Upanishads · Mahāvākya p20
॥
Devanāgarī
सोऽहमर्कः परं ज्योतिरर्कज्योतिरहं शिवः
Transliteration (IAST)
so'hamarkaḥ paraṃ jyotirarkajyotirahaṃ śivaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सः अहम् अर्कः परं ज्योतिःsaḥ aham arkaḥ paraṃ jyotiḥhe am I, the sun, the highest light
अर्क-ज्योतिः अहं शिवःarka-jyotiḥ ahaṃ śivaḥthe light of the sun, I am the auspicious
Translation
«He am I, the sun, the highest light; the light of the sun, I am the auspicious.»
Version
7fe6223ee62d · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The concluding formula begins, in which the speaker identifies himself with the sun and with light; and it must be examined the same way as similar formulas before. This method we applied reading the Tārasāra (3.10): to see how the line ends. Here it will end with the words asāv adom — “that very one, om” (p21), that is, a pointer to that, not to the speaker.
Let us add an analysis of the phrase so'ham, “he am I,” itself, for it stands here for the third time in this book and was met with in the Jābāla-darśana (9.2). Vaiṣṇava commentators read it two ways, and both deserve citing. The first rests on the word's composition. Saḥ is “he”; aham — “I.” There is no copula between them, and hence the sentence can be understood either as “he is I” or as “I am His,” for a genitive sense in such compounds is possible in Sanskrit.
The second rests on usage. Formulas of this kind are called ahaṃ-graha-upāsanā, “worship through the grasping of oneself,” and are recognized as an exercise, not a statement about reality: the person contemplates himself in the form of the one worshipped, in order to train the mind. Confirmation of this is found in the ritual books themselves: there it is directly prescribed, devo bhūtvā devaṃ yajet, “having become a deity, let him worship the deity” — and everyone understands that “having become” here means “having pictured himself as,” not “having turned into.”
Let us add a simple consideration. Were the formula to mean actual identity, service could not follow it; but it does follow — in this book and in all the others.