Upanishads · Pañcabrahma p4
॥
Devanāgarī
तत्पुरुष इति । किं वा पुनरिमे भगव इति
Transliteration (IAST)
tatpuruṣa iti | kiṃ vā punarime bhagava iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तत्पुरुषः इतिtatpuruṣaḥ iti"Tatpuruṣa"
किं वा पुनः इमेkiṃ vā punaḥ ime"what else is this"
भगवः इतिbhagavaḥ iti"Lord?"
Translation
"— 'Tatpuruṣa.' — 'What else is this, Lord?'"
Version
067d31e50470 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The fourth face: Tatpuruṣa, "that Man." This name is worth examining, for it is composed of two demonstrative words and is thereby enigmatic. Tat — "that"; puruṣa — "man, person, spirit." Together — "that very Man."
That is, the name does not describe and does not praise: it points. This device in sacred names occurs and is, to my mind, the most honest of all. Every descriptive name — "all-powerful," "omnipresent" — speaks of a quality and is therefore incomplete. A pointing name says nothing except "there He is."
The Vaiṣṇava side has names of this kind and holds them in high regard. Tat is the first word in oṃ tat sat, of which the Gītā says it is "the threefold designation of brahman" (17.23); and the second word, sat, means simply "the existent." Let us add what was said about the word puruṣa when reading the Mahāvākya (p14): in a verse of the Śvetāśvatara the highest is called puruṣam mahāntam, "the great Man," in the accusative case — that is, as what is known, not as the knower.
This consideration is worth keeping here too. The name Tatpuruṣa is the name of a third person: "that Man," not "I" and not "you." And it is notable that in this book all five names are third-person names; there is no address in the second person at all. The book describes, rather than prays; and hence it is drier than those we have read before.