AITAREYA UPANISHAD - TRUTH: BEFORE AND AFTER CREATION

Mahidāsa was denied the privilege of sitting in the lap of his father. Itarā, his mother, who was perhaps from the potters community noticed the sad plight of her son and prayed to her Iṣṭa Devatā i.e., Goddess Earth, who appeared in a divine form, placed Mahidāsa in celestial seat and imparted unrivalled wisdom. Thus was born, out of the potter Mahidāsa, the proletarian Ṛṣi, the Sage of the labourers, and son of the soil Seer Aitareya, who attained Godhood and authored this scripture of the common man, and sang the song of Hindu culture from a hut of the ‘slum’. ‘Even the Creator is not free to create a world as he likes.’ We with our actions – known and unknown, conscious and unconscious – are making the blueprint of our future. The Lord is but a contractor, who executes our plans, as we give it to Him, asserts Swami Chinmayananda.