Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 10.5
॥
Devanāgarī
सदा साक्षिस्वरूपत्वाच्छिव एवास्मि केवलः । इति धीर्या मुनिश्रेष्ठ सा समाधिरिहोच्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
sadā sākṣisvarūpatvācchiva evāsmi kevalaḥ | iti dhīryā muniśreṣṭha sā samādhirihocyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सदा साक्षि-स्वरूपत्वात्sadā sākṣi-svarūpatvātsince, always being the witness by essence
शिवः एव अस्मि केवलःśivaḥ eva asmi kevalaḥI am indeed alone Shiva
इति धीः या मुनि-श्रेष्ठiti dhīḥ yā muni-śreṣṭhasuch understanding, O best of sages
सा समाधिः इह उच्यतेsā samādhiḥ iha ucyatethat is here called samadhi
Translation
"Since I am always the witness by essence — I am indeed alone Shiva. Such understanding, O best of sages, is here called samadhi."
Version
8d98e4ea6665 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Samadhi is defined through a conviction: shiva eva asmi kevalah, "I am indeed alone Shiva." It is worth examining the argument this is built on, for it is named here: sakshi-svarupatvat, "since I am by essence the witness." The argument is this: I am neither the body, nor breath, nor the senses, nor the mind — for all of this I observe; and the observer is not the observed. Therefore I am pure witness; and pure witness is one.
The first half of the argument is beyond dispute, and the Vaishnava side accepts it fully: the observer truly is not the observed, and the whole course of "not this, not this" leads exactly here. The second half does not follow from the first, and this deserves stating directly. From the fact that I am a witness and not the observed, it does not at all follow that the witness is one. From the fact that I am not my body, it follows only that I am not my body.
To arrive at sole existence, one must add a proposition not in the argument: that witnesses are indistinguishable from one another. And they are indistinguishable only on the condition that they have nothing of their own — that is, exactly what was to be proved. The Vaishnava side sets against this an observation worth citing. Witnesses differ by their position: I am a witness of this, you of that. And this difference is not a property of the observed; it is a property of witnessing itself, for one can only look from somewhere.
Let us add the word kevalah, "alone," standing in this line. It is the same kaivalya discussed when reading the sixth khanda (6.47); and there it was said what this goal lacks.