दक्षिणाभिमुखो भूत्वा महरितिव्याहृतिरानुष्टभ छन्दोऽथर्ववेदाः सोमो देवता सहस्रशीर्षं देवं सहस्राक्षं विश्वसम्भुवम् विश्वतः परमं नित्यं विश्वं नारायणं हरिम् विश्वमेवेदं पुरुषस्तद्विश्वमुपजीवति पतिं विश्वेश्वरं देवं समुद्रे विश्वरूपिणम् पद्मकोशप्रतीकाशं लम्बत्याकोशसंनिभम् हृदयं चाप्यधोमुखं सन्तत्यै सीत्कराभीश्च
dakṣiṇābhimukho bhūtvā maharitivyāhṛtirānuṣṭabha chando'tharvavedāḥ somo devatā sahasraśīrṣaṃ devaṃ sahasrākṣaṃ viśvasambhuvam viśvataḥ paramaṃ nityaṃ viśvaṃ nārāyaṇaṃ harim viśvamevedaṃ puruṣastadviśvamupajīvati patiṃ viśveśvaraṃ devaṃ samudre viśvarūpiṇam padmakośapratīkāśaṃ lambatyākośasaṃnibham hṛdayaṃ cāpyadhomukhaṃ santatyai sītkarābhīśca
Having turned his face to the south: the utterance “mahaḥ”, the ānuṣṭubha metre, the Atharva-veda, the deity — Soma. The thousand-headed God, the thousand-eyed, working the good of the universe, beyond the universe, eternal — the universe, Nārāyaṇa, Hari. All this universe is the Puruṣa, and by it the universe lives; the lord, the all-ruling God, in the ocean, whose form is the whole world. Like the cup of a lotus, hanging down, the heart too, facing downward — for the continuation…
9c7d1972f25a · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
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The south — “mahaḥ”, the anuṣṭubh, the Atharva-veda, soma. The chart is finished: the four faces have spoken out the four Vedas.
Note that as the fourth utterance mahaḥ is named, not a third heaven. We examined this word in reading the fifteenth section of the Atharvaśiras: it stands apart, and the Taittirīya calls it the Brahman by which the first three grow.
And then, without any transition, verses begin — quite different in build.
“The thousand-headed God, the thousand-eyed” — this is the Puruṣa-sūkta, the most famous hymn of the Ṛg-veda. Only there the thousand-headed is called simply the Puruṣa, while here it is at once added: viśvaṁ nārāyaṇaṁ harim — “the universe, Nārāyaṇa, Hari”.
Here is the point. The ancient nameless Puruṣa is called by name.
These verses are familiar to everyone who has read the Nārāyaṇa-sūkta: they stand there too. And they end with the image toward which this book has moved the whole adhyāya: the lotus of the heart, hanging head downward.
We read the same in the ninth verse of the fourth chapter of the Brahma Upaniṣad. The unopened lotus looks downward; and there it is said that it is “the great receptacle of the universe”.
The next paragraph will enter inside this lotus.