Editing Prajapati (section)

===Upanishads===
Prajapati appears in early Upanishads, among the most influential texts in Hinduism.<ref>Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanisads, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195352429}}, pages 3, 279-281; Quote: "Even though theoretically the whole of vedic corpus is accepted as revealed truth [shruti], in reality it is the Upanishads that have continued to influence the life and thought of the various religious traditions that we have come to call Hindu. Upanishads are the scriptures par excellence of Hinduism".</ref> He is described in the Upanishads in diverse ways. For example, in different Upanishads, he is presented as the personification of creative power after Brahman,<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|pages=19–21, 205, 240, 350, 510, 544}}</ref> the same as the wandering eternal soul,<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|page=495}}</ref> as symbolism for unmanifest obscure first born,<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|pages=85, 96–97, 252}}</ref> as manifest procreative sexual powers,<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|pages=53–56, 471, 534, 540}}</ref> the knower particularly of [[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]] (soul, self),<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|page=371}}</ref> and a spiritual teacher that is within each person.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Deussen|title=Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC|year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1468-4|pages=21, 106, 198–205, 263, 508, 544}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Klaus G. Witz|title=The Supreme Wisdom of the Upaniṣads: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jnPlEqwe_UC |year=1998|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1573-5|pages=115, 145–153, 363–365}}</ref> The ''Chandogya Upanishad'', as an illustration, presents him as follows:<ref name=olivelle279/>

{{Blockquote|
The self (atman) that is free from evils,
free from old age and death,
free from sorrow, free from hunger and thirst;
the self whose desires and intentions are real –
that is the self that you should try to discover,
that is the self that you should seek to perceive.
When someone discovers that self and perceives it,
he obtains all the worlds, and all his desires are fulfilled,
so said Prajapati.
|[[Chandogya Upanishad]] 8.7.1|Translator: [[Patrick Olivelle]]<ref name=olivelle279>{{cite book|title=The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lsp18ZvstrcC|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535242-9|pages=279–281}}</ref>}}In Chandogya Upanishad 1.2.1, Prajapati appears as the creator of all devas and devis and asuras and asuris: "The gods and goddesses and the demons and demonesses are both children of Prajapati, yet they fought among themselves." ({{langx|sa|देवासुरा ह वै यत्र संयेतिरे उभये प्राजापत्यास्तद्ध|translit=devāsurā ha vai yatra saṃyetire ubhaye prājāpatyāstaddha}}).<ref>{{Cite web |last=www.wisdomlib.org |date=2019-01-04 |title=Chandogya Upanishad, Verse 1.2.1 (English and Sanskrit) |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/chandogya-upanishad-english/d/doc238721.html |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |language=en}}</ref>