Upanishads · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 20
॥
Devanāgarī
इदं हि मनस्तेष्वेव हि मनुते तानिदं गृह्णाति
Transliteration (IAST)
idaṁ hi manasteṣveva hi manute tānidaṁ gṛhṇāti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
इदम् हि मनःidam hi manaḥit is this mind; here is the manas
तेषु एव हि मनुतेteṣu eva hi manutethat thinks about them; it is of these that it thinks
तान् इदम् गृह्णातिtān idam gṛhṇātiit is this that seizes them; it is precisely these it grasps
Translation
For it is the mind that thinks about them, and it is the mind that seizes them.
Version
c28b8ae1b8a4 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:30:24 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
What actually works in experience is named: the mind. It "thinks about them" — about sound, touch, form, taste, smell — and it is the mind that "seizes" them.
The verb gṛhṇāti, "takes, seizes", is from everyday speech: so one speaks of a hand taking a thing. It is the mind, not the soul, that stretches out a hand toward objects.
This completes the reasoning of the five preceding mantras. If the elements do not know their tenant, and the mind seizes objects, then the "enjoyer" is the mind with the senses and not the one who dwells in them. The sage who called himself one who does not eat spoke the truth about himself.
Vedānta will analyse this further, distinguishing the knowing that belongs to the soul by nature from the instrumental knowledge that works through the mind. Here a simple indication is enough: it is the mind that takes.
And hence the practical conclusion for whose sake the whole analysis is made: freedom lies not in ceasing to eat but in ceasing to consider oneself the one who eats. The book's first part said the same in defining bhakti as the setting of the mind with all claims given up.