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Upanishads · Muktikā 2.36
॥
Devanāgarī
सहस्राङ्कुरशाखात्मफलपल्लवशालिनः
Transliteration (IAST)
sahasrāṅkuraśākhātmaphalapallavaśālinaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सहस्र-अङ्कुर-शाखा-sahasra-aṅkura-śākhā-with a thousand sprouts and branches
आत्म-फल-पल्लव-शालिनःātma-phala-pallava-śālinaḥabounding in fruit and shoots
Translation
«…[of the tree], abounding in a thousand sprouts, branches, fruits, and shoots…»
Version
91b365281b80 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is incomplete — it holds one half-line — and it is the beginning of a comparison the next verse will finish. Worth noting the very image: the tree of the round of existence, spoken of at the twenty-seventh verse. Here it is described as abundant: a thousand sprouts, branches, fruits, and shoots.
This detail, I think, is worth attention and explains why it is so hard to contend with. This tree does not wither: it grows, and every lopped branch gives two new ones; and anyone who has tried fighting habits one by one knows this from experience. Hence the next verse will say: what must be cut is not the branches but the root.
Add what the Gītā says of the same tree, for there it is described more fully and with one addition not found here. There it is ūrdhva-mūla adhaḥ-śākha, «roots above, branches below»; and one is told to fell it asaṅga-śastreṇa dṛḍhena, «with the firm weapon of non-attachment». But there is added what is not here: having felled it, one must seek that place, yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī, «whence the ancient current issued».
That is, in the Gītā the felling is not an end but the start of a search; and this difference, I think, is the whole difference between ridding oneself of something and finding something.