Upaniṣads · Mahā 5.90
॥
Devanāgarī
सर्वस्माद्व्यतिरिक्तोऽहं वालाग्रादप्यहं तनुः इति या संविदो ब्रह्मन्द्वितीयाहङ्कृतिः शुभा
Transliteración (IAST)
sarvasmādvyatirikto'haṃ vālāgrādapyahaṃ tanuḥ iti yā saṃvido brahmandvitīyāhaṅkṛtiḥ śubhā
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
सर्वस्मात् व्यतिरिक्तः अहम्sarvasmāt vyatiriktaḥ ahamI am distinct from everything; I am set apart from all
वाल-अग्रात् अपि अहम् तनुःvāla-agrāt api aham tanuḥI am subtler than the tip of a hair; I am finer than even a hair's point
इति या संविदः ब्रह्मन्iti yā saṃvidaḥ brahmansuch an awareness, O brāhmaṇa; the said consciousness, O brāhmaṇa
द्वितीया अहङ्कृतिः शुभाdvitīyā ahaṅkṛtiḥ śubhāis the second selfhood, a good one; is the second self-sense, benign
Traducción
“‘I am distinct from everything, I am subtler than the tip of a hair’ — such awareness, O brāhmaṇa, is the second selfhood, and it is good.”
Versión
da2c31df6f5b · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
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The second selfhood, and it is opposite in direction to the first.
The first said: I am all. The second: I am distinct from all and finer than a hair.
Both are called good.
This deserves special note, for the schools of Vedānta dispute precisely over these two formulas. Some hold to the first, others to the second.
The book does not choose. Both, it says, lead upward.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta holds to the second, and not out of stubbornness: the image “subtler than the tip of a hair” is a direct citation from the Śvetāśvatara, where the jīva's size is so described, and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa in the Govinda-bhāṣya stands on it, proving that the soul is minute, not measureless.
Note the word śubhā — “good”. By the same word the first stage of knowledge is named, śubhecchā (5.24).