Upaniṣads · Śvetāśvatara 1.4
॥
Devanāgarī
तम् एकनेमिं त्रिवृतं षोडशान्तं शतार्धारं विंशतिप्रत्यराभिः ।
अष्टकैः षड्भिर् विश्वरूपैकपाशं त्रिमार्गभेदं द्विनिमित्तैकमोहम्
Transliteración (IAST)
tam ekanemiṃ trivṛtaṃ ṣoḍaśāntaṃ śatārdhāraṃ viṃśatipratyarābhiḥ /
aṣṭakaiḥ ṣaḍbhir viśvarūpaikapāśaṃ trimārgabhedaṃ dvinimittaikamoham
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
तम्tamthat; that very wheel
एकनेमिम्ekanemimwith one rim; having a single felly
त्रिवृतम्trivṛtamthreefold; twisted of three — of the three guṇas
षोडशान्तम्ṣoḍaśāntamwith sixteen ends; terminating in sixteen
शतार्धारम्śatārdhāramwith half a hundred spokes; having fifty spokes
विंशतिप्रत्यराभिःviṃśatipratyarābhiḥwith twenty counter-spokes; with twenty opposing spokes
अष्टकैः षड्भिःaṣṭakaiḥ ṣaḍbhiḥwith six eights; with six groups of eight
विश्वरूपैकपाशम्viśvarūpaikapāśamwith one noose that takes every form; with a single many-shaped tether
त्रिमार्गभेदम्trimārgabhedamwith three diverging roads; divided into three by its paths
द्विनिमित्तैकमोहम्dvinimittaikamohamwith one delusion from two causes; whose single blindness has a twofold occasion
Traducción
That wheel — with one rim, twisted threefold, of sixteen ends, with half a hundred spokes and twenty counter-spokes, with six eights, with a single noose that takes every form, with three diverging roads and with one delusion from two causes.
Versión
92c65de1cd52 · publicado 28 jul 2026, 14:13:46 UTC
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Here begins the famous description of the brahma-cakra, the wheel of the universe, which in 1.6 will be named outright. The mantra reads like a draughtsman's sheet: nothing but numbers, not a single verb. This is not poetic licence but a device — saṁsāra is shown as a mechanism with precisely enumerated parts, and by that alone the illusion that it is chaos is removed.
The numbers point to an analysis of principles current even before classical Sāṅkhya, and the commentators decipher them somewhat differently; it is more honest to hold to what they all agree on. The one rim is the single nature, prakṛti, that encompasses everything. "Twisted threefold" — the three guṇas, the three strands of which the rim is twisted. Sixteen ends — the familiar sixteen: five gross elements, five organs of knowledge, five organs of action, and mind. The fifty spokes are matched with the fifty states of mind that Sāṅkhya enumerates: errors, disabilities, contentments and attainments. The twenty "counter-spokes" are those same organs and their objects, taken in pairs, like braces set against each other. The six eights are the eightfold sets of nature, elements, deities, qualities and the like.
Then the numbers end and the meaning begins. "One noose that takes every form" is desire: the tether is single, but it has as many shapes as there are things in the world. "Three diverging roads" are the three paths along which souls disperse according to the guṇas: upward, in the middle and downward. And "one delusion from two causes" is the self-deception that grows from a double root: from good deeds and from bad, from merit and from guilt. Both turn the wheel alike; the righteous man is bound with a golden chain, the sinner with an iron one.
Worth remembering is this: the wheel is given a rim, spokes and a noose — everything except an axle. The axle will be named by the next mantras: the wheel does not turn of itself, and what circles on it is not itself but a living being.