उपनिषद् · Rudrahṛdaya 39
॥
देवनागरी
लक्ष्यं सर्वगतं चैव शरः सर्वगतो मुखः । वेद्धा सर्वगतश्चैव शिवलक्ष्यं न संशयः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
lakṣyaṃ sarvagataṃ caiva śaraḥ sarvagato mukhaḥ | veddhā sarvagataścaiva śivalakṣyaṃ na saṃśayaḥ
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
लक्ष्यं सर्व-गतं च एवlakṣyaṃ sarva-gataṃ ca evaand the target too is all-pervading
शरः सर्व-गतः मुखःśaraḥ sarva-gataḥ mukhaḥthe arrow is all-pervading at its tip
वेद्धा सर्व-गतः च एवveddhā sarva-gataḥ ca evaand the archer too is all-pervading
शिव-लक्ष्यं न संशयःśiva-lakṣyaṃ na saṃśayaḥthe target is Śiva, there is no doubt
अनुवाद
"And the target too is all-pervading, the arrow is all-pervading at its tip, and the archer too is all-pervading; the target is Śiva, there is no doubt."
संस्करण
26003ca8132b · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The likeness continues, and a fourth person is added, absent from the previous line: veddhā, "the archer." Now there are four: archer, bow, arrow, target. And of three of them it is said that they are sarva-gata, "all-pervading."
It is worth noting that even with this drawing-together, they do not merge, but remain four. All three are called all-pervading, but the archer does not become the arrow, and the target does not become the bow; it is only said that all of them are everywhere. Hence the question that is inevitable here, and which the Vaiṣṇava side poses directly: who is the archer?
He is absent in the original Muṇḍaka; he is added here, and added without explanation. If the arrow is the soul, and the target is brahman, then the archer is some third — the one who draws and releases. There are two answers to this. By one, the archer is the person himself: he is both the arrow and the one who releases. By the other — He is: the One toward whom things fly releases; and then the whole image is overturned and becomes what Vaiṣṇava books are full of — an attraction coming from the other side.
The second reading is confirmed by the fact that the arrow does not release itself; and the first requires that the arrow be, at once, both the bow and the hand. Of the two explanations, one should choose the one under which the likeness does not fall apart.