Upanishads · Brahma 3.1
॥
Devanāgarī
हृदिस्था देवताः सर्वा हृदि प्राणाः प्रतिष्ठिताः । हृदि प्राणश्च ज्योतिश्च त्रिवृत्सूत्रं च यन्महत्
Transliteration (IAST)
hṛdisthā devatāḥ sarvā hṛdi prāṇāḥ pratiṣṭhitāḥ | hṛdi prāṇaśca jyotiśca trivṛtsūtraṃ ca yanmahat
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
हृदिस्थाः देवताः सर्वाःhṛdisthāḥ devatāḥ sarvāḥin the heart abide all the deities; all the gods stand in the heart
हृदि प्राणाः प्रतिष्ठिताःhṛdi prāṇāḥ pratiṣṭhitāḥin the heart the breaths are established; in the heart the prāṇas are founded
हृदि प्राणः च ज्योतिः चhṛdi prāṇaḥ ca jyotiḥ cain the heart both the breath and the light; in the heart, prāṇa and the radiance
त्रिवृत् सूत्रम् च यत् महत्trivṛt sūtram ca yat mahatand the threefold thread, which is great; and the great three-stranded cord
Translation
In the heart abide all the deities, in the heart the breaths are established; in the heart are the breath and the light, and that great threefold thread.
Version
23b3633db604 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:09:07 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The metrical part of the book begins, and all of it is about the thread.
The first two lines are familiar: they stand word for word in the thirty-third section of the Atharvaśiras too. There we read them as the close of an address to the Lord; here they open the discourse on the sacred thread.
Trivṛt sūtra — “the threefold thread”: the yajñopavīta, the sacred cord twisted of three strands and put on over the left shoulder at initiation.
And now it is said to abide in the heart.
This is the whole movement of the ten verses that follow. The cord is not abolished — it is carried within; and what was worn on the shoulder is declared to be what is in the breast already.
We saw the same movement in the eighth paragraph of the Jābāla Upaniṣad, where to the question “without the thread — what kind of brāhmaṇa is he?” the answer was: “this is his thread — the Ātman”.
Here the same thought is unfolded into a whole chapter.
Note the order of the first line: first the deities, then the breaths, then the light, and only then the thread. The thread is named last and named mahat, “great”: in this series it is not a thing, but that by which the series holds.