Key words

The words that carry the hymn's ideas. Many of them go on to have long lives in later Indian thought.

satसत्: Being, what is. Paired with asat throughout Vedic and Upaniṣadic thought.
asatअसत्: Non-being, what is not. The hymn begins before even this existed.
tad ekamतदेकम्: “That One.” The hymn's only name for what was there: no god, no person, just a neuter ‘that’.
svadhāस्वधा: Own-power, inner nature: what moves by itself. The One breathes “by its svadhā”.
tapasतपस्: Heat, glow; later the inner heat of ascetic discipline and concentration. The One is born from it.
kāmaकाम: Desire, longing. In verse 4 it is the first thing to arise, “the first seed of mind”.
manasमनस्: Mind, the faculty of thought and intention.
retasरेतस्: Seed. Used twice: desire as the seed of mind, and the ‘seed-placers’ of verse 5.
bandhuबन्धु: Bond, kinship, connection. Later a technical word for hidden correspondences between the human and the cosmic.
kaviकवि: Poet-seer: one who sees and speaks. The kavis find the bond of being in non-being.
hṛdहृद्: The heart, the seat of insight in Vedic thought. The seers search there.
manīṣāमनीषा: Wisdom, insight, inspired thought.
raśmiरश्मि: A cord, a ray of light, a rein. Stretched across, it opens up below and above.
devaदेव: A god, literally ‘a shining one’. Verse 6: the gods came after creation.
visṛṣṭiविसृष्टि: Creation as emission, a pouring-forth, not a making from outside.
adhyakṣaअध्यक्ष: Overseer, the one who watches over. He surely knows, or perhaps not.
vyomanव्योमन्: Sky, the highest heaven, the vault above all.
rajasरजस्: The mid-air, the realm between earth and heaven.
salilaसलिल: Water; here the undifferentiated, signless flood before forms.
ṛṣiऋषि: Seer; the poets to whom Vedic hymns were revealed. Tradition names Prajāpati Parameṣṭhin as this hymn's ṛṣi.