Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Why we translate sankrit word sah (which generally means He) as myself in the isopanishad mantra 16?

In any other of the principal upanishads is it mentioned that Supreme God is impersonal or I am that Purusha etc.

saH is sometimes means life-air as explained by Baladeva Vidyabhusana in his comments to Vedanta Sutra. The translation of the verse of Iso.16 will not change. Upanisads are giving normally a Brahman aspect of God, "Brahman, Param'e4tm'e4 and Bhagav'e4n are qualitatively one and the same. The same substance is realized as impersonal Brahman by the students of the Upanisads, as localized Param'e4tm'e4 by the Hiranyagarbhas or the yogis, and as Bhagav'e4n by the devotees."

Found a decent explanation -- it is in Madhvas explanation of this line (with he takes out as a separate sloka 17)

Transl: That Perfect Being, who exists in all symbols including Mukhya Prana, the god of Life, and who cannot be avoided (by anyone ever), is the very essence of being (for myself and for everyone else).

Comment: It is not possible to explain this line as expressing identity of the individual with the Supreme, as the word asmi uses the lat pratyaya and would need to express identity in the present tense, per the rule of Panini, vartamane lat (Astadhyayi 3.2.123), a sense that is not proposed even by the non-dualists.

> Why we translate sankrit word sah (which generally means He) as myself in the isopanishad mantra 16?

reply from Dravida P.:

Mistake on editors part. Srila Prabhupadas original wbw:

sah -- He; aham -- myself; asmi -- I am.

So it is typo then, it is in both 1974 edition in 2003 vedabase.