Upanishads · Praśna 2.3
॥
Devanāgarī
तान् वरिष्टः प्राण उवाच ।
मा मोहमापद्यथ, अहम् एवैतत् पञ्चधात्मानं प्रविभज्यैतद् बाणमवष्टभ्य विधारयामीति ।
ते ऽश्रद्दधाना बभूवुः
Transliteration (IAST)
tān variṣṭaḥ prāṇa uvāca |
mā mohamāpadyatha, aham evaitat pañcadhātmānaṃ pravibhajyaitad bāṇamavaṣṭabhya vidhārayāmīti |
te 'śraddadhānā babhūvuḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तान्tānto them; to them
वरिष्ठः प्राणःvariṣṭhaḥ prāṇaḥthe highest prāṇa; the chief life-force
उवाचuvācasaid; said
माmānot; may you not
मोहम् आपद्यथmoham āpadyathainto delusion (moha — 'bedazzlement'); into bewilderment; into error
अहम् एवaham evaI indeed; I alone
एतत्etatthis; it
पञ्चधाpañcadhāin five parts; fivefold
आत्मानम्ātmānamhimself; his own being
प्रविभज्यpravibhajyahaving divided (pra-vi-√bhaj); having distributed myself; having opened
एतत् बाणम्etat bāṇamthis body; this frame
अवष्टभ्यavaṣṭabhyahaving supported; having propped
विधारयामि इतिvidhārayāmi iti'I hold [it] up', thus; I sustain
तेtethey; those powers
अश्रद्दधानाःaśraddadhānāḥnot believing (a-śrad-dadhāna); wanting in trust; having fallen into doubt
बभूवुःbabhūvuḥthey became; they proved
Translation
To them prāṇa, the highest, said: "Do not fall into delusion: it is I who, having divided myself in five, hold this stalk upright, bracing it." But they did not believe.
Version
547417f88a1e · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
variṣṭhaḥ prāṇaḥ — "prāṇa, the best" — answers the quarrel with a mild warning: mā moham āpadyatha — "do not fall into bedazzlement": a dispute over precedence without knowledge of the First is self-deception. aham evaitat pañcadhātmānaṁ pravibhajya — "I, having divided myself in five" — into prāṇa, apāna, samāna, udāna and vyāna (the third question will map them) — "hold this stalk up". The life-force does not contend for a place in the list: it declares itself to be that by which the list is held.
te 'śraddadhānā babhūvuḥ — "they did not believe": a most exact stroke. The faculties cannot see prāṇa — the eye does not see life, the ear does not hear it; each power perceives only its own object and therefore sincerely disbelieves in what is not its object. So disbelief is often not rigour of mind but the blindness of specialization: the instrument denies what it has no receptor for.
śraddhā — faith — again stands at the threshold of knowledge (by it Naciketas entered the truth, and Pippalāda demanded it for a year): those who did not believe will get not a lecture but an experience — prāṇa will "half-rise", and the world of the faculties will reel. The proof of life is furnished in one way only: by its ebbing.