तस्य क्व मूलम् स्यात् अन्यत्र अद्भ्यः अद्भिः सोम्य शुङ्गेन तेजः मूलम् अन्विच्छ तेजसा सोम्य शुङ्गेन सत् मूलम् अन्विच्छ सन्मूलाः सोम्य इमाः सर्वाः प्रजाः सदायतनाः सत्प्रतिष्ठाः यथा नु खलु सोम्य इमाः तिस्रः देवताः पुरुषम् प्राप्य त्रिवृत् त्रिवृत् एकैका भवति तत् उक्तम् पुरस्तात् एव भवति अस्य सोम्य पुरुषस्य प्रयतः वाक् मनसि संपद्यते मनः प्राणे प्राणः तेजसि तेजः परस्याम् देवतायाम्
tasya kva mūlam syāt anyatra adbhyaḥ adbhiḥ somya śuṅgena tejaḥ mūlam anviccha tejasā somya śuṅgena sat mūlam anviccha sanmūlāḥ somya imāḥ sarvāḥ prajāḥ sadāyatanāḥ satpratiṣṭhāḥ yathā nu khalu somya imāḥ tisraḥ devatāḥ puruṣam prāpya trivṛt trivṛt ekaikā bhavati tat uktam purastāt eva bhavati asya somya puruṣasya prayataḥ vāk manasi saṃpadyate manaḥ prāṇe prāṇaḥ tejasi tejaḥ parasyām devatāyām
And where is its root, if not in the waters? The waters are a shoot, seek their root in heat; heat is a shoot, seek its root in Being. All creatures, my dear, are rooted in Being, they rest in Being, they are established on Being. And how these three deities, on entering a man, each become threefold, has been said before. When a man departs, his speech enters into the mind, the mind into the breath, the breath into heat, and heat into the highest Deity.
deeaab69ba13 · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:39:08 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Having repeated the formula of the root, the father takes the last step — into the place where all science averts its eyes: into dying itself. A man's departure is described as the furling of a banner: speech is drawn into the mind (the dying man falls silent but still understands), the mind into the breath (consciousness goes, breathing remains), the breath into heat (breathing goes, the body is still warm), and heat parasyāṁ devatāyām, "into the highest Deity". The ladder of creation folds up in reverse order — right up into the hands of Being.
Mark how the last rung is named: not "into nothing", not "into the elements" — into a Deity, and the highest. Death on Uddālaka's lips is not a disintegration but a return through the proper offices: everything taken from the three threads is handed back to the threads, and what cannot be handed back is received by Him from whom the threads come. That is why this is the most consoling of all descriptions of death: the dying man falls nowhere — he is received. Where exactly the soul itself returns, and how, the ninth khaṇḍa will specify with its bees and honey; but the address has already been named: parā devatā, the highest Deity.