अथ यत् अनाशकायनम् इति आचक्षते ब्रह्मचर्यम् एव तत् एषः हि आत्मा न नश्यति यम् ब्रह्मचर्येण अनुविन्दते अथ यत् अरण्यायनम् इति आचक्षते ब्रह्मचर्यम् एव तत् तत् अरः च ह वै ण्यः च अर्णवौ ब्रह्मलोके तृतीयस्याम् इतः दिवि तत् ऐरंमदीयम् सरः तत् अश्वत्थः सोमसवनः तत् अपराजिता पूः ब्रह्मणः प्रभुविमितं हिरण्मयम्
atha yat anāśakāyanam iti ācakṣate brahmacaryam eva tat eṣaḥ hi ātmā na naśyati yam brahmacaryeṇa anuvindate atha yat araṇyāyanam iti ācakṣate brahmacaryam eva tat tat araḥ ca ha vai ṇyaḥ ca arṇavau brahmaloke tṛtīyasyām itaḥ divi tat airaṃmadīyam saraḥ tat aśvatthaḥ somasavanaḥ tat aparājitā pūḥ brahmaṇaḥ prabhuvimitaṃ hiraṇmayam
What men call the way of fasting is brahmacarya: for the ātman whom one finds by brahmacarya does not perish. What men call the going to the forest is brahmacarya: for in the world of Brahman, in the third heaven from here, are two seas, Ara and Ṇya; there is the lake Airaṁmadīya, there the aśvattha oozing soma, there the impregnable city of Brahman, there the golden palace of the Lord.
cbc8de60b3ae · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:51:21 PM UTC
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The last pair of identifications carries the boldest wordplay. Anāśakāyana, "the path of fasting", is read through na naśyati — "does not perish": true fasting is not going hungry but cleaving to the Imperishable. Araṇyāyana, "the going to the forest", is split into ara and ṇya, the names of the two seas of the brahmaloka: the hermit's real forest is that world where the seas Ara and Ṇya are, and the lake Airaṁmadīya ("intoxicating with bliss"), and the aśvattha tree oozing soma, and the impregnable city and the golden palace of the Lord (prabhu-vimita).
The geography itself is astonishing: the highest abode is described not by negations but by a landscape — seas, a lake, a tree, a city, a palace! The Upaniṣad, which a moment ago said "ageless, deathless", is not afraid to give liberation a terrain: the spiritual world is not a grey nothing but a country with proper names. Gauḍīya Vedānta will hear here an early map of Vaikuṇṭha: the Lord has an abode, and in it are his trees and his waters; "there the aśvattha" will echo in the Gītā too (15.1–3) and in the descriptions of Goloka with its desire-trees.