Bhavana Upanishad

Bhavana Upanishad
Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier
Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai

Om! Gods! With ears let us hear what is good;
Adorable ones! With eyes let us see what is good.
With steady limbs, with bodies, praising,
Let us enjoy the life allotted by the gods.
May Indra, of wide renown, grant us well-being;
May Pusan, and all-gods, grant us well-being.
May Tarksya, of unhampered movement, grant us well-being.
May Brihaspati grant us well-being.
Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!

1. The holy Teacher is the Power (Para-Sakti) that is the cause of all.

2. Of that Power the body with its nine orifices is the form.

3. It is the holy Wheel in the guise of the nine wheels.

4. The Power of the Boar is paternal: Kurukulla, the deity of sacrifice, is maternal.

5. The (four) human Ends are the oceans (purusharthas - dharma, artha, kama and moksha).

6- 7. The body with the seven constituents (Chile, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen) like the skin and the hair is the island of the nine gems.

8. Resolutions are the wish-granting trees; energy (of the mind) is the garden of the trees of plenty.

9. The six seasons are the tastes, namely sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, astringent and saltish, which are apprehended by the tongue.

10. Knowledge is the material for worship; the object of knowledge is the oblation; the knower is the sacrificer. The meditation on the identity of the three, knowledge, its object, and the knower, is the worship rendered to the holy Wheel.

11. Destiny and sentiments like love are (the miraculous attainments like) atomicity, etc. Lust, anger, greed, delusion, elation, envy, merit, demerit - these constitute the eight powers of Brahma, etc. (Brahma, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Raudri, Charmamunda and Kalasamkarsini).

12. The nine abodes (muladhara etc.,) are the powers of the mystic gestures.

13. The earth, water, fire, air, ether, ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose, speech, feet, hands, the organs of evacuation and generation and the modification of mind are the sixteen powers such as the pull of lust, etc.

14. Speech, grasp, motion, evacuation, generation, and the attitudes of rejection, acceptance and apathy are the eight (entities) such as the flower of love, etc.

15. Alambusa, kuhu, visvodara, varana, hastijihva, yasovati, payasvini, gandhari, pusa, sankhini, sarasvati, ida, pingala and susumna - these fourteen arteries are the fourteen powers such as the all-exciting, etc.

16. The five vital breaths and the five minor breaths are the ten divinities of the outer spokes, (styled) Sarvasiddhiprada, etc.

17. The digestive fire becomes fivefold through distinctions based on its association with this pre-eminent breath. (They are) what ejects, what cooks, what dries, what burns and what inundates.

18. Owing to the prominence of the minor breath, these (fires) in the human body come to be styled as the corroder, the ejector, the agitator, the yawner and the deluder. They promote the digestion of the fivefold food: eaten, chewed, sucked, licked and imbibed.

19. The ten aspects of Fire are the ten divinities of the inner spokes, Sarvajna, etc.

20. The qualities of cold, heat, pleasure, pain, desire, sattva, rajas and tamas are the eight powers, vasini, etc.

21. The five, rudimentary sound, etc., are the flowery shafts.

22. Mind is the bow made of sugarcane.

23. Attachment is the cord (that binds).

24. Aversion is the hook.

25. The un-manifest, the Great, and the principle of Egoism are the divinities of the inner triangle: Kameshvari, Vajreshvari and Bhagamalini.

26. Absolute awareness, verily, is Kameshvara.

27. The supreme divinity, Lalita, is one's own blissful Self.

28. Of all this the distinctive apprehension is the red glow.

29. Perfection (ensues from) exclusive concentration of the mind.

30. In the performance of meditation consist (various acts of) respectful service.

31. The act of oblation is the merger in the Self of distinctions like I, Thou, Existence, non-Existence, the sense of duty and its negation, and the obligation worship.

32. Assuagement is the thought of identity of (all) objects of imagination.

33. The view of time's transformation into the fifteen days (of the half lunar month) points to the fifteen eternal (divinities).

34. Thus meditating for three instants, or two, or even for a single instant, one becomes liberated while living; one is styled the Siva-Yogin.

35. Meditations on the inner wheel have been discussed (here) following the tenets of Saktaism.

36. Whoso knows thus is a student of the Atharvasiras.

Om! Gods! With ears let us hear what is good;
Adorable ones! With eyes let us see what is good.
With steady limbs, with bodies, praising,
Let us enjoy the life allotted by the gods.
May Indra, of wide renown, grant us well-being;
May Pusan, and all-gods, grant us well-being.
May Tarksya, of unhampered movement, grant us well-being.
May Brihaspati grant us well-being.
Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!

Here ends the Bhavanopanishad, included in the Atharva-Veda.