Mandukya Upanishad 1 — Verse 1

Sanskrit (Devanagari)

ॐ इत्येतदक्षरमिदं सर्वं तस्योपव्याख्यानं भूतं भवद् भविष्यदिति सर्वमोङ्कार एव । यच्चान्यत् त्रिकालातीतं तदप्योङ्कार एव ॥१॥

Padapatha (Word Split)

ॐ । इति । एतत् । अक्षरम् । इदम् । सर्वम् । तस्य । उपव्याख्यानम् । भूतम् । भवत् । भविष्यत् । इति । सर्वम् । ओङ्कारः । एव । यत् । च । अन्यत् । त्रि-काल-अतीतम् । तत् । अपि । ओङ्कारः । एव ॥

IAST Transliteration

oṃ ity etad akṣaram idaṃ sarvaṃ tasyopavyākhyānaṃ bhūtaṃ bhavad bhaviṣyad iti sarvam oṅkāra eva | yac cānyat trikālātītaṃ tad apy oṅkāra eva ||1||

Translation

„Om“ — diese Silbe ist all dies. Ihre weitere Auslegung lautet: Was vergangen, gegenwärtig und zukünftig ist — wahrlich alles das — ist allein Om. Und was sonst noch jenseits der drei Zeiten ist, das ist ebenfalls allein Om.

Academic Translation

‘Oṃ’—this syllable is all this. Its further explanation is: whatever is past, present, and future—indeed all that—is only Oṃ. And whatever else is beyond the three times, that too is only Oṃ.

Verse Context

• Oṃ as the totality (sarva) and as the indicator (pratīka) of Brahman/Ātman; time and the timeless (trikāla and trikālātīta)
• Mahavakya: Supports the mahāvākya ‘ayam ātmā brahma’ (explicit in mantra 2) by establishing Oṃ as the comprehensive designation of reality; also aligns with ‘prajnānam brahma’ insofar as Oṃ points to the ground of all experience.
• Atharva
• Atharva-veda (Śaunaka tradition; commonly transmitted as part of the Atharva corpus) Shakha
• Chandas: Prose