अथ ह मनः ऊचुः त्वं नः उद्गाय इति तथा इति तेभ्यः मनः उदगायत् यः मनसि भोगः तम् देवेभ्यः आगायत् यत् कल्याणम् संकल्पयति तद् आत्मने ते अविदुः अनेन वै नः उद्गात्रा अत्येष्यन्ति इति तम् अभिद्रुत्य पाप्मना अविध्यन् सः यः सः पाप्मा यद् एव इदम् अप्रतिरूपम् संकल्पयति सः एव सः पाप्मा एवम् उ खलु एताः देवताः पाप्मभिः उपासृजन् एवम् एनाः पाप्मना अविध्यन्
atha ha manaḥ ūcuḥ tvaṃ naḥ udgāya iti tathā iti tebhyaḥ manaḥ udagāyat yaḥ manasi bhogaḥ tam devebhyaḥ āgāyat yat kalyāṇam saṃkalpayati tad ātmane te aviduḥ anena vai naḥ udgātrā atyeṣyanti iti tam abhidrutya pāpmanā avidhyan saḥ yaḥ saḥ pāpmā yad eva idam apratirūpam saṃkalpayati saḥ eva saḥ pāpmā evam u khalu etāḥ devatāḥ pāpmabhiḥ upāsṛjan evam enāḥ pāpmanā avidhyan
Then they said to the mind: "Sing the udgītha for us!" — "So be it," and it sang: the enjoyment that is in the mind it sang out for the gods, but the good that lies in resolving it sang for itself. The asuras understood: "With this singer they will surpass us!" — they fell upon it and pierced it with evil. That evil is the unseemly thing that people resolve upon: that is the very evil. Thus did they visit these deities with evils, thus did they pierce them with evil.
b20f8fba5375 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:39:35 AM UTC
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The fifth and last of the pierced is the mind, the deepest of the senses. Its secret share is "the good of resolving": the sweetness of making plans for oneself; its wound is "unseemly resolves": thoughts of envy, revenge, lust — all that underground labour of the mind which a man is ashamed of and cannot stop.
The result of the census is hopeless: all five deities of our faculties were pierced at their very first service. Neither speech, nor smell, nor eye, nor ear, nor mind will do as a saviour: each was bought by evil through its own self-interest. The Upaniṣad deliberately drives us to this impasse: salvation will come neither from a refined sense nor from a strong mind but from a power of another kind — one that has no private share and is therefore invulnerable. It is already waiting in the mouth.