Upaniṣads · Pañcabrahma p6
॥
Devanāgarī
कति वर्णाः । कति भेदाः । कति शक्तयः । यत्सर्वं तद्गुह्यम्
Transliteración (IAST)
kati varṇāḥ | kati bhedāḥ | kati śaktayaḥ | yatsarvaṃ tadguhyam
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
कति वर्णाः कति भेदाःkati varṇāḥ kati bhedāḥhow many colors, how many distinctions
कति शक्तयःkati śaktayaḥhow many powers
यत् सर्वं तत् गुह्यम्yat sarvaṃ tat guhyamall that is hidden
Traducción
"How many colors? how many distinctions? how many powers? — All that is hidden."
Versión
f422ba3de954 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Three questions, and all three about number: how many colors, how many distinctions, how many powers. It is worth noting that these questions are not about essence but about structure; and the whole rest of the book will answer them, mapping the five faces onto colors, elements, Vedas, and powers. The word varṇa means both "color" and "letter" and "caste"; its multivalence was discussed when reading the Rudrākṣa-jābāla (1.9). Here color is meant: every face will have its own — yellow, dark, white, red.
The last words of the line — yat sarvaṃ tad guhyam, "all that is hidden" — are the usual qualification about secrecy, and such qualifications were discussed when reading the Gaṇapati (11.3). Let us add here one observation relevant to this passage and useful in general. Declaring a subject hidden is usually placed before setting it forth, not in place of setting it forth. That is, it is not a refusal but a warning of weight: something important is about to be said, listen carefully.
Read this way, the qualification about secrecy stops being a partition and becomes what a lowered voice serves in oral transmission. The Vaiṣṇava side makes use of exactly this device. The Gītā calls its own teaching guhyatamam, "most secret," three times — and each time before saying it (9.1, 15.20, 18.64); and at the end it commands its dissemination (18.68).