Upanishads · Kaṭha 5.1
॥
Devanāgarī
पुरम् एकादशद्वारम् अजस्यावक्रचेतसः ।
अनुष्ठाय न शोचति विमुक्तश् च विमुच्यते ॥
एतद् वै तत्
Transliteration (IAST)
puram ekādaśadvāram ajasyāvakracetasaḥ /
anuṣṭhāya na śocati vimuktaś ca vimucyate //
etad vai tat
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पुरम्puramthe city (pura — 'a town'); vigour; the city-abode
एकादशद्वारम्ekādaśadvāramwith eleven gates (ekādaśa-dvāra); eleven-gated; having eleven entrances
अजस्यajasyaof the Unborn (a-ja); belonging to the Unborn; of the Beginningless
अवक्रचेतसःavakracetasaḥof unswerving consciousness (a-vakra-cetas — 'of unbent thought'); straight in mind; whose light is not bent
अनुष्ठायanuṣṭhāyaruling, being established (anu-√ṣṭhā); having ordered [the city]; abiding in his governance
नnanot; no
शोचतिśocatigrieves; laments
विमुक्तःvimuktaḥfreed (vi-√muc); free; unbound
चcaand; as well as
विमुच्यतेvimucyateis freed; is wholly freed
एतत्etatthis; he
वैvaiverily; indeed
तत्tatthat; That
Translation
The city of eleven gates belongs to the Unborn, whose consciousness does not swerve. He who governs [in it] does not grieve; being freed, he is freed [utterly]. This, truly, is That.
Version
cee8ae8a9b6c · published Jul 26, 2026, 9:13:03 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
puram ekādaśa-dvāram — "a city with eleven gates": the body is a city; its gates are the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, the two lower exits, the navel and the brahma-randhra, the aperture of the crown (other reckonings give another eleven). The city is populous: the senses are its citizens, the mind its governor, the traffic of impressions its trade. But whose city is it? ajasya avakra-cetasaḥ — "the Unborn's, whose consciousness does not swerve" (avakra — "unbent": recall the "swerving sin" of the Īśa Upaniṣad's finale): the Owner of the city is a straight, unswerving light.
anuṣṭhāya — "governing [this city] / being established [in this knowledge]": he who lives in the body as the Unborn's viceroy — not as a slave of the crowd of citizens — na śocati — "does not grieve": the city's troubles cease to be his troubles, death's levy his ruin. vimuktaś ca vimucyate — "being freed, he is freed": already free within, at the fall of the walls he is free without too; death for such a man is not the destruction of a house but the viceroy's going out to the Sovereign.
The image of the city will return in the Gītā (5.13): nava-dvāre pure dehī — "in the nine-gated city the embodied one dwells happily, neither acting nor causing to act". Whether one counts nine gates or eleven, the city is one; what matters is not the number of gates but whether the dweller remembers in whose name he governs.