy, the Rishi takes us on a journey of recounting three births, not just 

one. By doing so, he graphically multiplies threefold our agony of going through birth after 

birth after birth!

The Rishi, with a sense of being dutybound to take us forward, does not permit us to 

stagnate in comfort. He works our emotions in such a way as to awaken in us a desire to be 

liberated from Samsara once and for all. That is, after all, why we call him a Rishi.

The chapter begins on the theme of love and union as encountered within the family

unit, the domestic framework of life. There is a build-up of tenderness and love emerging 

through the theme. It touches on the most intimate aspects of human life. To most people, 

this is what their life centres on.

For now we enter the raptures of the Grihastha world, the cradle of humanity, with 

its joys of having a child and rearing it in love . . .

An Announcement :

1. Pregnant women may please vacate

1 This announcement at the start of the teacher’s lecture for the day on this very 

sensitive subject indicates two important facts about the tradition of the Vedic period.

i) Women Also Learnt Vedanta : Contrary to common beliefs, here is evidence from 

the very depths of the Upanishads themselves of the fact that women were permitted to 

learn Vedanta as well. They were part of the class. Some of them were young mothers-to

be, indicating that a certain maturity was needed before joining such classes. Qualifications 

to study were certainly not based on the gender of a student.

[At Sandeepany in these modern times, the same principle is upheld. Young men and 

women, most of them unmarried, study together with an accepted code of conduct based on 

trust and respect for the opposite gender.]

ii) Pre-Natal Education was Known: The reason for the announcement is that the 

Acharya did not wish to expose young mothers-to-be to certain thoughts which his lecture 

for that day would be focusing on. When matters of sex were being discussed, the young 

mother bearing a child should not be present as it would affect the unborn child.

From this, we can assume that Knowledge of pre-natal education was known and 

brought to bear in practice in Vedic times. In the West this fact has only recently come to 

light, and the methodology governing its application is still being developed through 

experimentation.

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Next
Mantram - 4.1: The “First Birth” – The Pregnant Father.
To be continued

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