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Upanishads · Saubhāgyalakṣmī 2.17
॥
Devanāgarī
प्रभाशून्यं मनःशून्यं बुद्धिशून्यं निरामयम् । सर्वशून्यं निराभासं समाधिरभिधीयते
Transliteration (IAST)
prabhāśūnyaṃ manaḥśūnyaṃ buddhiśūnyaṃ nirāmayam | sarvaśūnyaṃ nirābhāsaṃ samādhirabhidhīyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
प्रभा-शून्यं मनः-शून्यंprabhā-śūnyaṃ manaḥ-śūnyaṃdevoid of light, devoid of mind
बुद्धि-शून्यं निरामयम्buddhi-śūnyaṃ nirāmayamdevoid of intellect, free of affliction
सर्व-शून्यं निराभासंsarva-śūnyaṃ nirābhāsaṃall-void, without appearance
समाधिः अभिधीयतेsamādhiḥ abhidhīyateis called samādhi
Translation
"Devoid of light, devoid of mind, devoid of intellect, free of affliction, all-void, without appearance — [that] is called samādhi."
Version
04cd37712bd7 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A definition is given through six negations, and it is worth noting that among them stands prabhā-śūnya, "devoid of light." This detail is unusual: ordinarily the highest is described as light, and the word prakāśa is constant beside it. Here light too is denied.
It is worth examining what is meant here, for a literal reading makes the state indistinguishable from a swoon. Apparently, what is denied is light as an object: that is, in this state no glow and no images appear; and the word nirābhāsa, "without appearance," confirms this. Read this way, the definition is meaningful and describes an experience.
The Vaiṣṇava side does not dispute the description of the experience; it disputes that this state is declared the goal, and its argument was cited when reading the Varāha (4.14). Let us repeat it in briefest form: if the goal is likened to unconsciousness, then the goal has been chosen wrongly; for the measure of fullness is not silence but content. Let us add what is worth noting here as a difficulty within the teaching itself.
If samādhi is all-voidness, then in the previous verse (2.16) it is the equality of two, and in verse (2.14) it is union with salt in water. That is, in four neighboring verses four different definitions are given; and this, to my mind, is not different facets of one thing but the traces of different hands — as in many of the books we have read.