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Upanishads · Muktikā 2.2
॥
Devanāgarī
लोकवासनया जन्तोः शास्त्रवासनयापि च । देहवासनया ज्ञानं यथावन्नैव जायते
Transliteration (IAST)
lokavāsanayā jantoḥ śāstravāsanayāpi ca | dehavāsanayā jñānaṃ yathāvannaiva jāyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
लोक-वासनया जन्तोःloka-vāsanayā jantoḥfrom worldly habit, of a creature
शास्त्र-वासनया अपि चśāstra-vāsanayā api caand from bookish habit
देह-वासनया ज्ञानंdeha-vāsanayā jñānaṃand from bodily habit, knowledge
यथा-वत् न एव जायतेyathā-vat na eva jāyatedoes not arise as it should
Translation
«From worldly habit in a creature, and from bookish habit, and from bodily habit, knowledge does not arise as it should».
Version
7ab8957540d5 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Three habits are named, and they are the subject of the whole chapter; worth examining them apart. Loka-vāsanā, «worldly habit»: the habit of looking to people — what they will say, how they will regard it, what they will think. Śāstra-vāsanā, «bookish habit»: the habit of reading for reading's sake; spoken of at the first chapter (1.40), where the hundred and eight books promised to destroy, among other things, attachment to books too.
Deha-vāsanā, «bodily habit»: the habit of considering oneself the body and caring for it beyond need. Worth noting that the second stands in the middle, between the worldly and the bodily; that is, bookishness is set equal to the two others and named an equal hindrance. This detail, I think, is the main point of this verse and worth stating.
Worldly habit and bodily habit are obvious to anyone; but bookish habit poses as a virtue, and hence lasts longest of all. A person who has left people and moderated the body usually remains with his books and considers himself free. The Vaishnava side holds precisely this, and its own distinction was cited at Varāha (4.33): what is forbidden is not speech, but speech about nothing; not reading, but reading in order to accumulate.
Add the word yathā-vat, «as it should»: it does not say «does not arise at all», but «does not arise as it should»; that is, knowledge under these habits comes out incomplete, not absent.