अथ यत्र एतत् अस्मात् शरीरात् उत्क्रामति अथ एतैः एव रश्मिभिः ऊर्ध्वम् आक्रमते सः ओम् इति वा ह उत् वा मीयते सः यावत् क्षिप्येत् मनः तावत् आदित्यम् गच्छति एतत् वै खलु लोकद्वारम् विदुषाम् प्रपदनम् निरोधः अविदुषाम्
atha yatra etat asmāt śarīrāt utkrāmati atha etaiḥ eva raśmibhiḥ ūrdhvam ākramate saḥ om iti vā ha ut vā mīyate saḥ yāvat kṣipyet manaḥ tāvat ādityam gacchati etat vai khalu lokadvāram viduṣām prapadanam nirodhaḥ aviduṣām
But when he goes out of this body, he ascends upward by these very rays. He goes with Oṁ — or he does not go at all. In the time a thought would take to fly, he reaches the sun: this is the door of the world — an entrance for the knowing, a barrier for the unknowing.
f6dc19acc5e0 · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:52:58 PM UTC
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The knower's departure: upward "by these very rays" — along the highroad of 8.6.2, with Oṁ on his lips: the syllable with which the Upaniṣad opened (the udgītha, 1.1) escorts the soul on its last journey. The speed of the passage is "the time a thought would take to fly": no wandering through torments; from heart to sun is one beat of the mind.
And the formula at the gate: etad vai khalu loka-dvāraṁ viduṣāṁ prapadanaṁ nirodho 'viduṣām — "this is the door of the world: an entrance for the knowing, a barrier for the unknowing". One and the same door! The sun neither chooses nor judges — it is simply open to one who knows the road and the Name, and impenetrable to one who does not. So it is in every tradition: it is not God who shuts himself off from the soul — the soul without knowledge-and-love does not know how to enter what is open. The word prapadana — "entering, taking refuge" — is the very one by which the Gītā calls surrender to the Lord (prapadye); in the end the gate is opened not by erudition but by falling at his feet.