Upanishads · Pañcabrahma 8
॥
Devanāgarī
वर्णं शुक्लं तमोमिश्रं पूर्णबोधकरं स्वयम् । धामत्रयनियन्तारं धामत्रयसमन्वितम्
Transliteration (IAST)
varṇaṃ śuklaṃ tamomiśraṃ pūrṇabodhakaraṃ svayam | dhāmatrayaniyantāraṃ dhāmatrayasamanvitam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
वर्णं शुक्लं तमः-मिश्रंvarṇaṃ śuklaṃ tamaḥ-miśraṃwhite color, mixed with darkness
पूर्ण-बोध-करं स्वयम्pūrṇa-bodha-karaṃ svayamitself producing full awakening
धाम-त्रय-नियन्तारंdhāma-traya-niyantāraṃruling the three abodes
धाम-त्रय-समन्वितम्dhāma-traya-samanvitamendowed with the three abodes
Translation
"White color, mixed with darkness, itself producing full awakening; ruling the three abodes and endowed with the three abodes."
Version
a95da9006372 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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It is worth noting the phrase śuklaṃ tamo-miśraṃ, "white, mixed with darkness." This combination is unexpected in a description of color and apparently means gray or bluish-gray; but behind it stands something more. In the Indian reckoning of the guṇas, white is sattva, dark is tamas; and their mixture signifies a state in which clarity is not pure.
It is worth saying that such a mixture is the ordinary state of a person, and the books acknowledge this. The Gītā says that the three guṇas "overpower one another by turns": now sattva prevails over rajas and tamas, now rajas, now tamas (14.10). That is, a pure state does not occur; what occurs is predominance.
This position, to my mind, is worth keeping, for it saves one from needless despondency. A person, noticing darkness in himself, is inclined to conclude that all his effort is in vain; but by this reckoning darkness was never meant to disappear — it was meant to stop predominating. The Vaiṣṇava side expresses this through the concept of nirguṇa, "beyond the guṇas," and says that devotion is not the highest sattva but lies wholly outside the three strands: the Gītā says directly, "one who serves Me with unswerving devotion, having transcended these guṇas, is fit for being brahman" (14.26).
Let us add what follows from this in practice. To struggle with the guṇas while remaining in their field means exchanging one for another; and a person who has moved from tamas to rajas, and from rajas to sattva, is still within the same field. The way out is shown not higher up the same ladder, but to the side.