LinuxTurn pages
Upanishads · Muktikā 1.40
॥
Devanāgarī
एवमष्टोत्तरशतं भावनात्रयनाशनम् । ज्ञानवैराग्यदं पुंसां वासनात्रयनाशनम्
Transliteration (IAST)
evamaṣṭottaraśataṃ bhāvanātrayanāśanam | jñānavairāgyadaṃ puṃsāṃ vāsanātrayanāśanam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एवम् अष्ट-उत्तर-शतंevam aṣṭa-uttara-śataṃthus the hundred and eight
भावना-त्रय-नाशनम्bhāvanā-traya-nāśanamdestroying the threefold imagining
ज्ञान-वैराग्य-दं पुंसांjñāna-vairāgya-daṃ puṃsāṃgiving people knowledge and dispassion
वासना-त्रय-नाशनम्vāsanā-traya-nāśanamdestroying the threefold habit
Translation
«Such are the hundred and eight — destroying the threefold imagining, giving people knowledge and dispassion, destroying the threefold habit».
Version
93731adf64ad · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Worth examining what is named threefold, for both are technical. Bhāvanā-traya, «threefold imagining», is interpreted as three kinds of imagination: about the body, about the world, and about scripture. Vāsanā-traya, «threefold habit», is the same thing named from the side of habit; and the second chapter of this book will devote twenty verses to it, where loka-vāsanā, śāstra-vāsanā, and deha-vāsanā will be examined — worldly, bookish, and bodily habit.
Worth noting that among the three habits is named śāstra-vāsanā, «bookish habit». That is, the list of a hundred and eight books promises to destroy, among other things, attachment to books. This construction, I think, is the best place in the whole first chapter, and it is worth stating.
The book says: read the hundred and eight — and be freed from reading too. That is, this body of writing declares its own goal to be to make itself unneeded; and this, I think, is the highest honesty writing is capable of. The Vaishnava side does not agree with this entirely, and it is worth saying in what.
It too counts śāstra-vāsanā among the hindrances, and Rūpa Gosvāmī places prajalpa, «idle talk», in the list of things that ruin devotion. But its reading does not end: hearing is the first of its nine practices and remains first to the end; and it was said at Varāha (4.31) that «a book without a teacher is interpreted however one likes». That is, for it what is destroyed is attachment to a book as one's own possession, not the hearing itself.