पादावध्यात्मं गन्तव्यमधिभूतं विष्णुस्तत्राधिदैवतं नाडी तेषां निबन्धनं यः पादे यो गन्तव्ये यो विष्णौ यो नाड्यां यः प्राणे यो विज्ञाने य आनन्दे यो हृद्याकाशे य एतस्मिन्सर्वस्मिन्नन्तरे संचरति सोऽयमात्मा तमात्मानमुपासीताजरममृतमभयमशोकमनन्तम्
pādāvadhyātmaṃ gantavyamadhibhūtaṃ viṣṇustatrādhidaivataṃ nāḍī teṣāṃ nibandhanaṃ yaḥ pāde yo gantavye yo viṣṇau yo nāḍyāṃ yaḥ prāṇe yo vijñāne ya ānande yo hṛdyākāśe ya etasminsarvasminnantare saṃcarati so'yamātmā tamātmānamupāsītājaramamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantam
The feet — on the side of oneself, the traversable — on the side of beings, and Viṣṇu — on the side of deities; the channel — their bond. Who is in the foot, in the traversable, in Viṣṇu, in the channel, in the breath, in knowledge, in bliss, in the space of the heart, who moves within all this — He is this very Self. Him let one revere — the unageing, immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless.
3a59227e6236 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 4:12:03 UTC
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The twelfth triad: the feet, the traversable, and Viṣṇu.
This correspondence is ancient and remembered by all. Viṣṇu in the Ṛg-veda is the one who “measured the universe with three strides”; his chief deed is the step. Hence he is named the deity of the feet: where there is walking, there he is.
It is worth pausing on the word gantavyam — “that which is subject to traversal”. The object of walking is not the road and not the goal, but traversability itself: the possibility of being somewhere else. It is this that Viṣṇu possesses: with three strides he covered all that can be traversed at all.
Note also how this name stands in the common row. Here Viṣṇu is named on a par with the sun, the earth, Varuṇa, Indra — as one of fourteen deities assigned to our members. The book is in no hurry: the name of its chief subject will appear not here but in the sixth khaṇḍa, and appear otherwise — as “the one Nārāyaṇa”, the soul of all beings.
So the Upaniṣad distinguishes the deity of a member from Him who is in all members. One and the same name can stand in both rows; the difference is not in the name, but in what is said of it.