Upanishads · Kaivalya 23
॥
Devanāgarī
न भूमिर् आपो न च वह्निर् अस्ति न चानिलो मे ऽस्ति न चाम्बरं च एवं विदित्वा परमात्मरूपं गुहाशयं निष्कलम् अद्वितीयम् समस्तसाक्षिं सदसद्विहीनं प्रयाति शुद्धं परमात्मरूपम्
Transliteration (IAST)
na bhūmir āpo na ca vahnir asti na cānilo me 'sti na cāmbaraṃ ca evaṃ viditvā paramātmarūpaṃ guhāśayaṃ niṣkalam advitīyam samastasākṣiṃ sadasadvihīnaṃ prayāti śuddhaṃ paramātmarūpam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
न भूमिः आपःna bhūmiḥ āpaḥno earth, no waters; neither soil nor water
न च वह्निः अस्तिna ca vahniḥ astiand no fire is there; nor does flame exist
न च अनिलः मे अस्तिna ca anilaḥ me astiand no wind is mine; and no wind belongs to me
न च अम्बरम् चna ca ambaram caand no sky either; nor the expanse of heaven
एवम् विदित्वा परमात्मरूपम्evam viditvā paramātmarūpamthus having known the form of the Highest Ātman; having realised so the shape of the paramātman
गुहाशयम् निष्कलम् अद्वितीयम्guhāśayam niṣkalam advitīyamlying in the secret place, partless, without a second; resting in the cave, undivided, sole
समस्तसाक्षिम् सदसद्विहीनम्samastasākṣim sadasadvihīnamthe witness of all, devoid of being and non-being; the all-witness, free of existence and non-existence
प्रयाति शुद्धम् परमात्मरूपम्prayāti śuddham paramātmarūpamhe goes to the pure form of the Highest Ātman; he attains the pure shape of the paramātman
Translation
No earth is mine, no waters, no fire, no wind, no sky. Having thus known the form of the Highest Ātman — lying in the secret place, partless, without a second, the witness of all, devoid of being and non-being — a man goes to the pure form of the Highest Ātman.
Version
b69092805bcf · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:04:38 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The negations are carried to the end: the five elements of which the body is made are declared not mine.
This is the last step of the analysis the Vedānta calls “peeling away”: not the body, not the senses, not the intellect, not the elements.
And when everything is removed, what remains is named — and named by a word which until now had not sounded in this book: paramātman, “the Highest Ātman”.
Here is the turn for which the verse deserves careful reading.
Up to now went the “I”s — the twentieth, twenty-first, twenty-second verses. Now it is said not “I am”, but prayāti — “he goes”, in the third person, and he goes to paramātma-rūpam, “the form of the Highest Ātman”.
One does not go to oneself.
On this the Vaiṣṇava Vedānta takes its stand. The whole second part of the book spoke in the first person; and it closes not with “I am He”, but with the knower going to Him.
Note the epithets: guhāśaya — “lying in the secret place”, that is, in the heart; niṣkala — “partless”; advitīya — “without a second”; samasta-sākṣin — “the witness of all”; sad-asad-vihīna — “devoid of being and non-being”.
The last means: even the ordinary categories of existence do not reach Him; He is neither a thing among things nor a void.