DharmSetu
Vedic · वैदिकMantra

Tad Vishnoh Paramam Padam

The wise always see that highest step of Vishnu, spread out like an eye in the sky. Rigveda 1.22.20.

Rigveda 1.22.20edition

Vishnu ·

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

तद्विष्णो॑ः पर॒मं प॒दं सदा॑ पश्यन्ति सू॒रय॑ः । दि॒वी॑व॒ चक्षु॒रात॑तम् ॥
tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṃ padaṃ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ divīva cakṣur ātatam

Read in another script

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

The wise always behold that highest step of Vishnu, spread out like an eye across the sky.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Gayatri metre — three lines of eight syllables, printed here as two. Divīva is divi + iva run together: "as in the sky". The ṣ of Viṣṇoḥ is retroflex, and the ṇ that follows it is too; the pair is a single conjunct.
Repetitions
11 · 108
Mala
tulsi
Time
brahma muhurta, sandhya
Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong
ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ
Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s
Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga)
A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara)
Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū
Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh
A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

तत्tat
that(nom./acc. sg. n.)MW1899-CDSL p.432
विष्णोःviṣṇoḥ
of Vishnu(gen. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.999
परमं पदम्paramaṃ padam
the highest step, the highest place
सदाsadā
alwaysMW1899-CDSL p.1139
पश्यन्तिpaśyanti
they behold(3rd pl. pres.)MW1899-CDSL p.491
सूरयःsūrayaḥ
the wise, the learned(nom. pl.)MW1899-CDSL p.1243
दिवि इवdivi iva
as in the sky
चक्षुः आततम्cakṣur ātatam
an eye stretched wide, spread out

Glosses are confirmed against a Sanskrit–English dictionary; the reference after each entry names the edition consulted.

Context

The oldest and best-known Vedic verse about Vishnu, and the source of the phrase paramaṃ padam — the highest step or highest place — which later Vaishnava theology takes as the name of Vishnu's own realm. In the Rigveda the image is still concrete: Vishnu is the god of three strides, and the third of them reaches somewhere the eye can only just follow. The simile in the second line, cakṣur ātatam, is of an eye stretched wide across the sky — most often read as the sun. The verse is recited in Vaishnava sandhya and in the Vishnu Sukta portion of temple liturgy.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda
Gayatri
devata
Vishnu

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Daily sandhyaDhyana (meditation)Avahana (invocation)

Classified as Vedic — From the Vedic corpus — Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka or Upanishad. Carries a rishi, a metre, and accent marking. Basis for this classification.

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