यः पुनर् एतं त्रिमात्रेणोमित्य् एतेनैवाक्षरेण परं पुरुषम् अभिध्यायीत ।
स तेजसि सूर्ये संपन्नः ।
यथा पादोदरस् त्वचा विनिर्मुच्यते ।
एवं ह वै स पाप्मना विनिर्मुक्तः स सामभिर् उन्नीयते ब्रह्मलोकम् ।
स एतस्माज् जीवधनात् परापरं पुरिशयं पुरुषम् ईक्षते तद् एतौ श्लोकौ भवतः
yaḥ punar etaṃ trimātreṇomity etenaivākṣareṇa paraṃ puruṣam abhidhyāyīta |
sa tejasi sūrye saṃpannaḥ |
yathā pādodaras tvacā vinirmucyate |
evaṃ ha vai sa pāpmanā vinirmuktaḥ sa sāmabhir unnīyate brahmalokam |
sa etasmāj jīvadhanāt parāparaṃ puriśayaṃ puruṣam īkṣate tad etau ślokau bhavataḥ
"But he who contemplates the supreme Puruṣa by this very syllable Oṁ in three measures is joined with the radiance in the sun. As a snake sloughs off its skin, so is he freed from sin; the sāmans raise him to the world of Brahman, and there he beholds the Puruṣa dwelling in the city [of the body] — higher than that highest fullness of life. Of this there are these two verses."
abdf0b37f215 · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
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The third and full step — the summit of the fifth question. yaḥ punar etaṁ trimātreṇom ity etenaivākṣareṇa paraṁ puruṣam abhidhyāyīta — "he who by three measures, by this very syllable Oṁ, contemplates the supreme Puruṣa": here are the decisive words — full contemplation is not of "sound in general" but of the Supreme Person through the sound: the syllable to the end is the syllable that has reached the Bearer of the Name. The Gītā (8.13) describes the same practice at the hour of departure: oṁ ity ekākṣaraṁ brahma vyāharan mām anusmaran — "uttering 'Oṁ' and remembering Me".
The fruits are strung out in a series of images: sa tejasi sūrye sampannaḥ — "he is joined with the radiance in the sun" (the northern path of light from the first question!); yathā pādodaras tvacā vinirmucyate — "as a snake is set free from its skin, so is he freed from sin": sin falls away not scraped off but outgrown — the new life simply steps out of the old sheath; sāmabhir unnīyate brahma-lokam — the sāmans raise him to the world of Brahman.
And there is the goal of goals: sa etasmāj jīva-ghanāt parāt-paraṁ puriśayaṁ puruṣam īkṣate — "he beholds the Puruṣa who lies in the city (puri-śaya — 'lying in the city' of the body — but here also in the City of the world), higher than that very massed fullness of life (jīva-ghana — Hiraṇyagarbha, the universal soul)". Higher than the highest of living things is a Person, and He is beheld: īkṣate — a verb of seeing face to face. The path of the syllable ends not in the silence of a void but in a meeting of gazes: Oṁ, uttered to its very bottom, discloses Him who was looking back all along.