Upaniṣads · Varāha 2.53
॥
Devanāgarī
ततः शुद्धश्चिदेवाहं व्योमवन्निरुपाधिकः । जीवेश्वरादिरूपेण चेतनाचेतनात्मकम्
Transliteración (IAST)
tataḥ śuddhaścidevāhaṃ vyomavannirupādhikaḥ | jīveśvarādirūpeṇa cetanācetanātmakam
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
ततः शुद्धः चित् एव अहंtataḥ śuddhaḥ cit eva ahaṃtherefore I am pure consciousness
व्योम-वत् निरुपाधिकःvyoma-vat nirupādhikaḥlike space, without superimposition
जीव-ईश्वर-आदि-रूपेणjīva-īśvara-ādi-rūpeṇain the form of the living being, the lord, and the rest
चेतन-अचेतन-आत्मकम्cetana-acetana-ātmakamhaving as essence the conscious and unconscious
Traducción
"Therefore I am pure consciousness, like space, without superimposition; [while the world], having as its essence the conscious and unconscious, [appears] in the form of the living being, the lord, and the rest…"
Versión
ca0f59fbdbf9 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Worth examining is the word nirupadhika, "without superimposition," for it is technical and decisive in this polemic. Upadhi means "the superimposed, a limiting adjunct"; in practice — a vessel that lends water its own shape, or colored glass that tints the light. The teaching is this: consciousness is one and colorless; superimpositions — body, mind, circumstances — give it the appearance of many.
The comparison with colored glass is a favorite: the light is one, the colors many, and the color belongs to the glass. The Vaishnava side accepts the comparison halfway, and it is worth saying where it stops. It agrees that body and mind are superimpositions, and that the soul is not colored by them in essence.
It does not agree that the soul itself is a superimposition. Its argument is the same one cited when reading the Jabala-darshana (6.13): light does not know it is colored, but the soul knows. Let us add what deserves noting in the comparison itself, and is spoken of less often.
Colored glasses can be broken, and then only the light remains. But if the glasses could rejoice and grieve, then breaking them would destroy not the coloring, but those who rejoiced. Hence the whole force of these comparisons rests on taking the non-living; and every time something living is substituted into the comparison, it stops working.