ओं आपो वा इदमासन् सलिलमेव । स प्रजापतिरेकः पुष्करपर्णे समभवत् । तस्यान्तर्मनसि कामः समवर्तत इदं सृजेयमिति । तस्माद्यत्पुरुषो मनसाभिगच्छति तद्वाचा वदति तत्कर्मणा करोति । तदेषभ्यनूक्ता कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः प्रथमं यदासीत् । सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्हृदि प्रतीष्या कवयो मनीषेति उपैनं तदुपनमति यत्कामो भवति य एवं वेद
oṃ āpo vā idamāsan salilameva | sa prajāpatirekaḥ puṣkaraparṇe samabhavat | tasyāntarmanasi kāmaḥ samavartata idaṃ sṛjeyamiti | tasmādyatpuruṣo manasābhigacchati tadvācā vadati tatkarmaṇā karoti | tadeṣabhyanūktā kāmastadagre samavartatādhi manaso retaḥ prathamaṃ yadāsīt | sato bandhumasati niravindanhṛdi pratīṣyā kavayo manīṣeti upainaṃ tadupanamati yatkāmo bhavati ya evaṃ veda
Oṁ. The waters were all this — one flood alone. Prajāpati, alone, arose on a lotus leaf. In his mind a desire arose: “Let me create this.” Therefore what a man reaches with the mind, that he speaks with speech and that he does with deed. And of this it is said: “Desire arose in the beginning — that which was the first seed of mind; the bond of the existent in the non-existent the seers found, gazing with insight in the heart.” To him who so knows comes that which he desires.
475a5c187b8e · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:39:50 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The book opens with what every tale of the beginning opens with: the waters.
Salilam eva — “one flood alone”. No earth, no sky; water only, and on a lotus leaf — Prajāpati, alone.
Then desire is spoken of, and spoken with an exactness worth marvelling at: kāmaḥ samavartata — “a desire arose”, and moreover antar manasi, “within the mind”.
And at once a rule is drawn from this that concerns everyone: “what a man reaches with the mind, that he speaks with speech and that he does with deed”.
Three steps — mind, speech, deed — and the first is decisive. The creation of the world and a human act are described by one and the same move.
Then a verse is cited from the Ṛg-veda, from the famous hymn of the beginning: “desire arose in the beginning, the first seed of mind; the bond of the existent in the non-existent the seers found, gazing in the heart”.
This verse is one of the most enigmatic in all Vedic literature, and it has been interpreted for centuries. Sato bandhum asati — “the bond of the existent in the non-existent”: that by which what exists holds to what does not. And it was found not by reasoning, but by “gazing in the heart”.
Note the last words too: “to him who so knows comes that which he desires”. The book begins with Prajāpati's desire and ends its very first paragraph with the reader's.
The next paragraph will tell what Prajāpati, heated with austerity, saw.