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Upanishads · Muktikā 1.29
॥
Devanāgarī
विदेहमुक्ताविच्छा चेदष्टोत्तरशतं पठ । तासां क्रम सशान्तिं च श्रुणु वक्ष्यामि तत्त्वतः
Transliteration (IAST)
videhamuktāvicchā cedaṣṭottaraśataṃ paṭha | tāsāṃ krama saśāntiṃ ca śruṇu vakṣyāmi tattvataḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
विदेह-मुक्तौ इच्छा चेत्videha-muktau icchā cetif there is a wish for bodiless liberation
अष्ट-उत्तर-शतं पठaṣṭa-uttara-śataṃ paṭharead the hundred and eight
तासां क्रमं स-शान्तिं चtāsāṃ kramaṃ sa-śāntiṃ catheir order and with the invocations
शृणु वक्ष्यामि तत्त्वतःśṛṇu vakṣyāmi tattvataḥlisten, I shall tell truly
Translation
«If there is a wish for bodiless liberation — read the hundred and eight; listen to their order and the invocations attached to them: I shall tell truly».
Version
19e08f470e21 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The fourth and final rung is named: the hundred and eight. And here it is worth stopping, for we have reached the place for the sake of which this book was begun — and for the sake of which the hundred and seven before it were read. Worth noting for what the reading of the hundred and eight is prescribed: videha-muktau icchā cet, «if there is a wish for bodiless liberation».
Videha-mukti is liberation after leaving the body, as distinct from jīvan-mukti, liberation while alive, spoken of at length at Varāha (4.21–4.30). That is, the hundred and eight are appointed for one who wants not to remain. This detail, I think, is worth attention, and here is why.
The four-runged ladder of reading turns out to be a ladder not of increasing merit but of increasing difficulty: one is enough, ten — if it has not worked, thirty-two — if unfirm, a hundred and eight — if you want to leave altogether. The Vaishnava side points to this and makes its own remark, worth citing. Its goal is not videha-mukti: it does not wish not to remain; it wishes to remain with him, and it was said at Dattātreya (1.12) that those it reaches do not take even the merging offered.
Add what is worth saying here, having come to this place. The hundred and eight were read not for videha-mukti, but to learn what is said in them and how to read it; and the book that appoints them by need itself grants us this right.