Upanishads · Mahā 1.10
॥
Devanāgarī
स ब्रह्मा स ईशानः सेन्द्रः सोऽक्षरः परमः स्वराडिति महोपनिषत्
Transliteration (IAST)
sa brahmā sa īśānaḥ sendraḥ so'kṣaraḥ paramaḥ svarāḍiti mahopaniṣat
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सः ब्रह्मा सः ईशानःsaḥ brahmā saḥ īśānaḥhe is Brahmā, he is Īśāna; he is both Brahmā and Īśāna
सः इन्द्रःsaḥ indraḥhe is Indra; he too is Indra
सः अक्षरः परमः स्वराट्saḥ akṣaraḥ paramaḥ svarāṭhe is the imperishable, the highest self-ruler; he is the undecaying, the supreme sovereign
इति महोपनिषत्iti mahopaniṣatsuch is the great upaniṣad; this is the mahopaniṣad
Translation
He is Brahmā, he is Īśāna, he is Indra, he is the imperishable, the highest self-ruler. Such is the great upaniṣad.
Version
9ccc0f17e708 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The first adhyāya ends with a list of names, and the list gathers all that was said.
Recall the beginning: “there was neither Brahmā nor Īśāna.” They were not — and now they are named He.
In this is the whole course of the adhyāya. First the negation: it was listed what was not. Then the birth: from the forehead Śiva, from the waters Brahmā, from the four faces the four Vedas. And at last — the return: everything born is named by Him who bore.
Note that the names stand in the same order in which they were denied in the first paragraph: Brahmā, Īśāna. The ring is closed deliberately.
Svarāṭ — “the self-king”, he who shines and rules of himself, receiving power from no one. This word stood already in the eighth paragraph of the first Upaniṣad of the Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī, and there too it closed a list of names.
Here the prose ends, and with it ends that for whose sake Baladeva cites this book.
Further begins another composition — five adhyāyas of verse on how to cease from restlessness without waiting for death. It is connected with this cosmogony neither in language nor in subject; and yet it is set under one cover, and it will begin with a man who was born already knowing the truth — and still found no peace.