Upanishads · Kaivalya 20
॥
Devanāgarī
अणोर् अणियान् अहम् एव तद्वन् महान् अहं विश्वम् अहं विचित्रम् पुरातनो ऽहं पुरुषो ऽहम् ईशो हिरण्मयो ऽहं शिवरूपम् अस्मि
Transliteration (IAST)
aṇor aṇiyān aham eva tadvan mahān ahaṃ viśvam ahaṃ vicitram purātano 'haṃ puruṣo 'ham īśo hiraṇmayo 'haṃ śivarūpam asmi
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अणोः अणीयान् अहम् एवaṇoḥ aṇīyān aham evasubtler than the subtlest — I indeed; minuter than the minutest am I
तद्वत् महान् अहम्tadvat mahān ahamand likewise great am I; and equally vast am I
विश्वम् अहम् विचित्रम्viśvam aham vicitramI am the universe, I the manifold; I am the world and I the varied
पुरातनः अहम् पुरुषः अहम्purātanaḥ aham puruṣaḥ ahamI am the ancient, I the Puruṣa; I am the age-old, I the Puruṣa
ईशः हिरण्मयः अहम्īśaḥ hiraṇmayaḥ ahamI the lord, I the golden; I the ruler, I the gold-formed
शिवरूपम् अस्मिśivarūpam asmiI have the form of the auspicious; my shape is śiva
Translation
Subtler than the subtlest — that am I, and just as great am I; I am the universe, I the manifold; I am the ancient, I the Puruṣa, I the lord, I the golden; my form is the auspicious.
Version
b7f64af2b50c · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:04:38 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second part of the book begins, and all of it is speech in the first person.
The first pair: aṇor aṇīyān — “subtler than the subtlest” — and mahān, “great”. Both at once, as in the sixteenth verse it was “subtler than the subtle” and “the great dwelling-place”.
The Kaṭha Upaniṣad says the same: “subtler than the subtle, greater than the great, the Ātman is hidden in the creature's secret place”.
Then — hiraṇmaya, “golden”. The word is from the Īśā Upaniṣad, where it names the disc that covers the face of truth, and from the Muṇḍaka, where the “golden Puruṣa” dwells in the highest heaven.
Note the change of tone. Up to the nineteenth verse the teacher spoke and described; from here speaks the one who has arrived.
Such is the book's construction: first the disciple's question, then the answer and instruction, then the contemplation, then the reasoning — and at last the speech of him in whom the reasoning has become experience.
The closing words — śiva-rūpam asmi, “my form is the auspicious”. The same sadā śivaḥ that stood in the eighteenth verse.
The Vaiṣṇava reading of all these “I”s is as before: what is spoken of is the nature which in the soul is His own. Hence in the following verses there will be not a word of the power to create and destroy — but of seeing without eyes and hearing without ears.