Upanishads · Śvetāśvatara 1.5
॥
Devanāgarī
पञ्चस्रोतोऽम्बुं पञ्चयोन्युग्रवक्त्रां पञ्चप्राणोर्मिं पञ्चबुद्ध्यादिमूलां ।
पञ्चावर्तां पञ्चदुःखौघवेगां पञ्चाशद्भेदां पञ्चपर्वाम् अधीमः
Transliteration (IAST)
pañcasroto'mbuṃ pañcayonyugravaktrāṃ pañcaprāṇormiṃ pañcabuddhyādimūlāṃ /
pañcāvartāṃ pañcaduḥkhaughavegāṃ pañcāśadbhedāṃ pañcaparvām adhīmaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पञ्चस्रोतोम्बुम्pañcasrotombumwhose waters are five streams; with five currents of water
पञ्चयोन्युग्रवक्त्राम्pañcayonyugravaktrāmwith a fierce mouth made of five wombs; whose savage estuary is five sources
पञ्चप्राणोर्मिम्pañcaprāṇormimwhose waves are the five prāṇas; whose billows are the five breaths
पञ्चबुद्ध्यादिमूलाम्pañcabuddhyādimūlāmwith a root of the five beginnings of knowing; whose source is the fivefold sense-understanding
पञ्चावर्ताम्pañcāvartāmwith five whirlpools; having five eddies
पञ्चदुःखौघवेगाम्pañcaduḥkhaughavegāmwith the rapids of the five sufferings; whose torrent is the flood of five sorrows
पञ्चाशद्भेदाम्pañcāśadbhedāmwith fifty branches; ramified into fifty
पञ्चपर्वाम्pañcaparvāmwith five bends; having five knots
अधीमःadhīmaḥwe contemplate; we ponder it
Translation
The river whose waters are five streams, whose savage mouth is five wombs, whose waves are the five breaths, whose root is the five beginnings of knowing, with five whirlpools, with the rapids of five sorrows, with fifty branches, with five bends — that is what we contemplate.
Version
24320db5a360 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:13:46 PM UTC
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The same world that in the previous mantra was a wheel becomes here a river, and the change of image is not accidental. A wheel speaks of repetition: the same spokes, the same round. A river speaks of unceasing movement: the waters differ, but the carrying is the same. One and the same existence is described both as a machine and as an element.
The fives follow one another almost insistently, and this too is a device: the life of the senses is built throughout on a fivefold pattern. Five streams are the five senses by which the world flows into us. The five wombs forming the "savage estuary" are the five elements of which the body is made. Five waves are the five prāṇas, the breaths that raise and lower bodily life. Five beginnings of knowing are the subtle objects of the senses, out of which everything we can distinguish is composed. Five whirlpools are the same objects, but now as what sucks one in: sound, touch, form, taste, smell. Five sorrows are the classic list of afflictions: ignorance, egoity, attraction, aversion and the clinging to life; they are called a flood because they come all at once. Fifty branches are the same fifty states of mind that were the spokes of the wheel. Five bends are the five knots where the river is, as it were, tied.
And the whole mantra rests on its last word: adhīmaḥ — "we contemplate", "we study this". Not "we are drowning" and not "we are running away", but "we look closely". Vedānta advises neither turning from the river nor throwing oneself into it; it advises examining its structure — because in the examining the far bank appears.
The next mantra will name what is absent from this description: the One who is above the river and above the wheel, and the one who circles in them.