Upanishads · Chāndogya 1,4.3
॥
Devanāgarī
तान् उ तत्र मृत्युः यथा मत्स्यम् उदके परिपश्येत् एवम् पर्यपश्यत् ऋचि साम्नि यजुषि ते नु वित्त्वा ऊर्ध्वाः ऋचः साम्नः यजुषः स्वरम् एव प्राविशन्
Transliteration (IAST)
tān u tatra mṛtyuḥ yathā matsyam udake paripaśyet evam paryapaśyat ṛci sāmni yajuṣi te nu vittvā ūrdhvāḥ ṛcaḥ sāmnaḥ yajuṣaḥ svaram eva prāviśan
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तान्tānof them; those
उusurely; indeed
तत्रtatrathere; in this
मृत्युःmṛtyuḥdeath; Mṛtyu
यथाyathāhow; like
मत्स्यम्matsyama fish (matsya); the fish; a fish [in the water]
उदकेudakein the water; in the water
परिपश्येत्paripaśyethe would see; he would notice
एवम्evamthus; in this way
पर्यपश्यत्paryapaśyatshe descried (pari-√paś — 'to spy out all round'); she made out; she discovered
ऋचिṛciin the ṛc; in the hymn
साम्निsāmniin the sāman; in the chant
यजुषिyajuṣiin the yajus; in the sacrificial formula
तेteto you; for you
नुnusurely; is it that
वित्त्वाvittvāhaving learned (from √vid); having understood; having found out
ऊर्ध्वाःūrdhvāḥrisen above (ūrdhva); upward [from]; above
ऋचःṛcaḥthe ṛcs; the hymns of the Ṛg-veda
साम्नःsāmnaḥthe samāna; of the chant
यजुषःyajuṣaḥout of the yajus; from the sacrificial formula
स्वरम्svaramsound, tone (svara); the sounding; the svara
एवevaindeed; surely
प्राविशन्prāviśanentered; stepped in
Translation
But death espied them there — in the ṛc, in the sāman, in the yajus — as one espies a fish in the water. Learning this, they rose above the ṛc, the sāman and the yajus, and entered into sound [svara].
Version
fb6b220d1c67 · published Jul 26, 2026, 10:28:09 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The failure of the hiding-place: tān u tatra mṛtyuḥ… paryapaśyat — "death espied them there": yathā matsyam udake — "as a fish in the water": an image of merciless transparency: to death's eye the rites and texts are clear water, and those hidden in them are as visible as fish in a shallow: everything made and composed is see-through and mortal.
te nu vittvā — "they, having learned it" (that the shelter was seen through) — ūrdhvā ṛcaḥ sāmno yajuṣaḥ — "rose above the ṛc, the sāman, the yajus" — svaram eva prāviśan — "and entered into the svara": into pure sound, into the tone that crowns every verse — into Oṁ. Salvation was found not in the texts but above them: not in what is composed of syllables but in the syllable of which all is composed. Death reads all the books; the one thing it cannot read is that by which the book itself is read — the ground-sound. So the gods' parable repeats the fate of the asuras in khaṇḍa 2: both evil and death are powerless against the indivisible.