Monday, 15 August 2016

gender in the Aiteraya Upanishad.


How do we read the Upanishads? -- we should always start with the Aiteraya Upanishad as it is the one that actually describes how the Universe began – this is the Big Bang moment:

1.              Om! In the beginning this was but the absolute Self alone. There was nothing else whatsoever that winked. It thought, ‘Let Me create the worlds.’

2.             He created these worlds, viz. ambhas, maríci, mara, ápah. That which is beyond heaven is ambhas. Heaven is its support. The sky is maríci. The earth is mara. The worlds that are below are the ápah.

But the first two stanzas are not cohesive as a unit; is it not obvious that they were written by two different authors?

“It” thought and created the universe; and why exactly does “It” become “He”? -- this is a question no one ever asks. “It” is a gender neutral concept; and by the time we move on the next verse – this neutral Being has become masculine. We need to ask – why?
 
 

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