Upanishads · Praśna 3.9
॥
Devanāgarī
तेजो ह वा उदानः ।
तस्माद् उपशान्ततेजाः ।
पुनर्भवम् इन्द्रियैर् मनसि संपद्यमानैः
Transliteration (IAST)
tejo ha vā udānaḥ |
tasmād upaśāntatejāḥ |
punarbhavam indriyair manasi saṃpadyamānaiḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तेजः ह वाtejaḥ ha vāradiance indeed; the fiery power truly
उदानःudānaḥudāna (the ascending breath); the up-leading current; the carrying-out force
तस्मात्tasmāttherefore; for that reason
उपशान्ततेजाःupaśāntatejāḥhe whose heat has died down (upaśānta-tejas); with the fire subsided; grown cold
पुनर्भवम्punarbhavamto a new birth (punar-bhava — 'becoming again'); to re-embodiment; to a new existence
इन्द्रियैःindriyaiḥwith the senses; with the organs
मनसिmanasiin the mind; in the manas
संपद्यमानैःsaṃpadyamānaiḥsinking in (sam-√pad — 'to come together into'); gathering; flowing in
Translation
"Udāna indeed is [fiery] heat. Therefore he whose heat has died down [goes] to a new birth — with his senses sunk into the mind."
Version
7809ad90bb65 · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
tejo ha vā udānaḥ — "udāna is tejas", the vital heat: the ascending breath is fed by the inner fire, and its dying out is the sign of the end: upaśānta-tejāḥ — "he whose heat has subsided" (the Upaniṣad speaks of death with a physician's precision: the cooling body is the departing udāna).
punar-bhavam indriyair manasi sampadyamānaiḥ — "[he goes] to a new becoming, with the senses gathering into the mind": before the departure the outer powers fold inward: the eye ceases to see, the ear to hear, and all of them, like rays into the setting sun (the image of the coming fourth question), fold into the mind. The dying man does not leave empty: he carries away a mind loaded with the sum of the senses — the seed of a new body.
punar-bhava — "becoming again" — is named here as matter-of-factly as a medical outcome: death with desires unextinguished naturally continues in a new birth, as a battery gone cold but not discharged calls for a new device. There is no drama — there is a physics of consciousness; and there is a quiet conclusion: if birth follows the state of mind at the departure, then the art of dying is the art of the mind's contents — of which the next verse speaks directly.