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Upanishads · Śāṭyāyanīya 24
॥
Devanāgarī
बाल्येनैव हि तिष्ठासेन्निर्विद्य ब्रह्मवेदनम् । ब्रह्मविद्या च बाल्यं च निर्विद्य मुनिरात्मवान्
Transliteration (IAST)
bālyenaiva hi tiṣṭhāsennirvidya brahmavedanam | brahmavidyā ca bālyaṃ ca nirvidya munirātmavān
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
बाल्येन एव हि तिष्ठासेत्bālyena eva hi tiṣṭhāsetby childlikeness alone let him stand
निर्विद्य ब्रह्म-वेदनम्nirvidya brahma-vedanamhaving tasted the knowledge of brahman
ब्रह्म-विद्या च बाल्यं चbrahma-vidyā ca bālyaṃ caboth the knowledge of brahman and childlikeness
निर्विद्य मुनिः आत्मवान्nirvidya muniḥ ātmavānhaving tasted, the silent one possesses himself
Translation
"Having tasted the knowledge of brahman, let him stand by childlikeness alone; having tasted both the knowledge of brahman and childlikeness, the silent one possesses himself."
Version
57625a984eab · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is taken from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka (3.5.1) and is one of its most enigmatic passages; it is worth examining. There it is said: having known learning, let him become bālya, "like a child"; having known childlikeness and learning, let him become muni, "silent"; having known both silence and its opposite, let him become brāhmaṇa. The word bālya is interpreted two ways.
The first reading: simplicity, freedom from care, absence of calculation; that is, learning must not make a person self-important. The second reading, Śaṅkara's: absence of self-display — not showing off knowledge, strength, or lineage. Both readings agree on one point: learning must not be visible; and this is precisely the same requirement stated in the twenty-first verse — alakṣita, "unnoticed."
Let us add what the Vaiṣṇava side says about childlikeness, for she has this concept, and it is well developed. For her it is called bālya and sarala-tā, "straightforwardness"; and she describes the accomplished exactly this way — simple, easily laughing, easily weeping, not remembering offenses. The basis is given not by comparison but by the verse of the Bhāgavatam 7.5.24 and the story of Prahlāda, who was literally a child: a five-year-old boy answering his father and teachers.
Let us add what is worth keeping in this concept: childlikeness is not stupidity but the absence of a second layer. A child does not know how to say one thing while thinking another; and everything in a person that comes with age amounts, in essence, to the skill of doing so. Hence the requirement to be like a child is a requirement not of ignorance but of transparency.