In whom all beings have become just the Self of the discerner — then what delusion, what sorrow is there, of him who perceives the unity!
-
By the Lord (Īśā) enveloped must this all be —
Whatever moving thing there is in the moving world.
With this renounced, thou mayest enjoy.
Covet not the wealth of any one at all. -
Even while doing deeds here,
One may desire to live a hundred years.
Thus on thee — not otherwise than this is it —
The deed (karman) adheres not on the man. -
Devilish (asurya) are those worlds called,
With blind darkness (tamas) covered o'er!
Unto them, on deceasing, go
Whatever folk are slayers of the Self. -
Unmoving, the One (ekam) is swifter than the mind.
The sense-powers (deva) reached not It, speeding on before.
Past others running, This goes standing.
In It Mātarishvan places action. -
It moves. It moves not.
It is far, and It is near.
It is within all this,
And It is outside of all this. -
Now, he who on all beings
Looks as just (eva) in the Self (Ātman),
And on the Self as in all beings —
He does not shrink away from Him. -
In whom all beings
Have become just (eva) the Self of the discerner —
Then what delusion (moha), what sorrow (śoka) is there,
Of him who perceives the unity! -
He has environed. The bright, the bodiless, the scatheless,
The sinewless, the pure (śuddha), unpierced by evil (a-pāpa-viddha)!
Wise, intelligent (manīṣin), encompassing (paribhu), self-existent (svayambhu),
Appropriately he distributed objects (artha) through the eternal years. -
Into blind darkness enter they
That worship ignorance;
Into darkness greater than that, as it were, they
That delight in knowledge. -
Other, indeed, they say, than knowledge!
Other, they say, than non-knowledge —
Thus we have heard from the wise (dhīra)
Who to us have explained It. -
Knowledge and non-knowledge —
He who this pair conjointly (saha) knows,
With non-knowledge passing over death,
With knowledge wins the immortal. -
Into blind darkness enter they
Who worship non-becoming (a-sambhūti),
Into darkness greater than that, as it were, they
Who delight in becoming (sambhūti). -
Other, indeed — they say — than origin (sambhava)!
Other — they say — than non-origin (a-sambhava)!
Thus have we heard from the wise
Who to us have explained It. -
Becoming (sambhūti) and destruction (vināśa) —
He who this pair conjointly (saha) knows,
With destruction passing over death,
With becoming wins the immortal. -
With a golden vessel
The Real's face is covered o'er.
That do thou, O Pūshan, uncover
For one whose law is the Real to see. -
O Nourisher (Pūshan), the sole Seer (ekarṣi), O Controller (yatrin), O Sun (Sūrya), offspring of Prajāpati, spread forth thy rays! Gather thy brilliance (tejas)! What is thy fairest form — that of thee I see. He who is yonder, yonder Person (Puruṣa) — I myself am he!
-
[My] breath (vāyu) to the immortal wind (anila)!
This body then ends in ashes! Oṁ!
O Purpose (kratu), remember! The deed (krit) remember!
O Purpose, remember! The deed remember! -
O Agni, by a goodly path to prosperity lead us,
Thou god who knowest all the ways!
Keep far from us crooked-going sin (enas)!
Most ample expression of adoration to thee would we render!
Colophon
Source: Sanskrit (White Yajur-Veda, Vājasaneyī-Saṃhitā, Chapter 40; oral and manuscript tradition, ~7th–5th century BCE)
Translation: Hume, Robert Ernest. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads Translated from the Sanskrit. Oxford University Press, 1921. Public domain.
Scribal Formatting: Nārada (Translator-01), 2026-04-24. Transcribed and formatted from the DjVu OCR scan of Hume's 1921 edition (Internet Archive identifier: in.ernet.dli.2015.88708). OCR artifacts corrected; Hume's scholarly parenthetical glosses (karman, Ātman, etc.) preserved as they illuminate key Sanskrit concepts. Hume's section-heading apparatus omitted per archival convention — verses presented clean and numbered. First archival presentation of this translation in the Good Works Library.
🌲