Upanishads · Parabrahma 1.21
॥
Devanāgarī
एष धर्मो नेतरो धर्मः । तत्कथमिति । प्रणवहंसो नादस्त्रिवृत्सूत्रं स्वहृदि चैतन्ये तिष्ठति त्रिविधं ब्रह्म । तद्विद्धि प्रापञ्चिकशिखोपवीतं त्यजेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
eṣa dharmo netaro dharmaḥ | tatkathamiti | praṇavahaṃso nādastrivṛtsūtraṃ svahṛdi caitanye tiṣṭhati trividhaṃ brahma | tadviddhi prāpañcikaśikhopavītaṃ tyajet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एषः धर्मः न इतरः धर्मःeṣaḥ dharmaḥ na itaraḥ dharmaḥthis dharma, not another dharma
प्रणव-हंसः नादः त्रि-वृत् सूत्रंpraṇava-haṃsaḥ nādaḥ tri-vṛt sūtraṃthe praṇava, the haṃsa, sound — the threefold thread
स्व-हृदि चैतन्ये तिष्ठतिsva-hṛdi caitanye tiṣṭhatiin one's own heart, in consciousness, abides
त्रि-विधं ब्रह्मtri-vidhaṃ brahmathe threefold brahman
प्रापञ्चिक-शिखा-उपवीतं त्यजेत्prāpañcika-śikhā-upavītaṃ tyajetlet him abandon the worldly tuft and thread
Translation
This dharma, and not another; the praṇava, the haṃsa, and sound — the threefold thread — abides in one's own heart, in consciousness: the threefold brahman. Having known this, let him abandon the worldly tuft and thread.
Version
2fc3b431c565 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The correspondence is closed: the threefold strand of the outer thread answers to the three inner ones, and each forms a set of three. Note the phrase sva-hṛdi caitanye tiṣṭhati, "abides in one's own heart, in consciousness." Two places are named at once — heart and consciousness; and this is not carelessness, but precision: the inner thread is neither in the body nor in the abstract, but where they meet.
The second half-verse — prāpañcika-śikhopavītaṃ tyajet, "let him abandon the worldly tuft and thread" — is the first direct instruction to remove the outer, and from here the book will press it more and more insistently. Let me say this honestly and once, so as not to repeat it further on. This instruction applies to the yati, "the ascetic," and moreover to one who has already tad viddhi, "known this"; the condition is set right in the line itself. One who removes it earlier removes it not by this book's authority.
The Vaiṣṇava reading agrees with this order and recalls that in the Vaiṣṇava tradition it is the same. A renunciate does indeed leave behind the thread and the tuft, and this is done at initiation — that is, at the word of the teacher and before witnesses, not on one's own authority. The difference between renunciation and self-will lies exactly here: the former is given, the latter is seized.