Upanishads · Kaivalya 19
॥
Devanāgarī
मय्य् एव सकलं जातं मयि सर्वं प्रतिष्ठितम् मयि सर्वंल् लयं याति तद् ब्रह्माद्वयम् अस्म्य् अहम्
Transliteration (IAST)
mayy eva sakalaṃ jātaṃ mayi sarvaṃ pratiṣṭhitam mayi sarvaṃl layaṃ yāti tad brahmādvayam asmy aham
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
मयि एव सकलम् जातम्mayi eva sakalam jātamin me alone all is born; in me everything arose
मयि सर्वम् प्रतिष्ठितम्mayi sarvam pratiṣṭhitamin me all is established; in me everything rests
मयि सर्वम् लयम् यातिmayi sarvam layam yātiin me all dissolves; in me everything vanishes
तत् ब्रह्म अद्वयम् अस्मि अहम्tat brahma advayam asmi ahamthat non-dual Brahman am I; that Brahman without a second am I
Translation
In me all is born, in me all is established, in me all dissolves; that non-dual Brahman am I.
Version
86887f567634 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:04:38 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Three verbs, and they are the same three by which the Vedānta describes the universe: arising, standing, dissolving.
In the Brahma-sūtra they stand in the very second aphorism as the mark of Brahman: “That from which the birth and the rest of this world proceed”.
Here they are spoken in the first person.
This is the summit of the reasoning the book has conducted since the twelfth verse, and with it its first part ends — the one the editions call the first khaṇḍa.
It can be read in two ways, and both exist within the Vedānta.
One: the speaker has learned that he is Brahman without remainder, and therefore the world arises and perishes in him.
The other, the Vaiṣṇava one: these words are spoken by a contemplative who has reached identification with that consciousness in him which is His own nature; oneness of essence is asserted, not that the jīva has become God. Otherwise the book's first verse — the plea to be brought to “the Puruṣa higher than the high” — would be a plea to be brought to oneself.
Note the word advaya — “non-dual”, literally “without a second”.
It does not mean “without distinctions”: it means there is no second such. So too says the first verse of the Atharvaśiras: “there is no other, distinct from me”.
The next six verses proceed in the same key, and in them the voice never changes.