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Upanishads · Muktikā 2.29
॥
Devanāgarī
अवासनत्वात्सततं यदा न मनुते मनः । अमनस्ता तदोदेति परमोपशमप्रदा
Transliteration (IAST)
avāsanatvātsatataṃ yadā na manute manaḥ | amanastā tadodeti paramopaśamapradā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अ-वासनत्वात् सततंa-vāsanatvāt satataṃfrom habitlessness, constantly
यदा न मनुते मनःyadā na manute manaḥwhen the mind does not think
अ-मनस्ता तदा उदेतिa-manastā tadā udetithen mindlessness arises
परम-उपशम-प्रदाparama-upaśama-pradāgiving the highest quieting
Translation
«When, from constant habitlessness, the mind does not think — then arises mindlessness, giving the highest quieting».
Version
5644a49216ad · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The word amanastā, «mindlessness», is introduced, literally «absence of mind»; and it is technical in this body of writing. Worth saying what is meant by it, for a literal reading turns it into feeble-mindedness. What is meant is not the loss of the capacity to think, but the cessation of saṅkalpa-vikalpa, «taking up and rejecting»: the mind stops choosing and refusing, and hence stops being a mind in this sense.
This reading is sound, and the Vaishnava side does not dispute the description. It disputes that this state is declared the ultimate, and its argument has been cited more than once. Add here what belongs specially to this place.
The word upaśama, «quieting», is technical for it too, but means something else: śānta-rasa, «the taste of peace», is counted for it the first and lowest of five tastes, spoken of at Varāha (2.71). That is, what is here named highest is for it the beginning of a series: peace, then service, then friendship, then parental tenderness, then love. And its argument is this: peace is the absence of disturbance, not the presence of anything; and hence there is somewhere further to go beyond it.
Add what it grants at the same time: without peace, one does not begin. A person whose mind is in turmoil is fit for nothing; and hence śānta is for it a necessary rung — but exactly a rung.