Upanishads · Rudrahṛdaya 32
॥
Devanāgarī
नित्यं विभुं सर्वगतं सुसूक्ष्मं च तदव्ययम् । तद्भूतयोनिं पश्यन्ति धीरा आत्मानमात्मनि
Transliteration (IAST)
nityaṃ vibhuṃ sarvagataṃ susūkṣmaṃ ca tadavyayam | tadbhūtayoniṃ paśyanti dhīrā ātmānamātmani
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नित्यं विभुं सर्व-गतंnityaṃ vibhuṃ sarva-gataṃeternal, all-pervading, going everywhere
सु-सूक्ष्मं च तत् अ-व्ययम्su-sūkṣmaṃ ca tat a-vyayamand most subtle, imperishable
तत् भूत-योनिं पश्यन्तिtat bhūta-yoniṃ paśyantithat, the womb of beings, is seen
धीराः आत्मानम् आत्मनिdhīrāḥ ātmānam ātmaniby the steadfast — the self within the self
Translation
"Eternal, all-pervading, going everywhere, and most subtle, imperishable — that, the womb of beings, the steadfast see: the self within the self."
Version
84d968a1feca · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The chain of negations gives way to a chain of assertions, and this always happens in such passages: having said what He is not, one says what is. Bhūta-yoni, "the womb of beings," is named; and this word, as noted when reading the eighth line, is a word about birth. A womb is that from which things emerge and which remains in the process.
The verb here is paśyanti, "see." Not "comprehend," not "merge with," but see; and that the verb of seeing settles more in these disputes than reasoning was discussed when reading the Tripurā-tāpanī (89). It is worth noting also who is called the seer: dhīrāḥ, "the steadfast." This word was discussed when reading the Tripurā-tāpanī (45): it is from the same root as dhī, "thought," and means one whose thought holds firm.
That is, it is not the cleverest or the most agile who see, but those whose thought holds; and this, to my mind, is truly observed. The capacity to see is here made to depend not on sharpness, but on steadiness. The last words, ātmānam ātmani, "the self within the self," allow two readings: "they see themselves within themselves" and "they see Him within themselves." The second is adopted by Vaiṣṇava commentators and rests on this very book, which two lines below will name two birds on one tree and say that one tastes, while the other only looks (41).