Upanishads · Praśna 3.10
॥
Devanāgarī
यच्चित्तस् तेनैष प्राणम् आयाति ।
प्राणस् तेजसा युक्तः सहात्मना यथा संकल्पितं लोकं नयति
Transliteration (IAST)
yaccittas tenaiṣa prāṇam āyāti |
prāṇas tejasā yuktaḥ sahātmanā yathā saṃkalpitaṃ lokaṃ nayati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यत्-चित्तःyat-cittaḥwhatever the consciousness is (yat-citta); with whatever intent; such as the citta is
तेनtenaby that; with that
एषःeṣaḥthis; she
प्राणम्prāṇamthe prāṇa; vital force
आयातिāyāticomes to; attains
प्राणःprāṇaḥthe prāṇa; vital force
तेजसा युक्तःtejasā yuktaḥjoined with heat (tejasā yukta); having harnessed the fire; in union with the tejas
सह आत्मनाsaha ātmanātogether with the Ātman; along with the soul; accompanying the Ātman
यथा संकल्पितम्yathā saṃkalpitamsuch as was intended (yathā-saṅkalpita); according to the design; after the bent of the will
लोकम्lokamthe world; dwelling
नयतिnayatileads it; directs
Translation
"With whatever consciousness [a man has], with that he comes to prāṇa; and prāṇa, joined with heat, together with the Ātman leads him to that world which was intended."
Version
223a83942555 · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The law of the passage in its pure form: yac-cittas tenaiṣa prāṇam āyāti — "with whatever consciousness (citta), with that he comes to prāṇa": at the hour of departure a man hands over to prāṇa not a last-minute prayer but the whole content of his consciousness as it has become over a lifetime. prāṇas tejasā yuktaḥ — prāṇa, having harnessed the heat of udāna, sahātmanā — "together with the Ātman" (the Master accompanies the soul in the passage too — she is not alone even in death!) — yathā-saṅkalpitaṁ lokaṁ nayati — "leads to the world such as was intended".
saṅkalpa — "design, the bent of the will" — is the very word with which the Kena (verse 31) named the presence of Brahman in the inner world. Whither the will inclined, thither prāṇa will carry: the after-death is the fulfilled design of a life. The Gītā (8.6) gives this law its classic form: yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram — "whatever state of being he remembers as he leaves the body, that he attains, coloured by that being".
Hence the whole of practice: not "to think of good things before death" (in the last hour the mind will not choose what it never chose in life), but day by day to direct the citta, to accumulate a luminous saṅkalpa-capital. Men die as they lived; prāṇa is an honest executor, not a judge: she carries a man where he has been laying the route all his life.