Upaniṣads · Subāla 1.3
॥
Devanāgarī
तदण्डं समभवत्तत्संवत्सरमात्रमुषित्वा द्विधाकरोदधस्ताद्भूमिमुपरिष्टादाकाशं मध्ये पुरुषो दिव्यः सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् । सहस्रबाहुरिति
Transliteración (IAST)
tadaṇḍaṃ samabhavattatsaṃvatsaramātramuṣitvā dvidhākarodadhastādbhūmimupariṣṭādākāśaṃ madhye puruṣo divyaḥ sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt | sahasrabāhuriti
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
तत् अण्डम् समभवत्tat aṇḍam samabhavatthat became an egg; it was made an egg
तत् संवत्सरमात्रम् उषित्वाtat saṃvatsaramātram uṣitvāhaving stayed a year; having lain the term of a year
द्विधा अकरोत्dvidhā akarotit divided in two; it split into two parts
अधस्तात् भूमिम्adhastāt bhūmimbelow — the earth; beneath — the firm ground
उपरिष्टात् आकाशम्upariṣṭāt ākāśamabove — the sky; on high — the ether
मध्ये पुरुषः दिव्यःmadhye puruṣaḥ divyaḥin the middle — the divine Puruṣa; in the midst — the divine Person
सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषःsahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥthe thousand-headed Puruṣa; the Person of a thousand heads
सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात्sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapātthousand-eyed, thousand-footed; with a thousand eyes and feet
सहस्रबाहुः इतिsahasrabāhuḥ itithousand-armed; with a thousand arms
Traducción
That became an egg; having stayed a year, it divided in two: below — the earth, above — the sky, and in the middle — the divine Puruṣa, the thousand-headed Puruṣa, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed, thousand-armed.
Versión
b3ceb9daade7 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 4:12:03 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The world-egg is an image known to all the ancient traditions of India; and here it is given with an exact measure of time: “having stayed a year”.
The year is named not by chance. In the Veda the year is the image of a full term: so much is needed for the circle to be completed. The universe does not spring out in an instant; it is given its term of ripening, like every egg.
The split in two yields two halves — earth and sky, below and above. This is the simplest of distinctions, with which every “where” begins.
But the main thing is in the third: “and in the middle — the divine Puruṣa”. Between sky and earth, in the very middle, there proves to be not emptiness and not an element, but a Person. And he is described in the words of the Puruṣa-sūkta, the most ancient hymn of the Person as the world's beginning: thousand-headed, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed, thousand-armed.
The thousands here mean uncountability: He has as many heads and arms as there are in the universe. The Śvetāśvatara cites the same verse; there it served to prove that the world does not contain Him entire.
Note the construction: first the long ladder of impersonal principles — darkness, bhūtādi, the elements; then the egg; and in the very core of the sundered world — He of whom the whole book speaks. The Subāla does not set cosmology against theology: it leads the one into the other.