The Upanishads

Atharvaveda
Shakta group of Upanishads

1. Who is Sita? What is her form? /1/

Prajapati said:

2. Sita is She. Being the image of root nature, She, Sita, is called Prakriti. Being the nature of Pranava, She, Sita, is called Prakriti. /2/
3. The three-syllable (Word) "Sita" (SA-I-TA) is filled with Maya. The syllable I is called Vishnu, the seed of manifestation and Maya./3/
4. The syllable SA – the attainment of truth and Immortality – is called the moon. The syllable Ta is the Savior (OM), together with Lakshmi, considered the expansion of Prakriti./4/
5. The image of the syllable I is the moon, amrita, the manifest and unmanifest image of Mahamaya, clothed in Liberation and other garments, whose limbs shine with divine adornments. /5/
6. The first (the form of Sita) is filled with shabda Brahman, satisfied during the study of the Vedas. The second is generated, consisting of people on earth, arising before the "plow" (HA, i.e. SA). The third – the form of the syllable I – is the inner image of the unmanifest – Sita. Thus it is said in the Shaunakiya (shakha)./6/
7. She who creates the Bliss of the universe, through the power of her closeness to Sri Rama. She who creates, sustains, and destroys all beings./7/
8. Known as Bhagavati, Sita is called the root prakriti. Because of the nature of Pranava, those who teach about Brahman call Her Prakriti (nature)./8/
9. Now the question about Brahman./9/
10. She is known as consisting of all the Vedas, consisting of all the gods, consisting of all the worlds, consisting of all glory, consisting of all Dharma, consisting of all supports, causes, and effects. The divisible and indivisible form of the great Lakshmi and the Lord of the gods, the conscious and unconscious Essence, the Essence of the motionless Brahman, the form of the body, divided into qualities and actions. The image of the gods, rishis, Gandharvas, Asuras, Rakshasas, Bhutas, Pretas, Pischas, the bodies of beings, and so on. (She) is forms, elements, feelings, mind and prana. /10/
11. This Devi is the Essence of three Shaktis: Ichcha Shakti, Kriya Shakti, and Shakti Herself (i.e., Jnana Shakti). /11/
12. Ichcha Shakti is threefold: the Essence of Sri, Bhumi, and Nila, Bhadrupini, Prabhavarupini, and the form of the moon, sun, and fire./12/
13. The essence of the moon produces medicinal herbs, the essence of the desire tree produces flowers, fruits, vines, and shrubs. The essence of the medicinal herb is amrita for the gods, bestowing great glory. Through this amrita, the satiation of the gods, animals, and every living thing with grass is generated./13/
14. The divine night, which manifests the entire world, beginning with the sun, encompassing the blinking moment, subdivided into an hour, eight yamas, day and night, paksha, month, half-year, and year. It manifests the century of a hundred years for people, the long and short intervals (of time) beginning with the blinking moment and ending with paradha (four yugas), the wheel of time, the wheel of the universe. In these and other ways, rotating (everything) like a wheel, it manifests in the manifestation of the world in the form of all these divisions of time./14/
15. The form of fire is the digestion of food by living beings, the essence of hunger and thirst, the image of sacrifice to the gods, the image of heat and cold, forest herbs, in firewood inside and outside, eternal and imperishable form. /15/
16. Goddess Sri, having assumed a threefold form, according to the will of the deity for the protection of the world, maintains the forms. (She) is known as Sri, Lakshmi, Lakshyamana./16/
17. The Goddess Earth, bearing treasures, with oceans of water and seven islands, known as the support of the fourteen worlds, beginning with the earth, is the Essence of Pranava./17/
18. Nila (Cloud), Vidyunmalini, the form of everything manifested for the sake of nourishment of all plants and all living things./18/
19. At the bottom of the entire world resides the form of water known as Mandukamaya, the support of the worlds./19/
20. The internal essence of kriya shakti: From the mouth of Hari (comes) nada. From nada (comes) bindu. From bindu comes the syllable OM. From the syllable OM comes Mount Rama Vaikhanasa. On this mountain are many branches, consisting of action and knowledge./20/
21. There are the three primordial scriptures of (all) views – Rig, Yajur, and Sama – this is the name of this triad./21/
22. For success in ritual, it is called a four: Rikas, Yajus, Samanas, Atharvangirasas./22/
23. Four priests by their main characteristic and other attributes – three by three. Atharva Angirasa is the essence of Rig, Sama, Yajur (Veda)./23/
24. Rig Veda is said to have twenty-one branches (shakha, i.e. school), beginning with shanti (pacification), abhichara (magic), and samanya (general)./24/
25. The Yajur Veda (gives birth to) one hundred and nine branches, the Sama (Veda) – a thousand branches, the Atharva – five branches./25/
26. In this Vaikhanasa tradition, direct vision, remembered by the wise, (is called) Vaikhanasa./26/
27. Ritual (kalpa), grammar, phonetics, etymology, astrology, prosody – these are the six Vedangas./27/
28. The following subdivisions: Mimamsa, Nyaya, knowledge of Dharma, and above this, the Veda of the Vedas./28/
29. All the branches, all the twigs, all the Dharma Shastras of the great sages are united in Samyachara (Sri Vidya), called the internal sense organ (antah karana). Itihasa and Purana are called secondary sense organs. /29/
30. Vastu Veda, Dhanur Veda, Divine Gandharva (Veda), Daivika, and Ayurveda are called the five supplements to the Vedas. /30/
31. Punishment, morality, activity, and vayujaya (control of the breath) are non-different from the twenty-one (branches) and are called self-born./31/
32. In the Beginning, the speech of Vishnu was spoken (from the mouth) of the sage Vaikhanasa. Having assumed the triple form (madhyama, pashyanti, and vaikhari), it is called embodied./32/
33. It assumed in the beginning, as before, the form of a number, from the rishi Vaikhanasa. Hear all about this from me. From the Bliss of the Eternal Brahman arises Kriya Shakti./33/
34. Shakti Herself (jnana shakti) is a moment of remembrance of the Divine, the Essence of appearance and disappearance, the Form of mercy and punishment, the image of peace and light, the manifest and unmanifest Cause, the Named One, the One whose feet are equivalent to the main organs, the Form of difference and non-difference, the Helper of God, the Indestructible, the Unchanging, together with (her) abode, creating sunrise and sunset by the opening and closing of the eyes, consubstantial with all Shakti. (She is) Creation, Sustaining, Destruction, and Concealing. Thus is Shakti Herself glorified./34/
35. Ichchha Shakti – threefold. Having become the srivatsa (curl) on the right chest of the Lord, for the sake of peace in the state of dissolution, She—the yoga shakti—pacifies (all)./35/
36. Bhoga shakti is the form of enjoyment. Surrounded by desire trees, desire cows, cintamani stones, lotuses, conch shells, the ocean and nine oceans, by devotees with and without desires. A person bound by devotion does everything for the satisfaction of God: rituals, constant, occasional and desired, agnihotra, yama, niyama, asana, pranyama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi, through the city gates (senses), the aerial chariot (mind) and so on, worship and adoration of the merciful God, ablution and so on, veneration of ancestors, digestion of food and so on./36/
37. Now about Vira Shakti. Four-armed, holding the gestures of blessing and fearlessness, a lotus, wearing a diadem, surrounded by all the gods, (sitting) at the roots of the desire-tree, washed by four elephants with water and amrita from jeweled vessels, glorified by all the deities beginning with Brahma, surrounded by the eight perfections beginning with anima, glorified by the desire-cow (standing) before her face, glorified by the Vedas and scriptures, surrounded by Jaya and other (divine) female apsaras, illuminated by the lamps of the sun and moon, glorified (by the playing of) musical instruments by Narada and others, (sheltered) by the umbrella held by Raka and Sinivali, (fanned) by the chamara held by Hladini and Maya, anointed by Svaha and Svadha, worshipped by Bhrigu, Punya and others, the Goddess Lakshmi on the divine seated on the throne in the lotus position, creating the cause and effect of everything, creating separation (of the jiva) from God, with a satisfied look, worshiped by all the gods – is known as Vira Lakshmi. This is the Upanishad./37/