Upanishads · Pañcabrahma 3
॥
Devanāgarī
अघोरं सलिलं चन्द्रं गौरी वेद द्वितीयकम् । नीर्दाभं स्वरं सान्द्रं दक्षिणाग्निरुदाहृतम्
Transliteration (IAST)
aghoraṃ salilaṃ candraṃ gaurī veda dvitīyakam | nīrdābhaṃ svaraṃ sāndraṃ dakṣiṇāgnirudāhṛtam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अघोरं सलिलं चन्द्रंaghoraṃ salilaṃ candraṃAghora: water, the moon
गौरी वेद द्वितीयकम्gaurī veda dvitīyakamGaurī, the second Veda
नीर-आभं स्वरं सान्द्रंnīra-ābhaṃ svaraṃ sāndraṃthe color of water, a dense sound
दक्षिण-अग्निः उदाहृतःdakṣiṇa-agniḥ udāhṛtaḥthe southern fire is proclaimed
Translation
"Aghora: water, the moon, Gaurī, the second Veda; the color of water, a dense sound; the southern fire is proclaimed."
Version
019b38096435 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second face is mapped: water, the moon, Gaurī, the Yajurveda, the southern fire. Dakṣiṇa-agni, "the southern fire," is the one of the three that is lit for the ancestors; it burns on the southern side, for the south is the direction of the dead, as was discussed when reading the Bhasma-jābāla (2.59). The correspondence here holds firm: water, the moon, and the ancestors are tightly bound in Indian usage. The libation to the ancestors, tarpaṇa, is made with water; the moon is honored as the place to which the ancestors go; and the path of the ancestors, pitṛ-yāna, is the lunar path spoken of in the Gītā (8.25).
That is, the second face is composed entirely of the cool, the moist, and the nocturnal. It is worth noting that its name — Aghora, "not-terrible" — and this composition are no accident. Everything bound up with death and the ancestors is terrifying; and the face presiding over it is called not-terrible. That is, the name is, in essence, a promise: the terrifying here is not terrifying.
The Vaiṣṇava side speaks of death in the same vein and gives her chief word on it in the Gītā: "as a person casts off worn-out garments and takes new ones, so the embodied one enters other bodies" (2.22); and concludes — tasmād aparicyajyo'si na tvaṃ śocitum arhasi, "therefore He is not to be mourned, and you should not grieve" (2.25). Let us add a distinction worth mentioning. Here fear is removed by a name: they called it not-terrible. There — by an explanation: it is shown what changes and what does not. And the second is more lasting, for a name can be forgotten, while what is understood remains.