Upanishads · Subāla 6.1
॥
Devanāgarī
नैवेह किञ्चनाग्र आसीदमूलमनाधारा इमाः प्रजाः प्रजायन्ते
Transliteration (IAST)
naiveha kiñcanāgra āsīdamūlamanādhārā imāḥ prajāḥ prajāyante
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
न एव इह किञ्चनna eva iha kiñcanahere nothing; here not a thing
अग्रे आसीत्agre āsītwas in the beginning; existed before
अमूलम् अनाधाराःamūlam anādhārāḥrootless, supportless; without foundation or prop
इमाः प्रजाः प्रजायन्तेimāḥ prajāḥ prajāyantethese creatures are born; these creations come to birth
Translation
Here in the beginning there was nothing; without root and without support these creatures are born.
Version
1911e7565a7e · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The sixth khaṇḍa begins anew — with the same thing the book began with: that in the beginning there was nothing.
But something new is added, and it disconcerts: “without root and without support these creatures are born”. It is said, then, that what is born has neither a root from which it might grow, nor a prop on which it might stand.
This is not a denial of cause, but a denial of the kind of cause the mind looks for. The mind looks for a root — something prior and material out of which a thing came; it looks for a support — something beneath, on which a thing rests. The Upaniṣad says: there is neither.
And it answers this at once — with the whole rest of the khaṇḍa. There is no root, there is no support; but there is He who is in everything. Not under the world, like a prop, and not behind it, like an ancestor, but in it itself.
Hence this mantra is placed first. It clears the ground: removes the habitual ways of explaining — and on the cleared ground the next six mantras will set one name.