Svetâsvatara Upanishad: Adhyâya V

FIFTH ADHY YA.

1In the imperishable and infinite Highest Brahman 1, wherein the two, knowledge and ignorance, are hidden 2, the one, ignorance, perishes 3, the other, knowledge, is immortal; but he who controls both, knowledge and ignorance, is another 4.

2It is he who, being one only, rules over every germ (cause), over all forms, and over all germs; it is he who, in the beginning, bears 5 in his thoughts the wise son, the fiery, whom he wishes to look on 6 while he is born 7.

3

8In that field 9 in which the god, after spreading out one net after another 10 in various ways, draws it together again, the Lord, the great Self 11, having further created the lords 1, thus carries on his lordship over all.

4As the car (of the sun) shines, lighting up all quarters, above, below, and across, thus does that god, the holy, the adorable, being one, rule over all that has the nature of a germ 2.

5He, being one, rules over all and everything, so that the universal germ ripens its nature, diversifies all natures that can be ripened 3, and determines all qualities 4.

6

5Brahma (Hiranyagarbha) knows this, which is hidden in the Upanishads, which are hidden in the Vedas, as the Brahma-germ. The ancient gods and poets who knew it, they became it and were immortal.

7

1But he who is endowed with qualities, and performs works that are to bear fruit, and enjoys the reward of whatever he has done, migrates through his own works, the lord of life, assuming all forms, led by the three Gunas, and following the three paths 2.

8

3That lower one also, not larger than a thumb, but brilliant like the sun, who is endowed with personality and thoughts, with the quality of mind and the quality of body, is seen small even like the point of a goad.

9That living soul is to be known as part of the hundredth part of the point of a hair 4, divided a hundred times, and yet it is to be infinite.

10It is not woman, it is not man, nor is it neuter; whatever body it takes, with that it is joined 5 (only).

11

6By means of thoughts, touching, seeing, and passions the incarnate Self assumes successively in various places various forms 1, in accordance with his deeds, just as the body grows when food and drink are poured into it.

12That incarnate Self, according to his own qualities, chooses (assumes) many shapes, coarse or subtile, and having himself caused his union with them, he is seen as another and another 2, through the qualities of his acts, and through the qualities of his body.

13

3He who knows him who has no beginning and no end, in the midst of chaos, creating all things, having many forms, alone enveloping everything, is freed from all fetters.

14Those who know him who is to be grasped by the mind, who is not to be called the nest (the body 4), who makes existence and non-existence, the happy one (Siva), who also creates the elements 1, they have left the body.