The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Shvetashvatara · The Yoga of Stillness

Bowing to the Indwelling God

Shvetashvatara Upanishad 2.17

यो देवॊऽग्नौ योऽप्सु यो विश्वं भुवनमाविवेश । य ओषधीषु यो वनस्पतिषु तस्मै देवाय नमो नमः

Meaning · English

The god in fire, in the waters, in the healing herbs and in the great trees, who has gone into every world: to that god, again and again, I bow.

The seer names the plainest things around a village: the fire that cooks, the water in the river, the small plants of the field, the big trees at its edge. The same god is inside each one. That god did not make the world and then stand back from it. It went into the world, all of it, and lives there. The last words are a bow, and then a second bow. After describing this god, the seer stops explaining and honors it.

Two dry sticks lie on a shelf, cold to the touch. Rub one hard against the other and smoke rises, then a flame. The fire was in the wood the whole time, just unseen. The god the seer bows to is like that fire in the stick: already inside water, plant and tree, not brought in from outside.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Present at Every Birth · Shvetashvatara Upanishad 2.16
• All of Upanishads · Ask Krishna about it

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