पादमेवाप्येति यः पादमेवास्तमेति गन्तव्यमेवाप्येति यो गन्तव्यमेवास्तमेति विष्णुमेवाप्येति यो विष्णुमेवास्तमेति सत्यामेवाप्येति यः सत्यामेवास्तमेत्त्यन्तर्याममेवाप्येति योऽन्तर्याममेवास्तमेति विज्ञानमेवाप्येति तदमृतमभयमशोकमनन्तनिर्बीजमेवाप्येतीति होवाच
pādamevāpyeti yaḥ pādamevāstameti gantavyamevāpyeti yo gantavyamevāstameti viṣṇumevāpyeti yo viṣṇumevāstameti satyāmevāpyeti yaḥ satyāmevāstamettyantaryāmamevāpyeti yo'ntaryāmamevāstameti vijñānamevāpyeti tadamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantanirbījamevāpyetīti hovāca
Into the foot enters that which sets in the foot; into the traversable enters that which sets in the traversable; into Viṣṇu enters that which sets in Viṣṇu; into Satyā enters that which sets in Satyā; into the inner breath enters that which sets in it; into knowledge it enters; and into that immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless, seedless — into it it enters. So he said.
e57a4180c6cf · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
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The eighth step: the foot, the traversable, Viṣṇu, the channel Satyā, the breath antaryāma.
The channel's name here is Satyā, “the true one”; the breath's name is antaryāma, “inwardly guiding”, from the same root as antaryāmin, the “Inner Governor” of the seventh khaṇḍa.
The neighbourhood is telling: truth and inner guidance are set beside the feet, beside the member with which one walks. Not beside reason and not beside speech, but beside walking.
Note also that in this row Viṣṇu is named on a par with the other deities, and it is said that he too “sets” into the channel and the breath. A reader who knows how the book ends should not be troubled: in these lists Viṣṇu is taken as the deity of the feet — one of the fourteen assigned to the members — and not as that of which the sixth khaṇḍa speaks when it names the one Nārāyaṇa the soul of all beings.
The same caution is needed in reading many other places of the śruti where one name stands in different rows: what matters is not the name by itself, but what is said of it.