अथ कस्मादुच्यते भीषणमिति । यस्माद्भीषणं यस्य रूपं दृष्ट्वा सर्वे लोकाः सर्वे देवाः सर्वाणि भूतानि भीत्या पलायन्ते स्वयं यतः कुतश्च न बिभेति । भीषास्मत्द्वातः पवते भीषोदेति सूर्यः । भीषास्मादग्निश्चेन्द्रस्य मृत्युर्धावति पञ्चम इति तस्मादुच्यते भीषणमिति
atha kasmāducyate bhīṣaṇamiti | yasmādbhīṣaṇaṃ yasya rūpaṃ dṛṣṭvā sarve lokāḥ sarve devāḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni bhītyā palāyante svayaṃ yataḥ kutaśca na bibheti | bhīṣāsmatdvātaḥ pavate bhīṣodeti sūryaḥ | bhīṣāsmādagniścendrasya mṛtyurdhāvati pañcama iti tasmāducyate bhīṣaṇamiti
“And why is he called ‘bhīṣaṇa’?” — “Because, having seen his form, all worlds, all gods and all beings flee in fear, while he himself is afraid of nothing. ‘From fear of him the wind blows, from fear the sun rises, from fear of him fire and Indra, and death runs as the fifth.’ Therefore he is called ‘bhīṣaṇa’.”
82fdbb5803f0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
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The seventh word is bhīṣaṇa, “the fearsome” — and it is backed by the most famous verse of the Taittirīya.
“From fear of him the wind blows, from fear the sun rises, from fear of him fire and Indra, and death runs as the fifth.”
This verse stands in the Taittirīya at the threshold of the discourse on the bliss of Brahman, and it is interpreted two ways.
One reading: the universe works properly because it fears to disobey. The wind blows and does not blow out, the sun rises on time, fire burns upward — and all this is not nature itself, but obedience.
The other, and it is more exact: bhīṣā means not “in terror” but “under fear”, as one says “under threat”. Not trembling, but a measure.
And here is what our book adds of its own: svayaṁ yataḥ kutaś ca na bibheti — “while he himself is afraid of nothing”.
The fearsome one is he who does not fear. This definition deserves weighing, because usually it is the reverse: the one who frightens is himself frightened.
Note too that in the mantra this word stands next to “bhadra”, “the good”; yet the following paragraph on “bhadra” is absent from the transmitted text — the row goes from “bhīṣaṇa” straight to “mṛtyu-mṛtyu”. The place has evidently been lost in transmission; I mark the gap rather than fill it.