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Upanishads · Śāṭyāyanīya 37
॥
Devanāgarī
यस्य देवे परा भक्तिर्यथा देवे तथा गुरौ । स ब्रह्मवित्परं प्रेयादिति वेदानुशासनम्
Transliteration (IAST)
yasya deve parā bhaktiryathā deve tathā gurau | sa brahmavitparaṃ preyāditi vedānuśāsanam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यस्य देवे परा भक्तिःyasya deve parā bhaktiḥwhose highest devotion is to God
यथा देवे तथा गुरौyathā deve tathā gurauand as to God, so to the teacher
सः ब्रह्म-वित्saḥ brahma-vithe, the knower of brahman
परं प्रेयात्paraṃ preyātlet him go to the supreme
इति वेद-अनुशासनम्iti veda-anuśāsanamsuch is the instruction of the Veda
Translation
"He whose highest devotion is to God, and as to God, so to the teacher — he, the knower of brahman, let him go to the supreme; such is the instruction of the Veda."
Version
28500b9b6129 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The book ends with a verse that is perhaps the most famous in this whole literature: yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau. It stands in the Śvetāśvatara (6.23) and from there has spread everywhere; there it is the last verse of the upaniṣad, and here too it is the last. It is worth examining it precisely, for it is the foundation of all Vaiṣṇava practice.
It says: deve parā bhaktiḥ, "the highest devotion to God"; and then yathā deve tathā gurau, "as to God, so to the teacher." It is worth noting the order: first God, then the teacher; and the second is measured by the first, not the other way around. That is, the verse does not equate them and does not place the teacher above; it says that devotion to the teacher must be of the same measure as devotion to God.
The distinction between "of the same measure" and "the very same" is the whole difference between reverence and substitution; and the Vaiṣṇava side holds to the first, and directly condemns the second. Let us add what stands after in the verse: tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ, "to that great soul the matters spoken of themselves become manifest." The verb prakāśante is the very passive verb of manifestation, in sense, that we have noted a dozen times; and it stands here too, at the very end.
That is, the last word of this book about knowledge is this: knowledge is not taken but manifests — and it manifests to one who has the relationship. Let us look back, for the last time, over the whole book. It is small — thirty-seven verses and five prose passages — and it is a code, not an argument: not once does it say "there is neither world nor souls," not once is the teacher rejected, not once is the One addressed called an invention.
The finest things in it, to my mind, are four: the twofold mark of Viṣṇu, manifest and unmanifest, abandoning either of which one falls (9); three rods against one (10); renunciation uttered with the breath in the throat (32); and this last verse. And the most important of all is the eleventh verse, where the liberated are called viṣṇu-krīḍā, viṣṇu-ratayaḥ, "playing and delighting": with these two words the book answers the whole dispute we have carried through a hundred books.