Upanishads · Gaṇapati 5.2
॥
Devanāgarī
त्वं भूमिरापोऽनलोऽनिलो नभः ।त्वं चत्वारि वाक्पदानि
Transliteration (IAST)
tvaṃ bhūmirāpo'nalo'nilo nabhaḥ |tvaṃ catvāri vākpadāni
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
त्वं भूमिः आपः अनलःtvaṃ bhūmiḥ āpaḥ analaḥyou are earth, waters, fire
अनिलः नभःanilaḥ nabhaḥwind, sky
त्वं चत्वारि वाक्-पदानिtvaṃ catvāri vāk-padāniyou are the four steps of speech
Translation
You are earth, waters, fire, wind, sky; you are the four steps of speech.
Version
aca0c528070d · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The five elements are named, and after them — catvāri vāk-padāni, "the four steps of speech." This phrase is taken from the Ṛgveda: catvāri vāk parimitā padāni tāni vidur brāhmaṇā ye manīṣiṇaḥ — "speech has four measured steps; the wise brahmins know them" (1.164.45); and there it is added that three of them are hidden, and people speak only the fourth. Later teaching named them thus: parā ("supreme," speech as intention not yet manifest), paśyantī ("seeing," speech as apprehended meaning), madhyamā ("middle," speech shaped inwardly into words), vaikharī ("spread out," speech uttered, sounding in the air).
This ladder, put in ordinary terms, is familiar to everyone from experience. First a person wants to say something, not yet knowing the words; then he understands exactly what; then he composes it inwardly into words; and only then utters it. It is worth noting that the elements and speech are placed in one row. The world of matter and the world of the spoken are both named the same — Him; and this corresponds to what was said when reading the previous line about the word as the substance of the world.
The Vaiṣṇava side builds its understanding of the Name on this ladder, and it is worth saying exactly how. An ordinary word stands on the lowest step: the sound is here, the thing is there, and the link between them is conventional. But of the Name of the Lord its books assert that it does not pass through the four steps but descends at once, whole; hence the Name is called non-different from the one named.
This cannot be verified by argument, and we will not insist. But it is worth noting where it grew from: not from arbitrariness, but from this very ancient observation that speech has depth and that the uttered is only its surface.