Vyāhṛti — The Sacred Utterances

भूः · भुवः · स्वः

A vyāhṛti (व्याहृति) is a sacred utterance: a single word that names, and calls into presence, a whole plane of existence. The three great vyāhṛtis, bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ, stand for earth, the space between, and heaven. They are said before the Gāyatrī, offered into the sacred fire, and taught in the Upaniṣads as the essence of the three Vedas.

1. The word

Vyāhṛti comes from the root √hṛ, "to carry, to bring," with the prefixes vi and ā. Vy-ā-hṛ means "to utter, to declare"; vyāhṛti is "that which is uttered" or "a declaration." It is not ordinary speech. It is speech that brings something forth, as when a priest declares a name and the thing named becomes present at the rite.

There are two sets:

• The three great vyāhṛtis (mahāvyāhṛtis): bhūḥ भूः, bhuvaḥ भुवः, svaḥ स्वः (also spoken suvaḥ).
• The seven vyāhṛtis: these three, then mahaḥ महः, janaḥ जनः, tapaḥ तपः and satyam सत्यम्.

2. Origin: Prajāpati distils the three Vedas

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad (4.17.1–3) tells how the vyāhṛtis came to be. Prajāpati brooded (tapas) over the worlds and drew out their essences, step by step:

1. From the earth he drew Agni; from the mid-space, Vāyu; from the sky, Āditya.
2. Brooding on these three deities, he drew out the three Vedas: the Ṛk from Agni, the Yajus from Vāyu, the Sāman from Āditya.
3. Brooding on the three Vedas, he drew out their essences: bhūḥ from the Ṛk, bhuvaḥ from the Yajus, svaḥ from the Sāman.

So each vyāhṛti is the distilled essence of a Veda, which is itself the essence of a deity and of a world. The Chāndogya (2.23.2–3) takes the process one step further: from the three vyāhṛtis Prajāpati drew out the syllable Oṃ.

Manusmṛti 2.76 gives the same teaching:

अकारं चाप्युकारं च मकारं च प्रजापतिः ।
वेदत्रयान्निरदुहद्भूर्भुवः स्वरितीति च ॥

akāraṃ cāpy ukāraṃ ca makāraṃ ca prajāpatiḥ |
vedatrayān niraduhad bhūr bhuvaḥ svar itīti ca ||

"From the three Vedas Prajāpati milked out the sounds A, U and M, and bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ."

3. The fourth vyāhṛti: Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.5

The Śīkṣāvallī of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad (1.5) adds a fourth utterance, Mahaḥ, and calls it the Self of the other three:

भूर्भुवः सुवरिति वा एतास्तिस्रो व्याहृतयः । तासामु ह स्मैतां चतुर्थीं माहाचमस्यः प्रवेदयते । मह इति । तद्ब्रह्म । स आत्मा । अङ्गान्यन्या देवताः ।

bhūr bhuvaḥ suvar iti vā etās tisro vyāhṛtayaḥ | tāsām u ha smaitāṃ caturthīṃ māhācamasyaḥ pravedayate | maha iti | tad brahma | sa ātmā | aṅgāny anyā devatāḥ |

"Bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, suvaḥ: these are the three vyāhṛtis. The sage Māhācamasya made known a fourth: Mahaḥ. That is Brahman; that is the Self. The other deities are its limbs."

The Upaniṣad then maps the four utterances onto four sets of four, sixteen correspondences in all (catasraś catasro vyāhṛtayaḥ):

In each row, Mahaḥ is what makes the other three flourish: the Sun lights the worlds, the Moon nourishes the lights, Brahman sustains the Vedas, and food sustains the breaths. "One who knows these knows Brahman; all the gods bring him offerings."

The Taittirīya's order of the Vedas (Ṛk, Sāman, Yajus) differs from the Chāndogya's (Ṛk, Yajus, Sāman).

4. The seven vyāhṛtis and the seven worlds

The Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (book 10, the Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad) extends the series to seven. The Purāṇas, for example the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (2.7), describe the seven upper worlds (lokas) that these utterances name, rising from the earth to the realm of Brahmā.

The first three worlds dissolve at the end of each day of Brahmā; Maharloka is abandoned but not destroyed; the upper three endure until the great dissolution (mahāpralaya).

5. In the Gāyatrī and the sandhyā

The Gāyatrī (Sāvitrī) is Ṛgveda 3.62.10, tat savitur vareṇyaṃ…. The Ṛgveda verse itself does not contain the vyāhṛtis. They are joined to it in the Yajurveda: Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 36.3 opens with bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ before the verse. This gives the form chanted daily:

ओं भूर्भुवः स्वः तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Manusmṛti 2.81 calls this three-part opening the "mouth of the Veda":

ओंकारपूर्विकास्तिस्रो महाव्याहृतयोऽव्ययाः ।
त्रिपदा चैव सावित्री विज्ञेयं ब्रह्मणो मुखम् ॥

oṃkārapūrvikās tisro mahāvyāhṛtayo 'vyayāḥ |
tripadā caiva sāvitrī vijñeyaṃ brahmaṇo mukham ||

"The three imperishable great vyāhṛtis, preceded by Oṃ, and the three-footed Sāvitrī: know these as the mouth of the Veda." Manu (2.77–78) adds that Prajāpati milked one foot of the Sāvitrī from each of the three Vedas, so the three vyāhṛtis and the three feet of the Gāyatrī correspond.

The seven in prāṇāyāma. In sandhyāvandana, the breath-control mantra (from the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, book 10) uses all seven vyāhṛtis, each preceded by Oṃ:

ओं भूः । ओं भुवः । ओँ सुवः । ओं महः । ओं जनः । ओं तपः । ओँ सत्यम् ।
ओं तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ।
ओमापो ज्योती रसोऽमृतं ब्रह्म भूर्भुवः सुवरोम् ॥

With each breath the practitioner moves through all seven worlds, rising from earth to Satya, and then returns.

6. In ritual: the vyāhṛti homa and expiation

The vyāhṛti homa. Almost every gṛhya rite, from nāmakaraṇa to vivāha, includes four oblations of ghee into the fire with the vyāhṛtis:

Expiation (prāyaścitta). The Chāndogya Upaniṣad (4.17.4–8) makes the vyāhṛtis the remedy for faults in the sacrifice. A fault in the Ṛk portion is mended with an oblation of bhūḥ svāhā, in the Yajus with bhuvaḥ svāhā, and in the Sāman with svaḥ svāhā. Just as gold is joined with salt and silver with gold, the Upaniṣad says, each Veda is mended by its own essence. This is why the Brahmā priest, who silently watches over the rite, must know the vyāhṛtis.

7. The Person in the Sun: Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 5.5.3

The Bṛhadāraṇyaka sees the vyāhṛtis as the body of the Person (puruṣa) in the solar orb, matching each utterance's syllables to a part of the body:

• Bhūḥ is the head: one head, one syllable.
• Bhuvaḥ is the two arms: two arms, two syllables.
• Svaḥ (pronounced su-vaḥ) is the two feet, his foundation: two feet, two syllables.

Its secret name is ahar, "day." The same is taught of the Person in the right eye, whose secret name is aham, "I." One who knows this, the Upaniṣad says, destroys evil and leaves it behind.

8. A Jyotiṣa reflection

This section is interpretation, not a classical teaching.

The same three-fold pattern runs through the chart. The lights of the vyāhṛtis, Agni, Vāyu and Āditya, mirror the three anchors of a horoscope:

• Bhūḥ → the lagna: the body, the point where the native touches the earth; Agni is its fire.
• Bhuvaḥ → the Moon: the mind and breath, moving between body and spirit as Vāyu moves in the mid-space.
• Svaḥ → the Sun: the ātmā, the light of heaven.

In the Taittirīya's fourth vyāhṛti, Mahaḥ is both the Sun and the Moon: the two luminaries that sustain everything else. This is why every reading begins by judging the lagna, the Moon and the Sun together before any other factor.

Sources

• Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.2–3 and 4.17.1–8
• Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.5 (Śīkṣāvallī)
• Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, book 10 (Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad)
• Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 5.5.3–4
• Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 36.3; Ṛgveda 3.62.10
• Manusmṛti 2.76–81
• Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.7