आत्मा एव इदम् अग्रे आसीत् पुरुषविधः सः अनुवीक्ष्य न अन्यत् आत्मनः अपश्यत् सः अहम् अस्मि इति अग्रे व्याहरत् ततः अहंनामा अभवत् तस्मात् अपि एतर्हि आमन्त्रितः अहम् अयम् इति एव अग्रे उक्त्वा अथ अन्यन् नाम प्रब्रूते यद् अस्य भवति सः यत् पूर्वः अस्मात् सर्वस्मात् सर्वान् पाप्मनः औषत् तस्मात् पुरुषः ओषति ह वै सः तम् यः अस्मात् पूर्वः बुभूषति यः एवम् वेद
ātmā eva idam agre āsīt puruṣavidhaḥ saḥ anuvīkṣya na anyat ātmanaḥ apaśyat saḥ aham asmi iti agre vyāharat tataḥ ahaṃnāmā abhavat tasmāt api etarhi āmantritaḥ aham ayam iti eva agre uktvā atha anyan nāma prabrūte yad asya bhavati saḥ yat pūrvaḥ asmāt sarvasmāt sarvān pāpmanaḥ auṣat tasmāt puruṣaḥ oṣati ha vai saḥ tam yaḥ asmāt pūrvaḥ bubhūṣati yaḥ evam veda
In the beginning this was the ātman alone, in the form of a Puruṣa. Looking about, he saw nothing other than himself. And first of all he uttered: "I am" — thus the name 'I' arose. Therefore to this day, when a man is addressed, he first says "It is I", and then pronounces the other name that he bears. And because before (pūrva) all this he burnt up (uṣ) all evils, he is called Puruṣa. He burns up anyone who wishes to be before him — he who knows thus.
328df89b7534 · publicado 27 jul 2026, 0:42:16 UTC
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Here begins the book's second, luminous cosmogony — no longer from Death the hunger but from the ātman "in the form of a Puruṣa": the Beginning has a Face. And the first event of being is neither an explosion nor a sacrifice but a word of self-awareness: so 'ham asmīti — "I am". Before all the names of the world the name "I" was uttered; everything that exists began with a Person who recognised himself.
The Upaniṣad at once shows the trace of that first word in daily life: anyone addressed still answers first "it is I" and only then gives his name. Our everyday "I" is an echo of God's first word; every living self-awareness is a spark of that "I am", and therefore it is indestructible and holy — and therefore also not self-originated: it is inherited.
The name puruṣa is expounded by fire: "he who before (pūrva) all things burnt up (√uṣ) the evils". The primal "I" is pure — sin is not original but a later scum; and whoever "wishes to be before him", to set his own ego ahead of the First "I", is burnt upon Him as the asuras were upon the prāṇa. A healthy "I" lives second after his "I"; a sick one lunges for his place.