न ह्यन्यतरतो रूपं किञ्चन सिद्ध्येन्नो एतन्नाना तद्यथा रथस्यारेषु नेमिरर्पिता नाभावरा अर्पिता एवमेवैता भूतमात्राः प्रज्ञामात्रास्वर्पिताः प्रज्ञामात्राः प्राणेऽर्पिताः स एष प्राण एव प्रज्ञात्मानन्दोऽजरोऽमृतः । न साधुना कर्मणा भूयान्नो एवासाधुना कनीयान् । एष ह्येवैनं साधुकर्म कारयति तं यमेभ्यो लोकेभ्यो उन्निनीषत एष उ एवैनमसाधु कर्म कारयति तं यमधो निनीषते । एष लोकपाल एष लोकाधिपतिरेष सर्वेश्वरः स म आत्मेति विद्यात्स म आत्मेति विद्यात्
na hyanyatarato rūpaṃ kiñcana siddhyenno etannānā tadyathā rathasyāreṣu nemirarpitā nābhāvarā arpitā evamevaitā bhūtamātrāḥ prajñāmātrāsvarpitāḥ prajñāmātrāḥ prāṇe'rpitāḥ sa eṣa prāṇa eva prajñātmānando'jaro'mṛtaḥ | na sādhunā karmaṇā bhūyānno evāsādhunā kanīyān | eṣa hyevainaṃ sādhukarma kārayati taṃ yamebhyo lokebhyo unninīṣata eṣa u evainamasādhu karma kārayati taṃ yamadho ninīṣate | eṣa lokapāla eṣa lokādhipatireṣa sarveśvaraḥ sa ma ātmeti vidyātsa ma ātmeti vidyāt
For from neither side alone would any form be accomplished — and this is not manifold. As the felly of a chariot is fixed upon the spokes, and the spokes are fixed in the hub, so these element-portions are fixed in the insight-portions, and the insight-portions are fixed in the breath. And this breath is the self of insight — bliss, unageing, immortal. He becomes not greater by a good deed nor lesser by an evil one. For it is He who makes him do the good deed whom He would lead up out of these worlds; and it is He who makes him do the evil deed whom He would lead downward. He is the guardian of the world, He is the sovereign of the world, He is the Lord of all. “He is my self” — let a man know; “He is my self” — let him know.
ef392aa6d146 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 3:43:45 UTC
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The conclusion of the whole conversation, and it supplies what the previous mantra lacked.
There it was said that object and faculty hold to one another. Here it is added: apart, neither side forms anything — and the image of the chariot is brought. The felly sits on the spokes, the spokes in the hub. The world is mounted on cognition, cognition on prāṇa. The hub is neither felly nor spokes, but without it the wheel falls apart.
Then it is said what this hub is, and said in names that had not yet sounded in the conversation: ānanda, ajara, amṛta — “bliss, unageing, immortal”. Prāṇa-prajñā proves to be not merely the ground of cognition, but that of which all the Upaniṣads speak.
Next comes the proposition for which this passage is cited most often: “he becomes not greater by a good deed nor lesser by an evil one”. Deeds neither add to nor subtract from Him who is the ground of deeds. Here too, in retrospect, Indra's provocative speech of the first mantra is explained: in recounting his exploits he was speaking of precisely this — of what lies beyond the measure of deeds.
And then the hardest and most important: “He makes him do the good deed whom He would lead up out of these worlds; He makes him do the evil deed whom He would lead downward.” This statement is examined at length in the Vedānta, and examined thus: the prompting cancels neither the man's will nor his responsibility. The Lord impels according to what a man is and what he himself has held to before; He does not assign arbitrarily but gives way to what is already chosen. It is this very line that Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa cites in the Govinda-bhāṣya beside “having entered within, the ruler of men” from the Taittirīya and the antaryāmin of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka — as testimony of the Lord who moves from within while remaining distinct from the moved.
And three names crown the conversation: lokapāla, lokādhipati, sarveśvara — “guardian of the world, sovereign of the world, Lord of all”. He who at the start called himself the breath in the body is named at the end the Lord of all.
And the last words turn all this toward the hearer, and turn it twice: “He is my self — let a man know; He is my self — let him know.” Not “I am He”, but “He is my self”: the one who moves from within is called one's own — and remains the One who is known.