Upanishads · Mahā 4.9
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वं प्रशान्तमजमेकमनादिमध्य- माभास्वरं स्वदनमात्रमचैत्यचिह्नम् सर्वं प्रशान्तमिति शब्दमयी च दृष्टि- र्बाधार्थमेव हि मुधैव तदोमितीदम्
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvaṃ praśāntamajamekamanādimadhya- mābhāsvaraṃ svadanamātramacaityacihnam sarvaṃ praśāntamiti śabdamayī ca dṛṣṭi- rbādhārthameva hi mudhaiva tadomitīdam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सर्वम् प्रशान्तम् अजम्sarvam praśāntam ajamall is stilled, unborn; everything is pacified, not born
एकम् अनादि-मध्यम्ekam anādi-madhyamone, without beginning and middle; single, without start or midst
आभास्वरम् स्वदन-मात्रम्ābhāsvaram svadana-mātramradiant, mere tasting; shining, one savouring only
अचैत्य-चिह्नम्acaitya-cihnamwithout mark of the knowable; without token of the cognized
सर्वम् प्रशान्तम् इतिsarvam praśāntam iti“all is stilled” — thus; “everything is pacified” — behold
शब्दमयी च दृष्टिःśabdamayī ca dṛṣṭiḥis a view made of words; is also a vision consisting of words
बाधा-अर्थम् एव हिbādhā-artham eva hionly for the sake of removal; precisely for the sake of elimination
मुधा एव तत्mudhā eva tatvain is it; futile is it
ओम् इति इदम्om iti idamthis very “om”; this same “om”
Translation
“All is stilled, unborn, one, without beginning or middle, radiant — mere tasting, without mark of the knowable. And the very saying ‘all is stilled’ is a view made of words, needed only for removal; vain is even this ‘om’.”
Version
71fa298ccdf0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A verse in a metre rare for this book and with a rare thought: it cancels itself.
First a description is given: all is stilled, unborn, one, radiant.
Especially worth taking is svadana-mātra — “mere tasting”. The word svadana means “savouring, sampling”. Not “knowledge” and not “light”, but taste. Reality is described not as what is seen but as what is tasted.
And then it is said: this description too is śabdamayī dṛṣṭi, “a view consisting of words”, and it serves only bādhā-artham — “for removal”, that is, to displace the former wrong notion.
And last: mudhaiva tad om iti — “vain even this ‘om’”.
To say such a thing of the praṇava is strong. The sense, however, is not the abolition of the sacred syllable but the marking of its limit: it too remains a word, and words carry one to the threshold.
Note how this is balanced in the book itself. In the first adhyāya the same “om” is named among what is established on the body of Īśāna (1.4); in the sixth the Supreme will be called by name and invoked. What is cancelled is not the name, but the reckoning that the word of itself carries one across the threshold.