अहङ्कारोऽध्यात्ममहङ्कर्तव्यमधिभूतं रुद्रस्तत्राधिदैवतं नाडी तेषां निबन्धनं योऽहङ्कारे योऽहङ्कर्तव्ये यो रुद्रे यो नाड्यां यः प्राणे यो विज्ञाने य आनन्दे यो हृद्याकाशे य एतस्मिन्सर्वस्मिन्नन्तरे संचरति सोऽयमात्मा तमात्मानमुपासीताजरममृतमभयमशोकमनन्तम्
ahaṅkāro'dhyātmamahaṅkartavyamadhibhūtaṃ rudrastatrādhidaivataṃ nāḍī teṣāṃ nibandhanaṃ yo'haṅkāre yo'haṅkartavye yo rudre yo nāḍyāṃ yaḥ prāṇe yo vijñāne ya ānande yo hṛdyākāśe ya etasminsarvasminnantare saṃcarati so'yamātmā tamātmānamupāsītājaramamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantam
Selfhood — on the side of oneself, the appropriated — on the side of beings, and Rudra — on the side of deities; the channel — their bond. Who is in selfhood, in the appropriated, in Rudra, 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.
2e8781a173dd · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:12:03 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The eighth triad: selfhood, the appropriated, and Rudra.
Ahaṅkāra means literally “the making of ‘I’”: the faculty by which a man says of something “mine” and of himself “I”. Its object is named accordingly — ahaṅkartavyam, “that which is subject to appropriation”.
The deity named is Rudra, and this choice is worth understanding. Rudra is the terrible principle, born in the first khaṇḍa of this book from the frowning brow. To join him with selfhood is to say something sharp about selfhood: it is akin to wrath.
And this is true in substance. Every “I” is already a boundary, and a boundary is defended. Where “mine” has appeared, there at once appears the readiness to fight for it; hence self-regard and anger go paired in the śāstras.
But this should not be read as condemnation. Selfhood is listed on a par with the eye and reason — as an instrument that has its place and its object. What is condemned is not it, but the forgetting of Him who is in it: for in selfhood too, says the Upaniṣad, He moves.