Upaniṣads · Kaivalya 21
॥
Devanāgarī
अपाणिपादो ऽहम् अचिन्त्यशक्तिः पश्याम्य् अचक्षुः स शृणोम्य् अकर्णः अहं विजानामि विविक्तरूपो न चास्ति वेत्ता मम चित् सदाहम्
Transliteración (IAST)
apāṇipādo 'ham acintyaśaktiḥ paśyāmy acakṣuḥ sa śṛṇomy akarṇaḥ ahaṃ vijānāmi viviktarūpo na cāsti vettā mama cit sadāham
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
अपाणिपादः अहम्apāṇipādaḥ ahamI am handless and footless; I am without hand or foot
अचिन्त्यशक्तिःacintyaśaktiḥof unthinkable power; whose might is inconceivable
पश्यामि अचक्षुःpaśyāmi acakṣuḥI see without eyes; I behold, having no eyes
सः शृणोमि अकर्णःsaḥ śṛṇomi akarṇaḥI hear without ears; I hearken, having no hearing
अहम् विजानामि विविक्तरूपःaham vijānāmi viviktarūpaḥI know, being distinct in form; I understand, being set apart
न च अस्ति वेत्ता ममna ca asti vettā mamaand there is no knower of me; and none there is who could know me
चित् सदा अहम्cit sadā ahamconsciousness am I always; I am eternally cit
Traducción
I am handless and footless, but my power is unthinkable; I see without eyes and hear without ears; I know, being set apart, and there is no knower of me; consciousness is what I am, always.
Versión
89c567a7c8bf · publicado 29 jul 2026, 3:04:38 UTC
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The verse is taken almost word for word from the Śvetāśvatara, where it is said of the Highest: “without hands and feet he grasps and hastens; without eyes he sees, without ears he hears”.
Here the same is said in the first person.
Let us grasp what is asserted. Not that the speaker lacks faculties, but that his faculties are not tied to instruments.
We see because there are eyes; remove the eyes, and the seeing is gone. Of Him it is said that seeing does not depend on the eye; hence acintya-śakti, “unthinkable power”: unthinkable precisely because it acts without an instrument.
Then words worth pausing over: na cāsti vettā mama — “and there is no knower of me”.
This is not a boast. It is the same position with which every inquiry into consciousness ends: consciousness cannot be made an object, because it is by consciousness that objects are made.
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka says it more briefly: “by what should one know the knower?”
And the last: cit sadāham — “consciousness is what I am, always”. Not sometimes, not in contemplation: always.
Note vivikta-rūpa — “set apart in form”, separate, unmingled. The word already stood in the third verse, in the description of the place for contemplation: vivikta-deśa, “a solitary place”.