Chapter 2
Story Analysis
Now let us continue.
Verse 7
“Yā prāṇena sambhavati aditi devatāmayī… etad vai tat.”
Meaning:
“The divine Aditi, who arises together with the life-force, who manifests along with beings, and who enters the heart-cave and resides there—one who sees Her truly sees correctly. This is the very Supreme you asked about, Nachiketa.”
This verse has a slight difficulty because it introduces something new. Earlier, it was said that in the heart-cave the soul (Jivātmā) resides. Here it says that in the same cave, Aditi—the divine power—is also present.
What does this “divine Aditi” mean?
It refers to the power of the Supreme, the inner spiritual power.
Wherever the soul exists, the power that resides within the soul naturally exists as well.
The verse separates them as if they are two—the soul and the power—but the meaning is simply that the soul does nothing on its own; whatever is done is done by the power dwelling within it.
This is why we have two traditional approaches:
– those who worship Shiva (the Self), and
– those who worship Shakti (the power of the Self).
These are not actually separate. It depends only on one’s inclination—whether one focuses on the Self or on the power of the Self. People have created the division, but in truth the two cannot be separate.
Earlier the Upanishad spoke of the soul residing in the heart-cave. Now, in this verse, it adds that the soul’s power also resides there. This divine Aditi is simply the spiritual power of the Self.
To understand this further, the speaker gives a deeper explanation using ideas from the Bhagavata Purana, where Aditi appears often. Aditi is called the mother of the gods, but this does not mean a literal woman giving birth to divine sons. It is symbolic.
Aditi represents unbroken, non-fragmented consciousness—the awareness “I am the soul and the body is only an instrument.”
The opposite of this is Diti, fragmented consciousness—the belief “I am the body.”
From Diti come the symbolic demons Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu.
From Aditi come the twelve “Adityas”, which are not literal sons but twelve forms of inner divine qualities that arise when one remains in unbroken consciousness.
These twelve symbolic divine qualities are:
Vivān – the state free from all desires.
Dhātā – accepting the entire existence exactly as it is.
Vidhātā – becoming the creator of one’s destiny through acceptance.
Pūṣā – the quality of nourishing others.
Tvaṣṭā – the ability to prune away inner impurities, like trimming unnecessary branches from a tree.
Savitā – the power of creativity and productivity.
Bhaga – transforming even past karmic seeds into something constructive, instead of complaining about them.
Aryamā – effortless steadiness in the yogic disciplines of yama and niyama.
Mitra – harmony among all bodily functions; everything working together.
Varuṇa – mastery over both divine and demonic tendencies within oneself.
Vāmana – a mind that is pure, subtle, and clean.
Indra – mastery over one's senses.
When one stays in unbroken spiritual awareness (Aditi), these twelve inner divine qualities naturally arise.
Thus, when the verse says that Aditi is born with the life-force and with beings, it means:
– This inner spiritual power arises together with the soul.
– And it becomes known only when the soul resides in a human body.
The verse says “born with beings” to indicate that only in the human condition can one fully understand and use this power. In other forms of life (like an insect or animal), this recognition does not occur.
Verse 8
“Araṇy nihito jātavedaḥ…”
This is a difficult verse. It speaks of Jātaveda Agni, which we must understand first.
The verse says:
“The Jātaveda fire, nourished like a fetus in the womb and hidden as fire is hidden in two fire-sticks, is worthy of praise every day by those who are awake and by those who offer oblations in the sacrifice of life. This is that very Supreme you asked about.”
Let us break the verse down.
They say there is a special fire called Jātaveda Agni, the fire worthy of daily praise (dive-dive iḍyo).
But what is this fire?
Earlier, five kinds of physical sacrificial fires were mentioned.
But this is not one of those.
Jātaveda Agni here means the fire of knowledge.
To understand it, the speaker refers to Patanjali’s eightfold path—yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and finally samādhi.
What is samādhi?
Not simply sitting with closed eyes.
The word comes from sam + ā + the root dhā—to hold firmly.
Samādhi means holding firmly to one’s real nature, abiding in the true Self.
When someone realizes the Self and stabilizes in it, they eventually return to normal life. They don’t run away from the world. But their inner quality is no longer the same. After samādhi, their inner consciousness becomes lit with knowledge.
This inner awakened quality is what the Vedas call Jātaveda Agni—the fire of awakened knowledge.
This fire is worthy of daily praise because one prays that this same inner fire arise within oneself.
The verse gives two examples to explain this:
1. Fire from two Aranis (fire-sticks)
Just as rubbing two wooden sticks generates fire, the fire of knowledge arises from the constant “rubbing together” of:
– the body
and
– the consciousness within it,
through the understanding: “I am the soul; the body is my instrument.”
This mental churning produces the Jātaveda fire.
2. The fetus in the womb
Just as a fetus grows inside a mother and emerges only at the right time, the soul sitting inside the heart-cave is like an unborn child.
It manifests only when “the winds of knowledge” churn it—meaning, through ongoing inner inquiry and understanding.
This is compared to the symbolic churning in the Bhagavata Purana, where the ocean was churned by gods and demons to produce nectar.
It is all symbolic: the churning represents inner inquiry, and the nectar represents inner realization.
Likewise, the soul hidden within emerges when knowledge churns it.
The verse then mentions three types of people:
– Jāgṛt – those who are awake (spiritually alert).
– Haviṣmat – those who constantly offer the oblations of knowledge into the sacrifice of life.
– Manuṣya – human beings.
Only such people awaken the Jātaveda fire—meaning the Self becomes revealed.
So Yama again tells Nachiketa:
“This very Jātaveda—the fire of knowledge, the revealed Self—is the very Supreme you asked about.”
Thus, this single verse contains many layers, which is why it feels difficult.