Yajur Veda · Krishna Yajur Veda (Sannyasa Upanishad group) · 41 mantras
Brahma Upanishad
Brahmopaniṣad
Central theme: The four states of consciousness located in four bodily centres — and the renunciate's vow of the sacred thread of pure knowledge (brahma-sutra)
A core Sannyasa Upanishad teaching that the four states of consciousness (jagrat, svapna, sushupti, turiya) are not merely temporal sequences but are spatially located in four centres of the body: jagrat-purusha resides in the eye, svapna-purusha in the throat, sushupti-purusha in the heart, and turiya-purusha in the crown (murdha). This four-fold scheme became the foundational anatomy of every later Vedanta meditation manual. The text also redefines the sacred thread (yajnopavita): for the householder it is the visible cotton thread, but for the sannyasi it becomes the antar-yajnopavita — the inner thread of self-knowledge that he wears even after relinquishing the external thread at the time of taking sannyasa. The Upanishad gives the famous Pippalada-Shaunaka dialogue: when Shaunaka asks "what is this Brahman that is the foundation of all?" Pippalada answers in two words — Tat tvam asi — and then unfolds the implications across the remaining 40 mantras. Vidyaranya, the founder of the Vijayanagara Empire and codifier of the Smarta order, draws extensively on this Upanishad in his Panchadashi.
Brahma Upanishad — Mantra 5
चत्वारः पुरुषाश्चत्वारो वेदाश्चत्वार आश्रमाः। चतुर्धा भिद्यते देहश्चत्वारः पुरुषाः स्मृताः॥
Catvāraḥ puruṣāś catvāro vedāś catvāra āśramāḥ, caturdhā bhidyate dehaś catvāraḥ puruṣāḥ smṛtāḥ
Four are the purushas (states of consciousness), four the Vedas, four the ashramas; the body is divided in four — the four purushas are remembered.
Every body is a four-storeyed temple. Walk up from the eye to the crown — the four states are not in time, they are in space.