Upanishads · Śvetāśvatara 3.16
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वतःपाणिपादं तत् सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखं ।
सर्वतःश्रुतिमल् लोके सर्वम् आवृत्य तिष्ठति
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvataḥpāṇipādaṃ tat sarvato'kṣiśiromukhaṃ /
sarvataḥśrutimal loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सर्वतःपाणिपादम्sarvataḥpāṇipādamwith hands and feet on every side; whose hands and feet are on all sides
तत्tatthat; it
सर्वतः अक्षिशिरोमुखम्sarvataḥ akṣiśiromukhamwith eyes, heads and faces on every side; with eyes, heads and faces everywhere
सर्वतःश्रुतिमत्sarvataḥśrutimatwith hearing on every side; having hearing on all sides
लोकेlokein the world; in the universe
सर्वम्sarvameverything; the whole
आवृत्यāvṛtyahaving enveloped; having covered
तिष्ठतिtiṣṭhatiit stands; it abides
Translation
With hands and feet on every side, with eyes, heads and faces on every side, with hearing on every side — having enveloped everything in the world, He stands.
Version
ccc5c5ab2f83 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:13:46 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The Upaniṣad repeats the same thought a third time — and the repetition is not accidental. It returns to it after every new turn: after the smith's image at 3.3, after the name Bhagavān at 3.11, and now, after the hymn to the Puruṣa.
The list here is widened by hearing: "hearing on every side". This addition matters more than it seems. Hands and feet speak of action, eyes of seeing, but hearing says that He hears: the prayer, the complaint, the vow, the thing said in a whisper. The all-pervading is described not only as an all-seeing surveillance but as an all-hearing interlocutor.
This line will be repeated almost word for word by the Gītā in describing the knowledge of the field and its knower — and so it has become one of the most recognisable formulas of Indian thought.
Vedānta, discussing it, makes a qualification worth remembering: the enumeration of limbs does not describe the composition of His body and does not cancel His form; it says that the whole power is present everywhere. And how He shows Himself to one who loves is determined not by this formula but by His will and by the mood of the worshipper.
The verb at the end is the same as at 3.9: tiṣṭhati, "stands". The world is embraced and held; the Holder is motionless.