Sita
Upanishad
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 gods, indeed, said to Prajapati: who is Sita ? What is Her form ?
Then Prajapati replied: She is Sita:
2. Being the first cause Sita is known as
Prakriti; of Pranava, too, She is cause
And so is named Prakriti.
3. Maya in very essence,
Is Sita, of three letters formed.
Called Vishnu, the world-seed,
And Maya, too, is the letter i.
4. The letter sa denotes truth immortal;
Achievement; Siva with his consort.
Ta denotes the Queen of Speech
United with Brahman, the Deliverer.
5. The Goddess who is the great Illusion, whose form is unmanifest, and
who is denoted by ‘i’ becomes manifest, beauteous as the moon, faultless
of limb, decked with ornamental garlands, pearls and other adornments.
6. At first, at the time of Vedic studies, She is essentially the clear
Vedic speech. Secondly, on earth, at the tip of the plough She springs
up, who, as the bliss of Brahman-realization, is ever present. Thirdly,
as denoted by ‘i’ She becomes unmanifest. So is She Sita. Thus they
explain in the text of the Saunakas.
7. By Srirama’s (light of total liberation) presence enabled
The universe She sustains;
All embodied beings
She brings forth, sustains and withdraws.
8. Sita must be known;
She is the first cause;
As Om is She that cause,
Declare the Brahman-knowers.
9. Now, therefore, inquiry into Brahman.
10. She here is all the Vedas; all the gods; all the worlds; all renown;
all virtue; all ground, effect and cause; the great Beauty of the Lord
of gods. She has a form which is different and yet the same. She is the
essence of the intelligent and the inert. She is all, from Brahma to
stocks and stones. She is embodied, owing to distinctions of attributes
and activities. She assumes the forms of gods, sages, men and Gandharvas;
of demons, fiends, spirits, ghosts, goblins, etc.; and of the elements,
sense-organs, mind and the vital breaths.
11. That divine Being is threefold through Her power, namely the power
of desire, the power of action, and the power of knowledge.
12. The power of desire is threefold: Sri, Bhumi and Nila.
Auspiciousness is the form (of Sri); the power (of holiness) is the form
(of Bhumi); the sun, the moon, and the fire are the forms (of Nila).
13. As the moon (She) is the mistress of the herbs; She is the tree of
plenty, flowers, fruits, creepers and bowers; the mistress of medicinal
plants and physicians; She is the divine draught of immortality,
yielding the fruit of massive splendour. She satisfies the gods with
ambrosia and the animals with grass on which, respectively, the gods and
the animals live.
14. She illumines all worlds, day and night, in the garb of the sun,
etc. As determinations of time, such as the smallest moment, hour, day
with its eight divisions, day of the week, and night, as also the
fortnight, month, season, six months, and year and as the prescriber of
the term of human life as a hundred years, She manifests herself and is
known as Delay and Speed. Thus wheel-like, She revolves as the wheel of
Time, the wheel of Universe, etc.; comprising (all dimensions of time)
from the moment up to fifty years of Brahma’s life. All the luminous
temporal divisions are the specific determinations of this very Time,
the container of all.
15. As fire is the food and drink of living beings, their hunger and
thirst. As regards the gods, She has the form of sacrifice. As regards
the herbs in the forest, She is the coolness and the warmth. Both inside
and outside the fuel She dwells, eternal and
fleeting.
16. The Goddess Sri assumes a threefold form in conformity with the
Lord’s will for the protection of the world. That She is styled Sri and
Lakshmi is known.
17. The Goddess Bhu is the Earth comprising the seven islands and the
seas; the container and the contents of the fourteen worlds such as bhu,
etc.; and her essence is Pranava.
18. Nila is festooned with lightnings. To nourish all herbs and living
beings, She assumes all forms.
19. At the root of all the worlds, She assumes the form of Water, being
known as ‘consisting of frogs’ and supporting the worlds.
20. The real form of the power of action (is as follows): From Hari’s
mouth (proceeds) sound; from this sound ‘the drop’; thence, the syllable
Om; from this syllable, distinctively proceeds the mount Rama, the abode
of the Vaikhanasas. On that mount flourish manifold branches
representing action and knowledge.
21. The primal science of
Vedas three, reveals all sense;
They are the ‘three’, comprising
Ric, Yajus and Saman.
22. Based on a fact, fourfold, they are called
The Ric, Yajus, Saman, Atharvan.
23. The ‘three’ are so famed as they
Concern the four priests, form texts
Of triple sense, lingas, and much else.
The Atharvan is, in essence,
Ric, Yajus and Saman, too.
24. Yet separated it is, being
In the main, of magic sense.
The Rig-Veda does flourish
In branches twenty-one.
25. The Yajus is well known
In nine and hundred various schools.
Saman has a thousand branches;
The Atharvan but forty.
26. The Vaikhanasa philosophy
With intuition is concerned;
With Vaikhanasa it is that
Sages ever engage themselves.
27. Rituals, Grammar, Phonetics, Etymology, Astronomy and Metre are the
six limbs.
28. The minor limbs are Vedanta
And Mimamsa, the treatise on
Nyaya and Puranas upheld
By the knowers of the Law; so also
Of meditation (upasana) the chapters;
29. Ethics, of the Vedic lore all branches,
Tradition, Law upheld by Rishis great;
History and legend – these the Upangas.
30. The five minor Vedas are
Architecture and Archery,
Music, Medicine and Occult Thought (daivika).
31. The Discipline, the Rites, the Gloss, the Lore,
Conquest supreme of breath – these twenty-one
Are renowned as self-evident.
32. The word of Vishnu at first sprang forth
From Vaikhanasa as the Vedas three.
33. As of old from sage Vaikhanasa
The ‘three’ sprang forth –
Hear all from me.
The eternal Brahmic form is power to act.
34. The manifest power is but the memory of the Lord; its essence is
manifestation and evolution, restriction and promotion, subsidence and
upflaring. It is the cause of the patent and the latent, possessing all
feet, limbs, faces, colours. It is at once different and non-different
(from the Lord); the unfailing consort of the Lord, perpetually
dependent on Him. She becomes patent and latent, and is called the
manifest power because She is competent to bring about, through the
(mere) closing and opening (of Her eye) creation, sustentation and
retraction, suppression and promotion.
35. The power of desire is threefold. At the time of retraction, for the
sake of rest, when She rests on the right side of the Lord’s chest, in
the shape of Srivatsa, She is the power of Yoga.
36. The form of the Power of enjoyment is enjoyment. Associated with the
Tree of Plenty, the wish-granting Cow, the wish-fulfilling Gem, and the
nine Treasures such as the (precious) Conch and Lotus, She is impelled
by the devotion of the worshipper, whether sought or unsought (to yield
enjoyments) as a result of rites, compulsory or optional, like the
Agnihotra; or as a result of (the eight ‘limbs’ of Yoga practice,
namely) restraint, discipline, posture, control of breath, withdrawal,
attention, meditation and contemplation; or as a result of worship of
the Lord’s image in pinnacled temples; or as a result of ceremonial
baths, etc.; or of the worship of manes, etc.; or as a result of giving
food, drink, etc., for pleasing the Lord. (All this) is done (through
the Power of enjoyment).
37. Now the Power of heroism, four-armed, (is described). She indicates
by her gestures fearlessness and (the granting of) boons; She bears the
lotus; crowned and bedecked, She is surrounded by all the gods; is
bathed, at the foot of the Tree of Plenty, by four elephants, in
ambrosial waters from jewelled pots. All divinities, Brahma and others,
render obeisance to Her. She is vested with the eight miraculous powers
such as becoming atomic in proportion; She is lauded by the
wish-granting cow who is before Her; she is extolled by the Vedas, the
Shastras, etc. Celestial nymphs like Jaya wait upon Her. The luminaries
– the sun and the moon – shed
splendour on Her. Tumburu, Narada and others sing of Her glory. The full
moon and new moon days hold an umbrella over Her; two delightful beings
hold the whisks. Svaha and Svadha fan Her. Bhrigu and other supernatural
beings adore Her. The Goddess Lakshmi is seated on a divine Lion-Throne
in the lotus posture, effectuating all causes and effects. The steady
(image of) the Lord’s idea of differentiation, She beautifies. With
tranquil eyes, adored by all the gods, She is known as the Beauty of
Heroism. This is the Secret.
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 Sita Upanishad, included in the Atharva-Veda |