सुकेशा च भारद्वाजः शैब्यश् च सत्यकामः सौर्यायणी च गार्ग्यः कौसल्यश् चाश्वलायनो भार्गवो वैदर्भिः कबन्धी कात्यायनस् ते हैते ब्रह्मपरा ब्रह्मनिष्ठा परं ब्रह्मान्वेषमाणा एष ह वै तत्सर्वं वक्ष्यतीति ते ह समित्पाणयो भगवन्तं पिप्पलादम् उपसन्नाः
sukeśā ca bhāradvājaḥ śaibyaś ca satyakāmaḥ sauryāyaṇī ca gārgyaḥ kausalyaś cāśvalāyano bhārgavo vaidarbhiḥ kabandhī kātyāyanas te haite brahmaparā brahmaniṣṭhā paraṃ brahmānveṣamāṇā eṣa ha vai tatsarvaṃ vakṣyatīti te ha samitpāṇayo bhagavantaṃ pippalādam upasannāḥ
Sukeśā Bhāradvāja, Śaibya Satyakāma, Sauryāyaṇī Gārgya, Kausalya Āśvalāyana, Bhārgava Vaidarbhi and Kabandhī Kātyāyana — devoted to Brahman, established in Brahman, seeking the supreme Brahman — came with firewood in their hands to the venerable Pippalāda: "He it is who will explain all this to us."
51bee92ef279 · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
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The Praśna Upaniṣad — "the Upaniṣad of questions" — opens with a portrait of the questioners, and therein lies its first lesson: before a question is heard, the questioner is shown. Six men are named, with their families and lines: knowledge here is not anonymous, it flows from face to face. And they are given a threefold description, each step higher than the last: brahma-parāḥ — "having made Brahman their supreme goal"; brahma-niṣṭhāḥ — "established in Brahman" (niṣṭhā is standing, fidelity to practice); paraṁ brahmānveṣamāṇāḥ — "seeking the supreme Brahman": they are already devoted, already practising — and still they seek the highest; spiritual hunger grows out of being fed, not out of emptiness.
samit-pāṇayaḥ — "with firewood in their hands": one detail worth a treatise on discipleship. Samidh is fuel for the teacher's sacred fire: he who comes brings not questions only but a readiness to serve; the outstretched sticks are an ancient gesture: "receive me — I have come not to take but to give myself." The Gītā (4.34) will name all three components of such an approach: praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā — "by prostration, by questioning, by service".
eṣa ha vai tat sarvaṁ vakṣyati — "he indeed will tell all this": six have converged upon one. Pippalāda is a seer whose name tradition links with the pippala, the sacred fig (that very aśvattha whose "root is above"): men come to the world-tree to ask about the root. So the whole cast of the Upaniṣad is assembled: six seekers, six questions — from the origin of creatures to the supreme Puruṣa — and one who answers, speaking out of what he has seen.