उपनिषद् · Atharvaśiras 28
॥
देवनागरी
यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् यच् च शुक्लं तस्मै वै नमोनमः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yac ca śuklaṃ 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
यत् च शुक्लम्yat ca śuklamand which is the white; and that which is śukla
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 the white. To Him be homage and homage.
संस्करण
af70365b160c · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:17:52 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Śukla — “white, bright, pure”.
In the Śaiva tradition this colour belongs to Śiva himself: he is described as white as the snow-mountain, strewn with ash.
But the word has a second sense, which the book itself will unfold in the thirty-fifth section: there it will be asked why the syllable Om is called śukla, and the answer will be given by a play on the root — “for it wearies and makes weary”.
That etymology is strained, and I will not pass it off as evident; but it shows that for this book “white” is not only a colour.
The pair with black, which the next section gives, is the oldest of all: day and night, light and dark.
And it is also the riskiest for a doxology. To call God light is easy; to call Him darkness few dare.
This book dares.