Upanishads · Mahā 5.103
॥
Devanāgarī
सैषा चियमलाकारा निर्विकल्पा निरास्पदा
Transliteration (IAST)
saiṣā ciyamalākārā nirvikalpā nirāspadā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सा एषा चित् इयम् अला-आकाराsā eṣā cit iyam alā-ākārāit, this consciousness, without shape; it, the said awareness, devoid of outline
निर्विकल्पा निरास्पदाnirvikalpā nirāspadāfree of distinctions, without a footing; foreign to differentiations, without an abode
Translation
“This very consciousness is without shape, free of distinctions, without a footing.”
Version
73864bf8d16e · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The half-verse that closes the description.
Three attributes, all with negation.
Alā-ākārā — “without shape”. The reading here is disputed: the copies give different spellings, and I render by the sense.
Nirvikalpā — “free of distinctions”, that is, not dissecting (see 2.34).
Nirāspadā — “without a footing, without a place”. The word āspada means “place, position, office”.
Note this last. It denies not presence but position: consciousness has no office in the world-order, no corner allotted to it.
All this has been said before; but, setting the full stop, the book repeats it.
From the next verse it passes to business of quite another kind — to how one should teach.