एको ह देवः प्रदिशो ऽनु सर्वाः पूर्वो ह जातः स उ गर्भ अन्तः । स एव जातः स जनिष्यमाणः प्रत्यङ्जनास् तिष्ठति सर्वतोमुखः । एको रुद्रो न द्वितीयाय तस्मै य इमांल् लोकान् ईशत ईशानीभिः । प्रत्यङ्जनास् तिष्ठति संचुकोचान्तकाले संसृज्य विश्वा भुवनानि गोप्ता । यो योनिं योनिम् अधितिष्ठत्य् एको येनेदं सर्वं विचरति सर्वम् । तम् ईशानं वरदं देवम् ईड्यं निचाय्येमां शान्तिम् अत्यन्तम् एति । क्षमां हित्वा हेतुजालस्य मूलं बुद्ध्या संचितं स्थापयित्वा तु रुद्रो रुद्रम् एकत्वम् आहुः । शाश्वतं वै पुराणम् इषम् ऊर्जेण पशवो ऽनुनामयन्तं मृत्युपाशान् । तद् एतेनात्मन्न् एतेनार्धचतुर्थेन मात्रेण शान्तिं संसृजति पशुपाशविमोक्षणम् या सा प्रथमा मात्रा ब्रह्मदेवत्या रक्ता वर्णेन यस् तां ध्यायते नित्यं स गच्छेद् ब्रह्मपदम् । या सा द्वितीया मात्रा विष्णुदेवत्या कृष्णा वर्णेन यस् तां ध्यायते नित्यं स गच्छेद् वैष्णवं पदम् । या सा तृतीया मात्रा ईशानदेवत्या कपिला वर्णेन यस् तां ध्यायते नित्यं स गच्छेद् ऐशानं पदम् । या सार्धचतुर्थी मात्रा सर्वदेवत्याव्यक्तीभूता खं विचरति शुद्धा स्फटिकसंनिभा वर्णेन यस् तां ध्यायते नित्यं स गच्छेत् पदम् अनामयम् । तद् एतद् उपासीत मुनयो वाग्वदन्ति न तस्य ग्रहणम् अयं पन्था विहित उत्तरेण येन देवा यान्ति येन पितरो येन ऋषयः परम् अपरं परायणं चेति
eko ha devaḥ pradiśo 'nu sarvāḥ pūrvo ha jātaḥ sa u garbha antaḥ / sa eva jātaḥ sa janiṣyamāṇaḥ pratyaṅjanās tiṣṭhati sarvatomukhaḥ / eko rudro na dvitīyāya tasmai ya imāṃl lokān īśata īśānībhiḥ / pratyaṅjanās tiṣṭhati saṃcukocāntakāle saṃsṛjya viśvā bhuvanāni goptā / yo yoniṃ yonim adhitiṣṭhaty eko yenedaṃ sarvaṃ vicarati sarvam / tam īśānaṃ varadaṃ devam īḍyaṃ nicāyyemāṃ śāntim atyantam eti / kṣamāṃ hitvā hetujālasya mūlaṃ buddhyā saṃcitaṃ sthāpayitvā tu rudro rudram ekatvam āhuḥ / śāśvataṃ vai purāṇam iṣam ūrjeṇa paśavo 'nunāmayantaṃ mṛtyupāśān / tad etenātmann etenārdhacaturthena mātreṇa śāntiṃ saṃsṛjati paśupāśavimokṣaṇam yā sā prathamā mātrā brahmadevatyā raktā varṇena yas tāṃ dhyāyate nityaṃ sa gacched brahmapadam / yā sā dvitīyā mātrā viṣṇudevatyā kṛṣṇā varṇena yas tāṃ dhyāyate nityaṃ sa gacched vaiṣṇavaṃ padam / yā sā tṛtīyā mātrā īśānadevatyā kapilā varṇena yas tāṃ dhyāyate nityaṃ sa gacched aiśānaṃ padam / yā sārdhacaturthī mātrā sarvadevatyāvyaktībhūtā khaṃ vicarati śuddhā sphaṭikasaṃnibhā varṇena yas tāṃ dhyāyate nityaṃ sa gacchet padam anāmayam / tad etad upāsīta munayo vāgvadanti na tasya grahaṇam ayaṃ panthā vihita uttareṇa yena devā yānti yena pitaro yena ṛṣayaḥ param aparaṃ parāyaṇaṃ ceti
One God — through all the quarters; he is born first, and he is within the womb; he is the born and the yet-to-be-born; facing men he stands, with faces on every side. One Rudra, and no room for a second: he rules these worlds; having created all the worlds, he is their guardian; he alone abides in womb after womb, and by him all this moves. Having beheld that Īśāna, the giver of boons, the adorable God, a man comes to utter peace. The first measure has Brahmā for its deity and is red in colour; who contemplates it constantly goes to the abode of Brahmā. The second measure has Viṣṇu for its deity and is black in colour; who contemplates it constantly goes to the abode of Viṣṇu. The third measure has Īśāna for its deity and is tawny in colour; who contemplates it constantly goes to the abode of Īśāna. And the half of the fourth measure, whose deity is all the gods, become unmanifest, moves in space, pure, like crystal in colour; who contemplates it constantly goes to the stainless abode. This let the sages honour: speech speaks, but there is no grasping him. This path is appointed, the northern, by which go the gods, the fathers and the seers: the higher, the lower and the last refuge.
81c2b3d865b0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:17:52 AM UTC
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The most important section of the book for anyone who wants to understand how the relation of the names is ordered in it.
First come the verses on unity, taken almost word for word from the Śvetāśvatara: “one God through all the quarters”, “one Rudra, no room for a second”, “he abides in womb after womb”. Whoever has read that Upaniṣad will know them at once.
Then comes the assignment of the four measures of the syllable Om, and that belongs to this book itself.
The first measure — Brahmā, colour red; the contemplative reaches Brahmā's world. The second — Viṣṇu, colour black; he reaches Viṣṇu's world. The third — Īśāna, colour tawny; he reaches Īśāna's world.
And the fourth — “the half of the fourth”, ardha-caturthī — belongs to all the deities at once, has become unmanifest, moves in space, and in colour is like crystal; and its contemplative reaches the abode anāmaya — “stainless, where there is no hurt”.
That arrangement is the thing to see. The three first measures give three abodes, each a limit of its kind; the fourth gives the abode of no god, because it is beyond them.
Here the book explains itself. The names of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Īśāna in it are neither cancelled nor blended: they are distributed over the measures. But He of whom the whole book speaks is the fourth.
Recall that the second chapter of the uttara-tāpanī of the Rāma-tāpanī did the very same, giving the three sounds of Om to the brothers and the half-measure to Rāma; and I said then that where the Māṇḍūkya sets the unsayable, the Vaiṣṇava book sets a name.
Here there is no name — there is the colour of crystal and the word anāmaya.
Note too the admission the book makes at once: vāg vadanti na tasya grahaṇam — “speech speaks, but there is no grasping him”. After all the enumerations it is said that enumeration does not take him.
And the last: “the northern path, by which the gods go”. This is the devayāna, “the way of the gods”, of which the Chāndogya and the Gītā speak: the road from which there is no return.