उपनिषद् · Atharvaśiras 3
॥
देवनागरी
यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् यश् च विष्णुस् तस्मै वै नमोनमः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yaś ca viṣṇus tasmai vai namonamaḥ
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
यः वै रुद्रःyaḥ vai rudraḥhe who is Rudra; the one who is Rudra
सः भगवान्saḥ bhagavānhe is the Lord; he indeed is the Bhagavān
यः च विष्णुःyaḥ ca viṣṇuḥand who is Viṣṇu; and the one who is Viṣṇu
तस्मै वै नमः नमःtasmai vai namaḥ namaḥto him be homage and homage; to him obeisance and obeisance
अनुवाद
He who is Rudra — He is the Lord, and He is Viṣṇu. To Him be homage and homage.
संस्करण
69f7211deab0 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:17:52 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The litany's second name is Viṣṇu, and it settles the question of who speaks here.
In a book assigned to the Śaiva Upaniṣads, the second name of Rudra is Viṣṇu.
This is the very ground on which the Vaiṣṇava tradition reads such texts without dispute. The names in them are not distributed by office: they are listed as the names of One.
Recall how the other side does the same. The fifth mantra of the uttara-tāpanī of the Rāma-tāpanī calls Rāma “Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara”; the forty-second and forty-third call him Maheśvara and Mahādeva. There a Vaiṣṇava book calls its Lord by the names of Śiva; here a Śaiva book calls its own by the name of Viṣṇu.
Both movements are alike, and both say one thing: doxology has no partitions.
Note too what this litany will not say. It nowhere says the names are equal among themselves, or that there is no point in distinguishing them. It says only that their subject is one.