Upanishads · 1.12
॥
Devanāgarī
अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये ऽसम्भूतिम् उपासते ।
ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ सम्भूत्यां रताः
Transliteration (IAST)
andhaṃ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'sambhūtim upāsate |
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u sambhūtyāṃ ratāḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अन्धम्andhamblind; impenetrable; devoid of light
तमःtamaḥdarkness; gloom; ignorance
प्रविशन्तिpraviśantienter; sink into; arrive at
येyethose who; they who; the people who
असम्भूतिम्asambhūtimthe unmanifest; non-becoming (a-sam-√bhū); the impersonal unmanifested principle
उपासतेupāsateworship (upa-√ās — 'to sit near, to revere'); give themselves up to; serve
ततःtataḥthan that; than this; thereafter
भूयःbhūyaḥstill greater; deeper; more profound
इवivaas it were; as though; so to speak
तेtethey; those ones; such people
तमःtamaḥdarkness; gloom; ignorance
येyethose who; they who; the people who
उuon the other hand; by contrast; indeed
सम्भूत्याम्sambhūtyāmin the manifest; in what has come to be, what is born; in the manifested world and its rulers
रताःratāḥdelighting (from √ram — 'to take pleasure'); attached; immersed
Translation
Into blind darkness enter those who worship the unmanifest; but into greater darkness, as it were, those who delight in the manifest.
Version
8e23024fe730 · published Jul 26, 2026, 7:17:19 PM UTC
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The second triad (mantras 12–14) is built as an exact mirror of the first: the same blind darkness, the same "still greater" darkness, the same way out through conjunction. But the object of the distinction is now deeper: not the paths of life, but the objects of worship. asambhūti is "the unmanifest", "non-becoming": the unmanifested primal nature of the world, and ultimately the impersonal, formless and quality-less aspect of the Absolute. sambhūti is "the manifest", "that which has become": the world of forms and mighty beings, the cosmic rulers headed by the creator. He who worships the unmanifest alone enters blind darkness: having rejected the form, the qualities and the deeds of the Supreme, he has left his worship without anyone to worship, and it turns into a veneration of emptiness. But into a still greater darkness enter those intoxicated with the manifest alone: they have taken for the Supreme what is itself born and will die — power, dominion, the cosmos, the gods — and are doomed to share the fate of their deities.
The Bhagavad-gītā names the first deviation outright (7.24): avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ — "the unintelligent think that I, the unmanifest, have assumed manifestation", not knowing His higher, imperishable nature; and of the second it says (9.25): yānti deva-vratā devān — "those devoted to the gods go to the gods", that is, they remain within the mortal.
The distinction of this triad is subtler than that of the first: there, work and knowledge were tested; here, our very conceptions of the Divine. The Upaniṣad demands not merely that we believe, but that we know rightly Whom we worship.