The Upanishads, Part 2 (SBE15)

Taittiriyaka-Upanishad: Second Valli

He who knows this, when he has departed this world, reaches and comprehends the Self which consists of food, the Self which consists of breath, the Self which consists of mind, the Self which consists of understanding, the Self which consists of bliss.

On this there is also this Sloka:

Footnotes

^59:3 Kath. Up. VI, 3.

^61:1 Cf. III, 10, 4.

^61:2 In giving the various degrees of happiness, the author of the Upanishad gives us at the same time the various classes of human and divine beings which we must suppose were recognised in his time. We have Men, human Gandharvas, divine Gandharvas, Fathers (pitaras kiralokalokah), born Gods (aganaga devah), Gods by merit (karmadevah), Gods, Indra, Brihaspati, Pragapati, Brahman. Such a list would seem to be the invention of an individual rather than the result of an old tradition, if it did not occur in a very similar form in the Satapatha-brahmana, Madhyandina-sakha XIV, 7, 1 ,31, Kanva-sakha (Brih. Ar. Up. IV, 3, 32). Here, too, the highest measure of happiness is ascribed to the Brahmaloka, and other beings are supposed to share a certain measure only of its supreme happiness. The scale begins in the Madhyandina-sakha with men, who are followed by the Fathers (pitaro gitalokah), the Gods by merit (karmadevah), the Gods by birth (aganadevah, with whom the Srotriya is joined), the world of Gods, the world of Gandharvas, the world of Pragapati, the world of Brahman. In the Brihad-aranyaka-upanishad we have Men, Fathers, Gandharvas, Gods by merit, Gods by birth, Pragapati, and Brahman. If we place the three lists side by side, we find--

TAITTIRIYA-UPAN.

SATAPATHA-BRAH.

BRIHADARAN.-UPAN.

Men

Human Gandharvas
(and Srotriya)

----

Divine Gandharvas

----

Fathers (kiraloka)

Fathers (gitaloka)

----

Gandharvas

Gods by birth

Gods by merit

Gods by birth
(and Srotriya)

Gods

----

Indra

Gandharvas

----

Brihaspati

----

Pragapati

Brahman

Brahman.