Upaniṣads · Subāla 1.2
॥
Devanāgarī
तस्मात्तमः सञ्जायते तमसो भूतादिर्भूतादेराकाशमाकाशाद्वायुर्वायोरग्निरग्नेरापोऽद्भ्यः पृथिवी
Transliteración (IAST)
tasmāttamaḥ sañjāyate tamaso bhūtādirbhūtāderākāśamākāśādvāyurvāyoragniragnerāpo'dbhyaḥ pṛthivī
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
तस्मात् तमः सञ्जायतेtasmāt tamaḥ sañjāyatefrom that darkness is born; thence arises gloom
तमसः भूतादिःtamasaḥ bhūtādiḥfrom darkness — the origin of the elements; from gloom — bhūtādi
भूतादेः आकाशम्bhūtādeḥ ākāśamfrom the origin of the elements — space; from bhūtādi — the ether
आकाशात् वायुःākāśāt vāyuḥfrom space — wind; from the ether — air
वायोः अग्निःvāyoḥ agniḥfrom wind — fire; from air — flame
अग्नेः आपःagneḥ āpaḥfrom fire — the waters; from flame — water
अद्भ्यः पृथिवीadbhyaḥ pṛthivīfrom the waters — earth; from water — the firm ground
Traducción
From that, darkness is born; from darkness — the origin of the elements; from the origin of the elements — space; from space — wind; from wind — fire; from fire — the waters; from the waters — earth.
Versión
ad176f045e30 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 4:12:03 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The unfolding of the world is given in a single line, and its order must be read attentively, for it is not the one familiar from the other Upaniṣads.
First is named tamas, “darkness”. This is not evil, nor ignorance in the moral sense: so is called that undifferentiatedness in which nothing yet stands out. Darkness here is not the absence of light but the absence of edges.
Second comes bhūtādi — “the origin of the elements”, that from which the elements issue. In Sāṅkhya this word names the dark side of ahaṅkāra, self-assertion: the first thing already capable of setting apart.
And only then come the five elements in the usual order: space, wind, fire, the waters, earth. Each next is denser than the one before; the world thickens as it unfolds.
It is essential that creation begins not with matter but with what is not yet matter. Between the “neither existent nor non-existent” of the first mantra and the earth of the last stands a whole ladder, and matter appears on it late.
It is this very order that Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa calls decisive when discussing how to read the different śrutis on creation: the Taittirīya counts from space, while the Subāla counts from pradhāna through mahat and ahaṅkāra to the tanmātras and the elements. He treats them not as a contradiction but as different depths of describing one and the same thing.