अथ खलु सौम्येमं सनातनमात्मधर्मं वैष्णवीं निष्ठां नासमाप्य प्रब्रूयात् । नानूचानाय नानात्मविदे नावीतरागाय नाविशुद्धाय नानुपसन्नाय नाप्रयतमानसायेति ह स्माहुः । तदेतदृचाभ्युक्तम्
atha khalu saumyemaṃ sanātanamātmadharmaṃ vaiṣṇavīṃ niṣṭhāṃ nāsamāpya prabrūyāt | nānūcānāya nānātmavide nāvītarāgāya nāviśuddhāya nānupasannāya nāprayatamānasāyeti ha smāhuḥ | tadetadṛcābhyuktam
"So then, my dear: without having completed this eternal duty of the self, the Vaiṣṇava standing, himself, let him not teach it [to another]; nor to one unread, nor to one who does not know the self, nor to one not free of passion, nor to one impure, nor to one who has not approached, nor to one whose mind is not gathered — thus, indeed, they used to say. And of this it is said in a verse."
4e56f0f58bc6 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The conditions of transmission are listed, and it is worth noting that the first of them concerns not the pupil but the teacher. It says na-samāpya prabrūyāt, "without having completed it himself, let him not teach." That is, the first condition is that the transmitter himself has arrived.
This requirement, to my mind, matters more than all the rest, and it is worth voicing. A person can retell a teaching without having passed through it, and the retelling will be correct in words and empty in substance. The Vaiṣṇava side holds this rule and voices it through a distinction cited when reading the Varāha (4.43): the word transmits content, presence transmits a state; and the second cannot be retold.
Let us add what is worth noting among the conditions listed for the pupil, for one of them is curious. Listed are: being well-read, knowledge of the self, freedom from passion, purity, gathered mind — and anupasanna, "one who has not approached." Upasanna comes from upa-sad, "to sit down beside"; and this word is the very root of the word upaniṣad, discussed when reading the first books of this collection.
That is, the condition set is to sit down beside: not to understand, not to agree, but to come and sit. This detail shows that the teaching was conceived not as information to be transmitted but as a relationship one enters; and the whole difference between reading a book and discipleship lies in this word. Let us add a qualification that must be made: this list excludes many, and in the mouth of a self-satisfied person it becomes a weapon. The book itself senses this, for it will say right away that the teaching calls for testing the pupil, not rejecting him in advance (34).