The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Shvetashvatara · Knowing and Not Knowing

No Bigger Than a Thumb

Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.8

अङ्गुष्ठमात्रो रवितुल्यरूपः सङ्कल्पाहङ्कारसमन्वितो यः । बुद्धेर्गुणेनात्मगुणेन चैव आराग्रमात्रोऽप्यपरोऽपि दृष्टः

Meaning · English

Thumb-sized and bright as the sun, joined to intention and the sense of 'I'. Through the traits of intellect and self, another appears too, no bigger than an awl's tip.

The wandering self from the line before is now given a size. Thumb-sized is an old way of picturing the self as something small enough to fit inside a person. Yet it shines like the sun. It comes tied to two things: intention, the habit of wanting and planning, and the sense of 'I', the feeling that this body and these plans are mine. Seen through the workings of the mind and its own traits, it looks smaller still, a single point like the tip of an awl.

Sunlight comes through a pinhole in a curtain and lands on the floor as a tiny bright dot. The dot is real sunlight, but it is small only because the hole is small. The self works the same way: it shines like the sun, yet it looks thumb-sized or pin-sized depending on what it shines through.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Self That Wanders · Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.7
• Next: The Smallest Self · Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.9
• All of Upanishads · Ask Krishna about it

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