Upanishads · Mahā 2.8
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वगः सर्वसम्बन्धो गत्यभावान्न गच्छति नास्त्यसावश्रयाभावात्सद्रूपत्वादथास्ति च
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvagaḥ sarvasambandho gatyabhāvānna gacchati nāstyasāvaśrayābhāvātsadrūpatvādathāsti ca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सर्वगः सर्व-सम्बन्धःsarvagaḥ sarva-sambandhaḥall-going, bound up with all; omnipresent, conjoined with everything
गति-अभावात् न गच्छतिgati-abhāvāt na gacchatifor want of a path he does not move; he goes not, for there is nowhere to go
न अस्ति असौ आश्रय-अभावात्na asti asau āśraya-abhāvāthe is not — for want of a support; he is not, for he has no ground
सद्रूपत्वात् अथ अस्ति चsadrūpatvāt atha asti caand he is — for his nature is being; and he is, for his essence is existence
Translation
He is omnipresent and bound up with all — and moves nowhere, for there is nowhere to move. He is not, for He has no support; and He is, for being itself is His nature.
Version
b435c3b8d87b · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The same speech through opposites continues, but with a new argument.
“He moves nowhere, for there is nowhere to move” — this is the consequence of omnipresence, not of feebleness. Movement is a passage to where you are not. If you are everywhere, there is nowhere to pass.
The second pair is harder. “He is not — for want of a support”: everything we call existent exists on something, in something, at the expense of something. He has no such prop — and by our everyday count He does not fall into the class of “existing things”.
“And He is — for His nature is being”: He does not have being; He is it. The word sadrūpatva means exactly that — “being as one's own form”.
A useful corrective to the previous verse: when Vedānta says “the world is not”, it uses the first sense of the word “is”. When it says “Brahman is” — the second.