आत्मा एव इदम् अग्रे आसीत् एकः एव सः अकामयत जाया मे स्यात् अथ प्रजायेय अथ वित्तम् मे स्यात् अथ कर्म कुर्वीय इति एतावान् वै कामः न इच्छन् चन अतः भूयः विन्देत् तस्मात् अपि एतर्हि एकाकी कामयते जाया मे स्यात् अथ प्रजायेय अथ वित्तम् मे स्यात् अथ कर्म कुर्वीय इति सः यावत् अपि एतेषाम् एकैकम् न प्राप्नोति अकृत्स्नः एव तावत् मन्यते तस्य उ कृत्स्नता मनः एव अस्य आत्मा वाक् जाया प्राणः प्रजा चक्षुः मानुषम् वित्तम् चक्षुषा हि तत् विन्दते श्रोत्रम् दैवम् श्रोत्रेण हि तत् शृणोति आत्मा एव अस्य कर्म आत्मना हि कर्म करोति सः एषः पाङ्क्तः यज्ञः पाङ्क्तः पशुः पाङ्क्तः पुरुषः पाङ्क्तम् इदम् सर्वम् यद् इदम् किञ्च तद् इदम् सर्वम् आप्नोति यः एवम् वेद
ātmā eva idam agre āsīt ekaḥ eva saḥ akāmayata jāyā me syāt atha prajāyeya atha vittam me syāt atha karma kurvīya iti etāvān vai kāmaḥ na icchan cana ataḥ bhūyaḥ vindet tasmāt api etarhi ekākī kāmayate jāyā me syāt atha prajāyeya atha vittam me syāt atha karma kurvīya iti saḥ yāvat api eteṣām ekaikam na prāpnoti akṛtsnaḥ eva tāvat manyate tasya u kṛtsnatā manaḥ eva asya ātmā vāk jāyā prāṇaḥ prajā cakṣuḥ mānuṣam vittam cakṣuṣā hi tat vindate śrotram daivam śrotreṇa hi tat śṛṇoti ātmā eva asya karma ātmanā hi karma karoti saḥ eṣaḥ pāṅktaḥ yajñaḥ pāṅktaḥ paśuḥ pāṅktaḥ puruṣaḥ pāṅktam idam sarvam yad idam kiñca tad idam sarvam āpnoti yaḥ evam veda
In the beginning this was the ātman alone. He desired: "Let me have a wife, and I shall beget offspring; let me have wealth, and I shall perform work." That is the whole extent of desire: not even by wishing could one find more. Therefore to this day a man alone desires: "Let me have a wife, offspring, wealth, work." So long as he lacks any one of these, he thinks himself incomplete. But his completeness is this: the mind is his self, speech his wife, breath his offspring, the eye his human wealth (for it is by the eye that it is found), the ear his divine wealth (for by the ear it is heard), the body his work (for by the body work is done). Fivefold is the sacrifice, fivefold the animal, fivefold man, fivefold all this that is. He obtains all this who knows thus.
4e5eba62987f · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:45:06 AM UTC
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The close of the fourth brāhmaṇa marks out the circle of all human wanting: wife, offspring, wealth, work — etāvān vai kāmaḥ, "that is the whole extent of desire": nothing more can be wished; all humanity's dreams are variations on these four. And the pain is honestly admitted: so long as even one is lacking, a man "thinks himself incomplete" (akṛtsna) — that very halfness of the split shell (1.4.3) which drives everyone about the world.
And then a reversal: the completeness is already at hand. The mind is oneself, speech the wife, breath the offspring, eye and ear the two wealths, the body the work: the whole sought-for world is gathered in a man's own constitution. This is no consolation prize for the unlucky but a map of the depths: the outward wife, son and work are projections of the inner couple of mind and speech, of breath-as-offspring, of the acting body; he who has found the fullness within receives the outward too, not as a stopper for a void but as an overflow of abundance.
With a fivefold chord (sacrifice, cattle, man, everything — all fivefold) the brāhmaṇa that began with "I am" is closed. The road from "I am" to "all is fivefold and all is mine" is the road of this chapter: from a Face to a fullness. Next the Upaniṣad will lay that fullness out as the Father's seven foods.