The Taittiriya Upanishad

The Taittiriya Upanishad is one of the principal Upanishads — part of the Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Krishna Yajur Veda. It is short, beautifully structured, and contains two of the tradition’s most loved passages: the five sheaths and the joy at the centre.

The Upanishad has three sections (vallis):

1. Sikshavalli — the chapter of instruction.

The opening section. It is essentially the graduation speech of an ancient Vedic teacher to a departing student. It contains the famous list of duties:

Speak the truth. Practise dharma. Do not neglect your daily study. Treat your mother as a god, your father as a god, your teacher as a god, your guest as a god. Whatever you do, do it with attention. Of all the texts of conduct, hold to the good ones; ignore the rest.

It is one of the clearest sets of moral instructions in the Vedic literature, given to a young person about to enter life. It is still recited at the end of formal Vedic study even today.

The section opens with the Saha nau vavatu Shanti mantra (the one we read in chapter twelve — may we be together protected, may we be together nourished…).

2. Brahmanandavalli — the chapter of the bliss of Brahman.

The most famous section. It introduces two ideas that became central to later Vedanta:

The five sheaths (pancha kosha). The self is wrapped, like layers of an onion, in five sheaths from outer to inner:

• annamaya — the food-body (the physical body).
• pranamaya — the breath-body (the energetic body).
• manomaya — the mind-body (thoughts, feelings).
• vijnanamaya — the intellect-body (discernment).
• anandamaya — the bliss-body (the deepest sheath, of joy).

And inside all of them — what they wrap — is the Self, the Atman. The image is used as a meditation: to recognise that none of the sheaths is the self, that the self is what is aware of them all.

The joy at the centre. The chapter says explicitly: raso vai saḥ — He is taste/essence/sweetness. Having found that sweetness, one becomes happy. It is the Upanishad’s claim that the centre of existence is joy — ananda — not emptiness, not coldness, not nothing. This positive characterisation of the absolute as bliss is the Upanishadic core that the Vedanta tradition holds.

3. Bhriguvalli — the chapter of Bhrigu.

A short narrative section in which the student Bhrigu, instructed by his father Varuna, investigates what Brahman (the ultimate) is, by successively considering food, breath, mind, intellect, and finally bliss as candidates — and finds it in the last. The narrative structure makes the five sheaths lesson concrete.

What to take.

The Taittiriya is short enough to read in a sitting. From it take three things:

1. The Sikshavalli’s practical conduct list — speak truth, treat your teachers as gods, etc. — is one of the cleanest moral teachings in the Vedic literature.
2. The five sheaths model is the simplest map of the human person the tradition offers — and it works as a meditation, not just a diagram.
3. The bliss at the centre claim is the Vedanta tradition’s distinctive positive answer to the question “what is real?”

The Upanishad ends with the student joyfully realising the chain — I am food, I am the eater of food — exclaiming his recognition. It is one of the most exuberant endings in the Upanishadic literature.

Part Four ends here. Part Five turns to what of the Yajur Veda is still alive today.