ब्रह्म वै इदम् अग्रे आसीत् तद् आत्मानम् एव अवेत् अहम् ब्रह्मास्मीति तस्मात् तत् सर्वम् अभवत् तद् यः यः देवानाम् प्रत्यबुध्यत सः एव तत् अभवत् तथा ऋषीणाम् तथा मनुष्याणाम् तद् ह एतत् पश्यन् ऋषिः वामदेवः प्रतिपेदे अहम् मनुः अभवम् सूर्यः च इति तद् इदम् अपि एतर्हि यः एवम् वेद अहम् ब्रह्म अस्मि इति सः इदम् सर्वम् भवति तस्य ह न देवाः चन अभूत्या ईशते आत्मा हि एषाम् सः भवति अथ यः अन्याम् देवताम् उपास्ते अन्यः असौ अन्यः अहम् अस्मि इति न सः वेद यथा पशुः एवम् सः देवानाम् यथा ह वै बहवः पशवः मनुष्यम् भुञ्ज्युः एवम् एकैकः पुरुषः देवान् भुनक्ति एकस्मिन् एव पशौ आदीयमाने अप्रियम् भवति किम् उ बहुषु तस्मात् एषाम् तत् न प्रियम् यद् एतत् मनुष्या विद्युः
brahma vai idam agre āsīt tad ātmānam eva avet aham brahmāsmīti tasmāt tat sarvam abhavat tad yaḥ yaḥ devānām pratyabudhyata saḥ eva tat abhavat tathā ṛṣīṇām tathā manuṣyāṇām tad ha etat paśyan ṛṣiḥ vāmadevaḥ pratipede aham manuḥ abhavam sūryaḥ ca iti tad idam api etarhi yaḥ evam veda aham brahma asmi iti saḥ idam sarvam bhavati tasya ha na devāḥ cana abhūtyā īśate ātmā hi eṣām saḥ bhavati atha yaḥ anyām devatām upāste anyaḥ asau anyaḥ aham asmi iti na saḥ veda yathā paśuḥ evam saḥ devānām yathā ha vai bahavaḥ paśavaḥ manuṣyam bhuñjyuḥ evam ekaikaḥ puruṣaḥ devān bhunakti ekasmin eva paśau ādīyamāne apriyam bhavati kim u bahuṣu tasmāt eṣām tat na priyam yad etat manuṣyā vidyuḥ
In the beginning this was Brahman. It knew itself: "I am Brahman" — and therefore it became All. Whoever among the gods awoke to this became That; and so among the ṛṣis, and so among men. Seeing this, the ṛṣi Vāmadeva realised: "I was Manu, and I was the sun." And to this day: he who knows "I am Brahman" becomes all this, and not even the gods can prevent him, for he is their ātman. But he who venerates another deity, [thinking] "it is one and I am another", does not know: he is like a beast to the gods. As many beasts feed a man, so does each man feed the gods. To lose even one beast is unpleasant — how much more many! Therefore it is not pleasing to them that men should know this.
620a7861e7c8 · publicado 27 jul 2026, 0:43:58 UTC
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Here is the second of the Upaniṣads' great utterances — aham brahmāsmi, "I am Brahman": the primal knowledge by which the Beginning became All, and an awakening (pratyabudhyata — a beautiful word: not "learned" but "woke up") open to god, ṛṣi and man alike. Vāmadeva testifies from within the experience: "I was Manu, and I was the sun" — the awakened finds himself in everything that bears the light of consciousness.
How does the Vedānta of bhakti hear these words? Not as "everyone is God": the speaker here is Brahman about himself, and the jīva shares in this knowledge according to its own nature — as a spark of fire may say "I am fire" without claiming to be the conflagration of all the worlds. "I am Brahman" on a soul's lips is a confession of kinship, not a seizure of the throne: I am of his nature, of his ray, not of flesh and dust. That is why "not even the gods can prevent" the awakened: he has recognised himself as that by which every god lives.
And then comes the Upaniṣad's sharpest verse: he who venerates a deity as "it is one and I am another" (anyo 'sāv anyo 'ham asmi) is "like a beast to the gods". What is condemned here is not the distinction between God and soul — that will remain even in the highest vision — but strangeness: the worship of an alien, a fodder-worship, a trade in which the worshipper is heaven's milch cow paying with sacrifices for services. Bhakti is the very opposite of this: not "it is alien" but "he is mine and I am his"; love abolishes the cattle-status without abolishing the Master. No wonder it is "not pleasing" to the gods that men should awake: a serf paying a heavenly quit-rent is more profitable than a son.