Upanishads · Kaṭha 2.6
॥
Devanāgarī
न साम्परायः प्रतिभाति बालं प्रमाद्यन्तं वित्तमोहेन मूढम् ।
अयं लोको नास्ति पर इति मानी पुनः पुनर् वशम् आपद्यते मे
Transliteration (IAST)
na sāmparāyaḥ pratibhāti bālaṃ pramādyantaṃ vittamohena mūḍham /
ayaṃ loko nāsti para iti mānī punaḥ punar vaśam āpadyate me
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नnanot; no
साम्परायःsāmparāyaḥthe passage (sāmparāya — 'the road beyond death'); what lies beyond death; the departure to come
प्रतिभातिpratibhātidawns (prati-√bhā — 'to appear, to shine'); becomes clear; comes to mind
बालम्bālamto the immature; to the childish in understanding
प्रमाद्यन्तम्pramādyantamto the heedless (pra-√mad — 'to be negligent'); to the distracted; to the frivolous
वित्तमोहेनvittamohenaby the bedazzlement of wealth (vitta-moha); by the blindness of affluence; by the spell of possessions
मूढम्mūḍhamto the deluded; to the bewildered
अयम्ayamthis; the present
लोकःlokaḥthe world; the earthly life
नnanot; no
अस्तिastiam; exists
परःparaḥanother; the transcendent
इतिitithus; so thinking
मानीmānīthe presumptuous (from √man — 'to imagine'); the self-assured; the proud man
पुनः पुनःpunaḥ punaḥagain and again; again and again
वशम्vaśaminto the power; into subjection; under the hand
आपद्यतेāpadyatefalls into; comes
मेmemy; to me
Translation
"To the immature, the heedless, the man blinded by the bedazzlement of wealth, the passage does not dawn: 'this world alone is, there is no other,' he deems — and again and again he falls into my power."
Version
f261c723f3e1 · published Jul 26, 2026, 9:13:03 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
na sāmparāyaḥ pratibhāti bālam — "to the immature the passage does not dawn": sāmparāya is that very "great passage" from Naciketas's question (verse 29); pratibhāti — "does not glimmer, does not appear": the after-death reality is not so much rejected as never entering his mind, never coming into view. Three causes are named in a row: bāla — immaturity (the childishness of adults), pramādyan — heedlessness (pramāda, the distraction that the ascetics of the spirit counted a mortal sin), vitta-moha — the bedazzlement of wealth.
ayaṁ loko nāsti para iti mānī — "'this world is, there is no other' — so he deems": three thousand years before our present disputes the Upaniṣad formulated the creed of materialism — and laid bare its root: not observation, not argument, but mānī — self-conceit, the pride that is flattered to have no one above it.
punaḥ punar vaśam āpadyate me — "again and again he falls into my power". It is Death who speaks — and with what calm irony: he who denies the other world is not freed from the other world; he merely visits me on an unlimited pass. Disbelief in the passage does not abolish the passage; it abolishes the preparation for it. So faith and unbelief are asymmetrical: the believer prepares and may perhaps be free; the unbeliever does not prepare — and arrives for certain.