Upanishads · Brahma 4.8
॥
Devanāgarī
ऊर्णनाभिर्यथा तन्तून्सृजते संहरत्यपि । जाग्रत्स्वप्ने तथा जीवो गच्छत्यागच्छते पुनः
Transliteration (IAST)
ūrṇanābhiryathā tantūnsṛjate saṃharatyapi | jāgratsvapne tathā jīvo gacchatyāgacchate punaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ऊर्णनाभिः यथा तन्तून्ūrṇanābhiḥ yathā tantūnas a spider its threads; like a spider its web
सृजते संहरति अपिsṛjate saṃharati apiputs forth and draws in again; sends out and gathers back
जाग्रत्स्वप्ने तथा जीवःjāgratsvapne tathā jīvaḥso the jīva in waking and dream; so the soul in waking and in dreaming
गच्छति आगच्छते पुनःgacchati āgacchate punaḥgoes and comes back again; departs and comes once more
Translation
As a spider puts forth its threads and draws them in again, so the jīva in waking and in dream goes forth and comes back again.
Version
82baf29d5cf0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:09:07 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The spider returns — the same one that was in the book's first section.
There it was a simile for prāṇa, which, departing, “gathers in the created”. Here — for the jīva, which passes between waking and dream.
One image applied twice, to different things, and this is worth noting: the book is not afraid to repeat its similes when they are true.
The Muṇḍaka takes the same spider for the Highest: “as the spider sends forth and draws in, so from the Imperishable arises everything here”.
Thus one and the same figure has described three: Brahman, prāṇa and the jīva.
This is no carelessness. All three do one thing — put forth from themselves and take back in; and so the question is not what happens, but whose it is.
Note the pair of verbs: gacchati āgacchate — “goes and comes”, and moreover punaḥ, “again”. In such books that word is always a foretoken: after it usually comes the speech of how to leave the “again”.
The next verses will name the place from which one leaves — the heart.