Upanishads · Brahma 4.4
॥
Devanāgarī
एको देवः सर्वभूतेषु गूढः सर्वव्यापी सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा । कर्माध्यक्षः सर्वभूताधिवासः साक्षी चेता केवलो निर्गुणश्च
Transliteration (IAST)
eko devaḥ sarvabhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ sarvavyāpī sarvabhūtāntarātmā | karmādhyakṣaḥ sarvabhūtādhivāsaḥ sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaśca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एकः देवः सर्वभूतेषु गूढःekaḥ devaḥ sarvabhūteṣu gūḍhaḥone God, hidden in all beings; a single god, concealed in every creature
सर्वव्यापी सर्वभूतान्तरात्माsarvavyāpī sarvabhūtāntarātmāall-pervading, the inner Ātman of all beings; omnipresent, the soul within all created things
कर्माध्यक्षः सर्वभूताधिवासःkarmādhyakṣaḥ sarvabhūtādhivāsaḥoverseer of deeds, the dwelling of all beings; superintendent of acts, the home of all creatures
साक्षी चेता केवलः निर्गुणः चsākṣī cetā kevalaḥ nirguṇaḥ cawitness, conscious, sole and qualityless; witness, sentient, alone and without guṇas
Translation
One God, hidden in all beings, all-pervading, the inner Ātman of all beings, the overseer of deeds, the dwelling of all beings, the witness, the conscious one, sole and qualityless.
Version
89af2ce95030 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:09:07 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is taken from the Śvetāśvatara word for word and stands here at the turning-point: the talk of the thread is over, the talk of Him for whose sake the thread exists begins.
Eight epithets are listed, and they are not of one kind.
First the abstract: eka — “one”; gūḍha — “hidden”; sarva-vyāpin — “all-pervading”; kevala — “sole”; nirguṇa — “qualityless”.
And between them — three that remove any suspicion of impersonality: karmādhyakṣa — “overseer of deeds”; sākṣin — “witness”; cetṛ — “the conscious, the thinking one”.
Forces do not oversee, witness and think; persons do.
That is why the Vaiṣṇava Vedānta takes this verse gladly. The word nirguṇa stands in it in one row with “the overseer of deeds”; “qualityless”, then, does not mean “impersonal” — it means “not of those qualities of which the world is made”.
Note also sarva-bhūtādhivāsa — “the dwelling of all beings”. He is not only within all: all are within Him.
The same double formula we read in the tenth verse of the Kaivalya.