The Svetasvatara Upanishad belongs to the Taittiriya school of the Yajur Veda.

Its name is
derived from the sage who taught it. (1). It is theistic in character and identifies the
SupremeBrahman with Rudra who is conceived as the material and the efficient cause of
the world, not only the author of the world but its protector and guide. The elements
associated with theism, Personal God and devotion to Him, which are to be met with
undoubtedly in the other Upanishads, become prominent in theSvetasvatara Upanishad.

The emphasis is not on Brahman the Absolute, whose complete perfection does not admit
of any change or evolution but on the personalIsvara, omniscient and omnipotent who is the
manifested Brahma.

Terms which were used by the later Samkhya philosophy occur in the Upanishad, but the
dualism of the Samkhya, purusa and prakrti, is overcome. Nature or pradhana, is not an
independent entity but belongs to the self of the Divine, devatma-sakti God is the mayin, the
maker of the world which is maya or made by him. (2).

The Upanishad teaches the unity of the souls and world in the one Supreme Reality. The
Upanishad is an attempt to reconcile the different philosophical and religious views, which
prevailed at the time of its composition.

1. sveta, pure, asva, indriyas, senses. Samkarananda : literally, he who has a white mult.
Cp. Jarad-gavah, he who has an old cow.
2. Mayi srjate sarvam etat.

Svetasvatara Upanisad

Chapter One

1. OM. Scholars of Brahman say:

What is the cause-brahman? From what were we born?
By what do we live? And on what are we based?
Ruled by what do we follow our course
In joys and their opposite, you knowers of brahman?

2. Should we conceive of it as time, own nature, fate, or chance,

Elements, a womb, a person?
A conjunction these? No, because of the existence of the self:
And the self is powerless over the cause of joy and sorrow.

3. Those who have followed method of meditation.

Have seen the god’s own power, hidden by his own strands
Who, one, rules over all those causes
From ‘time’ to ‘self’.

4. As a wheel with one rim, three years, and sixteen

Half a hundred spokes, twenty counter-spokes, Six eights, one rope that takes every shape,
Three different roads, and one illusion with two causes:

5. As a river with five streams we know it, wild and

Winding, with five sources,
Five whirlpools whirling with the power of the five sufferings,
Fifty divisions, with five section each.

6. In this mighty wheel of brahman, life-giver to all, rest to all

Roves a goose. Once it knows itself (atman) and the impeller to be different,
Then, finding favour with him, it attains immortality.

7. In song it has been called the supreme Brahman.

In it are the triad, the good support and the imperishable.
Knowing it and merging into brahman,
Knowers of brahman, intent upon it, are freed from the womb.

8. The powerful one bears the whole, united,

Perishable and imperishable, manifest and unmanifest.
The self, powerless, is bound through its being an enjoyer.
Once it knows the god, it is freed from all bonds.

9. There are two billy goats, knower and unknowing,

Powerful and powerless;
One nanny goat, yoked to the enjoyer and the
Objects of enjoyment;
And the infinite self, possessing all forms, not an actor.
When one finds the triad, this is brahman.

10. Primal matter is perishable; the taker is the immortal imperishable:

One god has power over both perishable and self.
Through meditation on him, through practice,
Through his begin entity (tattva) and more, in the end the whole artifice (maya) ceases.

11. When one knows the god, all bonds are cast of;
When the afflictions have faded away birth and death are ended;
Through meditation on him, there arises a third state:
On the break-up of the body, lordship over all; absolute, one attains one’s desires.

12. One must know the eternal which rests in the self:
There is nothing beyond this to be known.
When the enjoyer knows the object of enjoyment and the impeller,
Everything has been said. This is the threefold brahman

13. As when fire is in its source, its form is not seen, Nor yet is the mark of it destroyed,
And it may be got again from its source, the kindling stick,
So both can be got in the body by the OM (pranava).

14. Making one’s own body the lower fire-stick

And the OM the upper fire-stick,
By practising the friction of meditation,
One may see the god in hiding.

15. Like oil in sesame seeds, butter in curds,

Water in river beds, and fire in fire-sticks,
Self is found in self
For the one who seeks it by truth and asceticism.

16. The self that pervades everything.

As butter is contained in milk-
The root of self-knowledge and asceticism-
Is the supreme inner teaching of brahman:

Chapter Two

1. Savitr, first yoking mind,

Yoking thoughts for truth (tattva),
Discerning the light of Agni
Brought it up from earth.

2. We, with mind yoked,

Under the inspiration of the god Savitr,
By his power, for the heavenly world.

3. Having yoked by mind the heaven-going gods

That go by thought to the sky,
May svitr inspire them
To make a great light.

4. The poets of the great inspired poet

Yoke mind and yoke thousands.
The one knower of yoke thoughts.
The one knower of ways has assigned the Hotr’s tasks.
Great is the praise of the god Savitr.

5. I yoke your ancient lore (brahman) with praises.

Let my verse go on the hero’s path.
May all the sons of the immortal, who have reached
The divine abodes, hear.

6. Where fire is kindled,

Where wind arises,
Where Soma overflows,
Mind appears.

7. With Savitr as inspirer

One should take delight in the ancient lore:
There make your source.
Your good deeds have not perished.

8. Keeping the body straight, its three parts upright,

Causing the senses by mind to enter the heart,
By the boat of brahman the wise one should cross over
All the terrifying floods.

9. Suppressing the bodily functions (prana), movements controlled,

His breath (brana) light, he should breath through the nose:
The wise one, heedful, should control the mind
As a chariot yoked to bad horses.

10. In a level, clean place, free from gravel, gravel, fire and sand,
With soundless water, a dwelling and so on,
Pleasing to the mind and not harsh on the eye,
Secret and sheltered from the wind, one should practise yoga.

11. Forms of mist, smoke, sun, wind, fire, Fireflies, lighting, crystal, or moon,
Are harbingers in yoga
Which bring manifestations in brahman.

12. When earth, water, fire, air and space have arisen
And the fivefold strand of yoga has come forth,
One has neither disease nor old age nor death,
Having won a body made of the fire of yoga.

13. Lightness, freedom from disease, steadiness,

Clarity of complexion, sweetness of voice,
A pleasant smell, little urine or excrement,
Tell of the first arising of yoga.

14. Just as a mirror smeared with dirt,

Once cleaned, shines, being bright,
The embodied, seeing the entity of self,
Becomes one, his aim fulfilled, freed from sorrow.

15. But when, concentrated, one sees here, by the entity of self,
As by a lamp, the entity of brahman,
Knowing the god as unborn, constant, free of all entities,
One is free form all bonds.

16. The god faces all directions:

He was born of old and yet is in the womb,
Born and to be born, he stands
In front of people, facing every way.

17. To the god who is in fire, in water,

Who has entered the whole world,
Who is in plants, in trees-
To the god be praise, be praise.

Chapter Three

1. There is one who bears a net, who rules with his powers.
Who rules all worlds with his powers,
Who is one in arising and ceasing.
Those who know this become immortal.

2. Rudra is the one they do not give place to a second-

Who rules the worlds with his powers.
He stands in front of people. Protector of all worlds,
At the ending-time he has drawn them in again.

3. Eyes on every side and faces on every side,

Arms on every side and feet on every side,
With his arms and his wings he forges them,
One god begetting sky and earth.

4. May Rudra, overlord of all, great Rsi,

The source and origin of the gods,
Who of old begot the golden embryo,
Yoke us with clear intelligence.

5. Mountain-dweller Rudra,
With that gracious (siva) form of yours,
Not terrifying nor evil-appearing, but most healing,
Gaze on us always.

6. Mountain-dweller, make gracious (siva)

The arrow that you hold in your hand to shoot:
Mountain-protector, do not injure
Man or moving thing.

7. Higher than that is the supreme Brahman.

Knowing that powerful one, the great,
Hidden in all beings according to their bodies,
One enveloping all, folk become immortal.

8. I know this great person,

Sun-coloured, beyond darkness.
Knowing him, one goes beyond death:
There is no other path by which to go.
9. All this is filled by the person,
The one, who stands in the sky, firm as a tree.
There is nothing higher or lower than he,
No one smaller or larger.

10. That which is far higher than that

Is formless, without disease:
Those who know it become immortal.
The rest go on to suffering.

11. Possessing all faces, heads and necks,

Living in the secret depth of al beings,
The blessed one is all-pervading:
Therefore he is the omnipresent gracious one (siva).

Chapter Four

1. May the one god who, his purpose hidden, through

The yoking of his power in many ways,
Colourless, disposes many colours,
And gathers all together at the end and the beginning,
Yoke us with clear intelligence.

2.That is fire, that is the sun,

That is air, that is the moon likewise:
That is the pure, that is brahman,
That is water, that is Prajapati.

3.You are woman, you are man,

You are youth and maiden too.
Aged, you hobble along with a stick:
New born, you have faces on every side.

4. You are the dark blue moth and the green with red eyes,
The one who is pregnant with lightning, the
Seasons, and the seas;
By all-pervasion you go on without beginning,
You from whom all worlds are born.

5. With the nanny goat, red, white and black,

Who brings forth many offspring like herself,
Lies one billy goat, taking pleasure.
The other billy goat abandons her, who has had her enjoyment.

6.Two birds, companions and friends,

Cling to the same tree.
One of them eats the sweet pippala berry:
The other looks on, without eating.

7. In he same tree a man (purusa) is plunged.

Deluded, he grieves from powerlessness (anisa):
When he sees the other, powerful one (isa), content,
Sees his greatness, he is freed from sorrow.

8. To one who does not know the supreme syllable

In which, in heaven, all the gods have taken their seats,
What use is the Rgveda?
But those who know it are assembled here.
9. From it the artificer (mayin) sends forth all this:
Metres, sacrifices, rites and vows,
What has been, what is to be, and what the Vedas teach.
The other is trapped in it by the artifice.

10. One should know nature (prakrti) as the artifice,

The great lord as the artificer,
And the whole world as pervaded
By beings that are parts of him.

11. By discerning the one who stands over every womb,

In whom all this is gathered together,
The lord, the boon-granter, the worshipful god,
One attains surpassing peace.

12. May Rudra, the overlord, the great Rsi,

Who is the source and origin of the gods,
Who saw the golden embryo being born,
Yoke us with clear intelligence.

13. Overlord of the gods

On whom the worlds depend,
Who rules over his two-footed and four-footed ones,
To which god shall we make our offering?

14. Knowing him, subtler than the subtle in the midst of the throng,
Many-formed creator of all,
One enfolder of all, Siva,
One attains surpassing peace.

15. He is the protector of the world in time,

Overlord of all, hidden in all beings,
To whom are yoked the Rsis of Brahma and the deities.
Knowing him, one cuts the bonds of death.

16. Knowing him, Siva, hidden in all beings

Like a subtler distillation than clarified butter,
The god, the one enfolder of al,
One is free from all bonds.

17. The one god, all-maker, magnanimous,

Always dwelling in the heart of beings,
Shaped by the heat, the intelligence, the mind:
Those who know this become immortal.

18. When there is no darkness, there is neither day nor night,

Neither being nor not-being, just Siva, absolute.
That is the imperishable: that is the lovely glory of Savitr
The ancient wisdom came forth from that.

19. No one has grasped him, above,

Across, or in the middle.
There is no likeness of him
Whose name is ‘great glory’

20. His form is not accessible to the sight:

No one sees him with the eye.
Those who, with heart and mind,
See him dwelling in the heart become immortal.

21. Afraid, someone takes refuge

In you, as ‘unborn’.
Rudra, with that propitious face of yours
Protect me always.

22. Do not hurt us in child or grandchild,

In life, in cows or horses:
Rudra, do not in anger slay our heroes.
We invoke you always, bringing offerings."

Chapter Five

1. In the imperishable, infinite supreme Brahman

Two are kept in a secret place, knowledge and ignorance.
Ignorance is the perishable, knowledge the immortal:
But the one who rules knowledge and ignorance is
Different again-

2. The one who stands over every womb,

All forms and all wombs,
Who carries the Rsi Kapila, first begotten, in his thoughts
And can see him being born.

3. The god spreads out net after net, in many ways,

And draws them together in this field.
When the Yatis and thus the lord-have created again,
The magnanimous one becomes overlord of all.

4. As the draught-ox shines, lighting all regions,

Above, below and across,
The one blessed, lovely god
Rules over those who have the nature of the womb.

5. One who, womb of all, ripens his own nature,

Stands over all this whole,
To mature all that is to be ripened,
To assign all strands.

6. Brahma knows it as the womb of brahman,

That which is hidden in the Upanisads that are hidden in the Vedas.
The gods and Rsis who knew it of old,
Becoming of a kind with it, became immortal.

7. The one with the strands, doer of actions which bring fruit,
Is the experiencer of that act.
In all forms, with three strands, with three paths,
The overlord of the breaths wanders according to his own actions.

8. With a form like the sun, he is a thumb in length,

When possessing intention and the sense of ‘I’
With just the strand of understanding and the strand of self
He seems in length the lesser point of a spoke.

9. The life (jiva) should be known as a fraction

Of the hundredth part of a hair-tip
A hundredfold divided-
Yet it is fitted for infinity.

10. It is neither female nor male,

Nor is it neuter.
It is guarded by whatever body
It takes on.
11. By intention, touch, sight and passion
And the rain of food and water, the self grows and is born.
Embodied, it takes in succession to different forms
In different places in accordance with its action.

12. Through its own strands, the embodied

Chooses many shapes, gross and subtle.
Because of the strands of actions and the strands of self,
The cause of their joining seems to be another.

13. Knowing the god, beginningless, endless, in the midst of the throng,
Many-formed creator of all,
Enfolder of all,
One is freed from all bonds.

14. Those who know him, to be found through being,

‘nestless’ by name,
Siva, maker of being and not-being,
The god, maker of the creation of parts,
Have left the body behind.

Chapter Six

1. Some poets speak of own nature,

Others, likewise, of time-being deluded.
It is the greatness of the god in the world
By which he wheel of Brahman is made to turn.

2. Directed by him the work unfolds

Which is thought of as earth, water, fire, air and space:
Him by whom all this is ever enfolded,
Who is knower, time-maker, possessor of the strands, all-wise.

3. He did the work and ceased from it again,

Then entered union with the entity (tattva) of entity.
By one, by two, by three, by eight,
By time and by the subtle strands of self.

4. Since he undertook the works which are endowed with strands,

So as to apportion all existences,
In their absence, the work which has been done disappears:
When the work perishes, he goes on, being other than entity.

5. He is seen a the beginning, the efficient cause of union,

Beyond the three times, without fractions-
When one first contemplates in one’s own heart
That worshipful god, of all forms, who has become whatever is.

6. He is higher and other than the appearances of time

He form whom this proliferation evolves-
When one knows him in the self, as bringer of dharma,
Averter of evil, lord of happiness, immortal, abode of all.

7. Let us know him as supreme, great lord of Lords,

Supreme deity of deities,
Supreme master of masters, beyond,
The god, worshipful lord of the world.

8. For him there exists nothing to b done and no organ of action.

His equal or superior cannot be seen.
His supreme power is revealed to be manifold.
The action of knowledge and strength is his by nature.

9. He has no master in the world,

No ruler nor any mark:
He is the cause, the overlord of overlords of action:
He has no begetter, nor any overlord.

10. May the one god

Who, spider-like, from his own nature
Enfolds himself with threads produced from primal matter
Ordain for us entry into Brahman:

11. The one god hidden in all beings,

All pervading, within the self of all,
Overseer of deeds, dwelling in all beings,
Witness, watcher, absolute, without strands.

12. The wise who see him in the self,

The one controlling the many inactive ones,
Who makes the one seed into many,
Have everlasting happiness: no others do.

13. Knowing the god, the cause, approachable through Sankhya and Yoga,
Permanent among the impermanent, thinker among thinkers,
One among many, who disposes desires,
One is released from all bonds.

14. The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and stars.
Lightning does not shine there, let alone fire.
Everything reflects his shining.
Everything is lit by his light.

15. He is the one goose in the midst of the world:

He is the fire dwelling in the water.
Knowing him, one goes beyond death:
There is no other path by which to go.

16. All-making, all-knowing, source of the self,

Who is knower, time-maker, possessor of the strands, all-wise,
Lord of primal matter and of the conscious mind, ruler of strands,
Cause of samsara and moksa, stability and bondage.

17. He who rules this world for ever

Is of such a kind, immortal, resting as the lord,
Knower, omnipresent, protector of this world.
No other cause can be found to rule.