Upanishads · Praśna 6.3
॥
Devanāgarī
स ईक्षां चक्रे ।
कस्मिन्न् अहम् उत्क्रान्त उत्क्रान्तो भविष्यामि कस्मिन् वा प्रतिष्ठिते प्रतिष्ठास्यामीति
Transliteration (IAST)
sa īkṣāṃ cakre |
kasminn aham utkrānta utkrānto bhaviṣyāmi kasmin vā pratiṣṭhite pratiṣṭhāsyāmīti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सःsaḥhe; this Puruṣa
ईक्षाम् चक्रेīkṣām cakremade a survey (īkṣā √kṛ — 'he thought with sight'); he conceived; he considered
कस्मिन्kasminin whom; in what
अहम्ahamI; I myself
उत्क्रान्तेutkrānteat [whose] going forth (ud-√kram); at [whose] departure; upon the going out
उत्क्रान्तः भविष्यामिutkrāntaḥ bhaviṣyāmiI shall be gone out; I shall depart
कस्मिन् वाkasmin vāor in whom; or with what
प्रतिष्ठितेpratiṣṭhitewith [whose] abiding (prati-√ṣṭhā); at [whose] establishment; while [he] abides
प्रतिष्ठास्यामि इतिpratiṣṭhāsyāmi iti'I shall stand established', thus; I shall abide
Translation
He thought: "With whose going out shall I go out? With whose abiding shall I abide?"
Version
b171a0eeb8ed · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
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The cosmogony of the sixth question begins — and it begins with a reflection: sa īkṣāṁ cakre — "He made a survey" (īkṣā is a look, a considering: creation begins with a seeing thought, not with an explosion). And the content of the thought is remarkable: kasminn aham utkrānta utkrānto bhaviṣyāmi — "with whose going out shall I go out? with whose abiding shall I abide?"
The Puruṣa considers to whom he shall entrust the representing of himself in creation: with the departure of what shall he depart, and with the abiding of what abide. The answer will be prāṇa (verse 63: "He created prāṇa" first) — the very one who in the parable of the second question proved her primacy by precisely this: with her going out all go out, with her abiding all abide (verse 20 — a word-for-word echo!). Now the source of that parable is visible: prāṇa holds the body because the Puruṣa chose her as his "representative" in the body; the king of the bees is himself appointed by the King.
So the threads of the whole Upaniṣad are drawn together: questions 2, 3 and 6 prove to be three views of one arrangement: the powers serve prāṇa (2), prāṇa is the Ātman's shadow (3), and here is the first source: the Puruṣa conceived prāṇa as the form of his own presence (6). The world is built of the One's nested representations — and therefore wherever there is life, there is the trace of His decision "to abide".