Upanishads · Śvetāśvatara 6.23
॥
Devanāgarī
यस्य देवे परा भक्तिर् यथा देवे तथा गुरौ ।
तस्यैते कथिता ह्य् अर्थाः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः
Transliteration (IAST)
yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau /
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यस्यyasyawhose; he who has
देवेdevetoward God; in relation to the Deity
परा भक्तिःparā bhaktiḥsupreme bhakti; the highest loving devotion
यथा देवेyathā deveas toward God; just as toward the Deity
तथा गुरौtathā gurauso toward the guru; so also toward the teacher
तस्यtasyato him; for him
एते कथिताःete kathitāḥthese declared; these that have been told
हि अर्थाःhi arthāḥmeanings; matters of the teaching
प्रकाशन्तेprakāśanteshine forth; become manifest
महात्मनःmahātmanaḥof the great-souled one; in one who is great of soul
प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनःprakāśante mahātmanaḥthey shine forth in the great-souled one; they are revealed to him who is great of soul
Translation
He who has supreme bhakti toward God, and toward his teacher as toward God — to him, the great-souled, all these declared meanings shine forth; they shine forth in the great-souled one.
Version
463dc65dce15 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:13:46 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The last mantra of the Upaniṣad — and in śruti this is the first place where the word bhakti stands in its full, later meaning: loving devotion as a path.
The whole book has been moving toward this. It went through the causes and rejected them; it taught posture, breath and place; it described visions and bodily signs; it gave strict definitions and no less strict denials; it named the Lord of lords and His innate śakti. And at the end it says: all this will "shine forth" for one who has parā bhakti — supreme devotion.
Note the verb: prakāśante, "they shine forth" — not "they will be understood". Meanings are not extracted by an effort of mind; they become manifest of themselves, as things emerge when day breaks. The same was said at 6.14: only His light shines.
The second condition is set beside the first and made equal to it: "as toward God, so toward the teacher". Not instead of God and not above Him — equally. From this line grew all the later teaching about the guru, and by it that teaching should be tested: reverence for the teacher is lawful exactly in the measure in which it is a reflection of reverence for God.
The last words are repeated twice — the ancient sign of a book's completion, as at the end of the first adhyāya. So the Upaniṣad sets its full stop: not on a definition, not on a precept, but on love and on the one to whom love opens the meaning.