The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Shvetashvatara · Two Birds and the Unborn

Every Power Is That

Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.2

तदेवाग्निस्तदादित्यस्तद्वायुस्तदु चन्द्रमाः । तदेव शुक्रं तद्ब्रह्म तदापस्तत्प्रजापतिः

Meaning · English

That alone is fire, that the sun, that the wind, and that the moon. That is the bright one, that is Brahman, that the waters, that Prajapati.

"That" points back to the single source described just before, the one with no color of its own. Then comes a roll call of the powers older hymns praised one at a time: fire, the sun, the wind, the moon, the waters. "The bright one" is the shining stuff of light itself. Brahman is the reality underneath everything. Prajapati is the lord of creatures, the maker of the world in earlier texts. None of them is dismissed. Each is the same source, named by one of its faces.

In a house, one supply of electricity runs the kitchen light, the ceiling fan, the heater and the fridge. Each looks like a different machine doing a different job. Switch off the main and every one stops at once. Fire, sun, wind and moon are the appliances; That is the current in all of them.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: One Without Color · Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.1
• Next: Woman, Man, Youth, Elder · Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.3
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