Upanishads · Bhāvanā p26
॥
Devanāgarī
श्रद्धानुरूपा धीर्देवता । तयोः कामेश्वरी सदानन्दघना परिपूर्णस्वात्मैक्यरूपा देवता
Transliteration (IAST)
śraddhānurūpā dhīrdevatā | tayoḥ kāmeśvarī sadānandaghanā paripūrṇasvātmaikyarūpā devatā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
श्रद्धा-अनुरूपा धीः देवताśraddhā-anurūpā dhīḥ devatāunderstanding conforming to faith — the deity
तयोः कामेश्वरी सदा-आनन्द-घनाtayoḥ kāmeśvarī sadā-ānanda-ghanāof them, Kāmeśvarī — a mass of eternal bliss
परिपूर्ण-स्व-आत्म-ऐक्य-रूपा देवताparipūrṇa-sva-ātma-aikya-rūpā devatāthe deity in the form of unity with one's own full self
Translation
Understanding conforming to faith — the deity; of them, Kāmeśvarī — a mass of eternal bliss, the deity in the form of unity with one's own full self.
Version
c70361c57ada · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Here is a line worth examining slowly, for its first words matter more than the rest of the book: śraddhā-anurūpā dhīr devatā, "understanding conforming to faith is the deity." That is: as you believe, so is your god. This position is stated in the Gītā in almost the same words, and there it fills a whole chapter: "the faith of the embodied is threefold, born of nature — sāttvic, passionate, and dark... whatever a person's faith is composed of, such is he himself" (17.2–3).
This can be read two ways, and both circulate in the world. By the first: since everyone sees according to his own faith, all faiths are equal and there is no object at all; this reading is common today and, to my mind, wrong. By the second: an object exists, and it is seen differently depending on what the person himself has become; and the difference between faiths is a difference not in the object, but in sight.
The Gītā holds the second and says directly: "in whatever measure someone turns to Me, in that measure I repay him" (4.11). Not "everyone is right," but — I answer according to the measure of turning; and one who came for little will receive little, not because God is small, but because a small hand was extended. The word śraddhā, moreover, does not mean "conviction." It comes from śrat, "heart" (the same as the Latin cor), and dhā, "to place": literally "the placing of the heart." To believe, then, means not "to consider true," but to place one's heart in something; and so everyone has faith — the only question is where it is placed.