यः वै सः संवत्सरः प्रजापतिः षोडशकालः अयम् एव सः यः अयम् एवंवित् पुरुषः तस्य वित्तम् एव पञ्चदश कलाः आत्मा एव अस्य षोडशी कला सः वित्तेन एव आ च पूर्यते अप च क्षीयते तद् एतत् नभ्यम् यद् अयम् आत्मा प्रधिः वित्तम् तस्मात् यदि अपि सर्वज्यानिम् जीयते आत्मना चेत् जीवति प्रधिना अगात् इति एव आहुः
yaḥ vai saḥ saṃvatsaraḥ prajāpatiḥ ṣoḍaśakālaḥ ayam eva saḥ yaḥ ayam evaṃvit puruṣaḥ tasya vittam eva pañcadaśa kalāḥ ātmā eva asya ṣoḍaśī kalā saḥ vittena eva ā ca pūryate apa ca kṣīyate tad etat nabhyam yad ayam ātmā pradhiḥ vittam tasmāt yadi api sarvajyānim jīyate ātmanā cet jīvati pradhinā agāt iti eva āhuḥ
And that year-Prajāpati of sixteen parts is the very man who knows this: his wealth is the fifteen parts, his self the sixteenth. By wealth he waxes and wanes. The self is the nave, wealth the felly. Therefore, even if he is stripped of everything, so long as he lives by the self, men say: "He got off with the felly."
949f11bf5be0 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:48:21 AM UTC
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The lunar arithmetic is applied to a man — and out comes one of the most consoling formulas of the Veda: property is the fifteen waning parts, the ātman the sixteenth, the constant one. By wealth a man "waxes and wanes" as the moon does with the nights; but there is in him a part not subject to those phases.
The image of the wheel completes the lesson: the self is the nave (nabhya), property the felly (pradhi). The felly takes all the blows of the road and wears away — the nave holds the wheel. And common speech bears witness: of a man robbed but alive they say "he went off with only the felly" (pradhinā agāt) — he lost the circumference and kept the axle. Every loss but the loss of oneself is the loss of a felly; and every gain without the ātman is winding onto an empty axle. Count your riches from the nave: is the Undiminishing alive in me? — the rest are phases of the moon.