तद् एतत् प्रेयः पुत्रात् प्रेयः वित्तात् प्रेयः अन्यस्मात् सर्वस्मात् अन्तरतरं यद् अयम् आत्मा सः यः अन्यम् आत्मनः प्रियम् ब्रुवाणम् ब्रूयात् प्रियम् रोत्स्यति इति ईश्वरः ह तथा एव स्यात् आत्मानम् एव प्रियम् उपासीत सः यः आत्मानम् एव प्रियम् उपास्ते न ह अस्य प्रियम् प्रमायुकम् भवति
tad etat preyaḥ putrāt preyaḥ vittāt preyaḥ anyasmāt sarvasmāt antarataraṃ yad ayam ātmā saḥ yaḥ anyam ātmanaḥ priyam bruvāṇam brūyāt priyam rotsyati iti īśvaraḥ ha tathā eva syāt ātmānam eva priyam upāsīta saḥ yaḥ ātmānam eva priyam upāste na ha asya priyam pramāyukam bhavati
This ātman is dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than anything else, for it is the innermost. If a man says to one who calls something other than the ātman dear, "You will lose what is dear" — he has the power to make it so. Let him venerate the ātman alone as dear: for one who venerates the ātman alone as dear, what is dear does not perish.
8157a015a581 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:43:11 AM UTC
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After the cosmogony, a verse about love, one of the decisive ones in the whole book: the ātman is "dearer than a son, dearer than wealth… for it is the innermost" (antarataram). The hierarchy of attachments is set right not by a prohibition against loving but by an indication of love's floor: everything dear is dear not by itself — through it the nearest Inward shows; Yājñavalkya will say the great words of this to Maitreyī: "not for the husband's sake is a husband dear, but for the sake of the ātman" (BU 2.4.5).
The warning "you will lose what is dear" is not a curse but sobriety: everything dear except the Inward is mortal by nature, and he who loves the mortal as final is bereaved in advance. But the promise is bright: for one who holds the ātman dear, "what is dear does not perish" (na pramāyukam) — not because he has ceased to love son and home, but because he has come to love them in the Imperishable, where nothing beloved is lost. Bhakti carries the verse through to a name: the innermost of all beings is the Lord of the heart; love him first, and you will get all the rest back immortal.