Upanishads · Varāha 2.25
॥
Devanāgarī
स्वात्मनोऽन्यदिवाभातं चराचरमिदं जगत् । स्वात्ममात्रतया बुद्ध्वा तदस्मीति विभावय
Transliteration (IAST)
svātmano'nyadivābhātaṃ carācaramidaṃ jagat | svātmamātratayā buddhvā tadasmīti vibhāvaya
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
स्व-आत्मनः अन्यत् इव आभातंsva-ātmanaḥ anyat iva ābhātaṃappearing as though other than one's own self
चर-अचरम् इदं जगत्cara-acaram idaṃ jagatthis moving and unmoving world
स्व-आत्म-मात्रतया बुद्ध्वाsva-ātma-mātratayā buddhvāhaving understood as one's own self alone
तत् अस्मि इति विभावयtat asmi iti vibhāvaya'that am I' — thus reflect
Translation
"This moving and unmoving world, appearing as though other than one's own self, — having understood it as one's own self alone, reflect: 'that am I'."
Version
1ccc1499debd · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Worth noting are two words: iva, "as though," and vibhavaya, "reflect." The first softens: the world appears "as though other," not "other." The second, as we noted when reading the Yajnavalkya (23), is the imperative mood, not a description.
That is, the line prescribes an exercise, and at the same time qualifies that the world's otherness is an appearance, not an absence. It is worth saying something of the word iva, for it stands at decisive points in these books and is usually dropped in paraphrase. We met it in Patanjali's definition of samadhi: svarupa-shunyam iva, "as though devoid of one's own form" (3.3); and there too we noted that "as though" distinguishes "vanished" from "ceased to notice himself."
The Vaishnava side collects such qualifications and points to them as traces of the caution of the originals, erased by later retellers. Let us add what deserves saying of the exercise itself. It is valid and bears fruit: a person who trains himself to see his own in what is another's stops dividing the world into his own and others', and becomes better for it.
Our objection is not to the exercise, but to the inference from the exercise to the structure of the world; discussed when reading verse twenty-one.