तस्यैतस्य महतो भूतस्य निःश्वसितमेवैतद्यदृग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्ववेदः शिक्षा कल्पो व्याकरणं निरुक्तं छन्दो ज्योतिषामयनं न्यायो मीमांसा धर्मशास्त्राणि व्याख्यानान्युपव्याख्यानानि च सर्वाणि च भूतानि
tasyaitasya mahato bhūtasya niḥśvasitamevaitadyadṛgvedo yajurvedaḥ sāmavedo'tharvavedaḥ śikṣā kalpo vyākaraṇaṃ niruktaṃ chando jyotiṣāmayanaṃ nyāyo mīmāṃsā dharmaśāstrāṇi vyākhyānānyupavyākhyānāni ca sarvāṇi ca bhūtāni
Of this great being this is but the out-breath: the Ṛg-veda, the Yajur-veda, the Sāma-veda, the Atharva-veda, phonetics, ritual rule, grammar, word-explanation, metrics, the course of the luminaries, logic, mīmāṁsā, the books of law, expositions and sub-expositions — and all beings.
214132a95c65 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
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A famous line, known also to the Bṛhadāraṇyaka: the Vedas are the breath of the Great Being.
The word niḥśvasita means precisely “out-breath” — not “composition” and not “work”. The difference is essential. An out-breath is not pondered or put together; it comes out of itself, because the breather is alive. So is the origin of the Veda described: it was not written and not invented; it was breathed out.
Hence the ancient position that the Veda has no author. Not because he was forgotten, but because an out-breath never has one.
The list is deliberately long and includes not only the four Vedas but all the auxiliary sciences: phonetics, ritual rule, grammar, word-explanation, metrics, star-lore. And then — what the Bṛhadāraṇyaka lacks: logic, mīmāṁsā, the books of law, and even “expositions and sub-expositions”, that is, commentaries upon commentaries.
In this a later hand is visible: all the learning there was is enumerated. And yet the list is not vainglorious — it leads to the final turn.
For it ends with the words “and all beings”. After the four Vedas, the auxiliary sciences and all the expositions, simply the living creatures are set in the same row. Thereby it is said: both the books and the living are of one origin; all of it is one out-breath.