1. Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1

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1. The Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1

First revision: Mar.25, 2026

Last change: Jul.9, 2026

Searched, gathered, rearranged, translated, and compiled by Apirak Kanchanakongkha.

Page 1

The Upaniṣads recognize only one spirit, almighty, infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, self-existent, the creator, preserver, and destroyer of the world. He is the light, lord, and life of the universe, one without a second, and the sole object of worship and adoration. The half-gods of the Veda die, and the true God arrives. “How many gods are there really, O Yajñavalkya?” “One,” he said. (Brh. Up., iii. 9.1.).
“Now answer us a further question: Agni, Vāyu, Āditya, Kāla (time), which is breath (Prāṇa), Anna (food), Brahmā, Rudra, Viṣṇu. Thus do some mediate on him, some on another. Say which of these is the best for us?” And he said to them: “These are but the chief manifestations of the highest, the immortal, the incorporeal Brahman. … Brahman, indeed, is all this, and a man may meditate on, worship, or discard also those which are its manifestations.” (Bṛh., i. 4. 6;)
God is to be honored not by spiritual worship but by external ceremony. We cannot save ourselves by praising God. We cannot impress Him with sacrifices. The authors of the Upaniṣads had a sufficient sense of history to know that their protest would prove ineffective if it demanded a revolution in things. They therefore ask only for a change in the spirit. They reinterpret sacrifices and allegorize them. In some passages, (Bṛh. Up., i. I. 2.).
“Just as when a fire is laid with damp wood, clouds of smoke spread all around, so in truth from this great being, has been breathed forth the Ṛg-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sāma-Veda, the hymns of the Atharvas and the Añgirasas, the narratives, the histories, the sciences, the mystical problems, the poems, the proverbs, and the expositions—all these have been breathed forth from Him.” (Bṛh. Up., ii. 4. 10.).
It is also recognized that the Vedic knowledge is much inferior to the true divine insight (Bṛh., 3. 5. I; iv. 4. 21; vi. 2. 1).

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