Upanishads · Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3,9.28:7
॥
Devanāgarī
जातः एव न जायते कः नु एनम् जनयेत् पुनः विज्ञानम् आनन्दम् ब्रह्म रातिः दातुः परायणम्
Transliteration (IAST)
jātaḥ eva na jāyate kaḥ nu enam janayet punaḥ vijñānam ānandam brahma rātiḥ dātuḥ parāyaṇam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
जातःjātaḥborn (jāta); born; born
एवevaindeed; only
नnanot; no
जायतेjāyatehe is born (from √jan; na jāyate); is born; is born
कःkaḥwho; which
नुnusurely; is it that
एनम्enamit; of this
जनयेत्janayetwho would beget him (from √jan, causative optative); who would give him birth; who would beget
पुनःpunaḥagain; once more
विज्ञानम्vijñānamknowledge (vijñāna); consciousness and knowledge; knowledge
आनन्दम्ānandambliss (ānanda); bliss; bliss
ब्रह्मbrahmaBrahman; the sacred reality
रातिःrātiḥthe gift (rāti); the giving; a gift
दातुःdātuḥof the giver (dātṛ, gen.); of the donor; of the giver
परायणम्parāyaṇamthe highest goal (parāyaṇa); the final resort; the highest goal
Translation
He who is born is not born again — who would beget him anew? Brahman is knowledge and bliss: the highest goal of the one who gives a gift, [the highest goal] of the one who stands firm and knows Him.
Version
3e75ebb11cf0 · published Jul 27, 2026, 1:09:40 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The answer comes like lightning, by denying the last hope in mechanism: jāta eva na jāyate — "he who is born [so] is not born again: who would beget him anew?" There is no rising within nature: neither seed nor root nor a repetition of births can of itself raise the dead. The mortal's root is outside the seed-bed: vijñānam ānandaṁ brahma — "Brahman is knowledge and bliss".
Here is the concluding formula of the whole night, one of the chief in all the Veda: the Last is not a thing, not a force and not an emptiness: it is vijñāna — living knowledge (Uṣasta's Witness, Uddālaka's Ruler, Gārgī's Akṣara) — and ānanda — bliss: not light only but sweetness too (the honey of the madhu-vidyā!). A mortal does not rise "from a root" — he is rooted in the Knowing-and-Blissful, and that is the one root death cannot tear up.
And the last line — against all expectation — is about giving: rātir dātuḥ parāyaṇam — "[He is] the highest goal of the giver": Brahman-as-bliss is where every pure gift and its giver arrive. Knowledge and giving, the sage and the generous, meet in one Refuge: the blissful Root has two hands — for the knower and for the giver.