Upanishads · Pañcabrahma 1
॥
Devanāgarī
गोप्याद्गोप्यतरं लोके यद्यस्ति श्रुणु शाकल । सद्योजातं मही पूषा रमा ब्रह्मः त्रिवृत्स्वरः
Transliteration (IAST)
gopyādgopyataraṃ loke yadyasti śruṇu śākala | sadyojātaṃ mahī pūṣā ramā brahmaḥ trivṛtsvaraḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गोप्यात् गोप्य-तरं लोकेgopyāt gopya-taraṃ lokemore hidden than the hidden in the world
यदि अस्ति शृणु शाकलyadi asti śṛṇu śākalaif there is, listen, Śākala
सद्योजातं मही पूषाsadyojātaṃ mahī pūṣāSadyojāta: earth, Pūṣan
रमा ब्रह्मः त्रि-वृत् स्वरःramā brahmaḥ tri-vṛt svaraḥRamā, Brahmā, the threefold sound
Translation
"If there is in the world something more hidden than the hidden — listen, Śākala: Sadyojāta is earth, Pūṣan, Ramā, Brahmā, the threefold sound."
Version
50b465766b87 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The mapping begins, and the first face is mapped: earth, Pūṣan, Ramā (that is, Lakṣmī), Brahmā, the threefold sound. It is worth explaining at once the structure of these mappings, for they will occupy fifteen verses and, unexplained, will seem like raving. Every face is assigned an element (earth, water, fire, wind, space), a luminary or deity, a Veda, a sacrificial fire, a color, a power.
That is, the five faces serve as five columns, so to speak, across which everything in the world that is counted or reduced to fives is distributed. This device is bandhu, "connection by correspondence," discussed when reading the Jābāla-darśana (4.4); and there it was also said what is good in it and what is not. Let us repeat briefly: it is good in that it does not allow one to consider a person accidental in the world, for everything turns out to be built to one measure; and it is faulty in that resemblance by number proves nothing.
It is worth noting also the word Ramā, standing here among the rest: this is a name of Lakṣmī, Viṣṇu's consort, not of Rāmacandra. And her presence in a Śaiva mapping is the same device we have seen more than once: every community absorbs what is foreign rather than rejecting it. The Vaiṣṇava side does the same, as was discussed when reading the Bhasma-jābāla (2.38). Let us add only that the mutuality of such absorptions is, to my mind, the one thing that can be established from them with confidence: they have all read each other.