स यदास्माच्छरीरादुत्क्रामति सहैवैतैः सर्वैरुत्क्रामति वागस्मात्सर्वाणि नामान्यभिविसृजते सृजते । वाचा सर्वाणि नामान्याप्नोति प्राणोऽस्मात्सर्वान्गन्धानभिविसृजते प्राणेन सर्वान्गन्धानाप्नोति चक्षुरस्मात्सर्वाणि रूपाण्यभिविसृजते चक्षुषा सर्वाणि रूपाण्याप्नोति श्रोत्रमस्मात्सर्वाञ्च्छब्दानभिविसृजते श्रोत्रेण सर्वाञ्च्छब्दानाप्नोति मनोऽस्मात्सर्वाणि ध्यातान्यभिविसृजते मनसा सर्वाणि ध्यातान्याप्नोति सैषा प्राणे सर्वाप्तिः । यो वै प्राणः सा प्रज्ञा या वा प्रज्ञा स प्राणः स ह ह्येतावस्मिञ्च्छरीरे वसतः सहोत्क्रामतः । अथ खलु यथाऽस्यै प्रज्ञायै सर्वाणि भूतान्येकं भवन्ति तद्व्याख्यास्यामः
sa yadāsmāccharīrādutkrāmati sahaivaitaiḥ sarvairutkrāmati vāgasmātsarvāṇi nāmānyabhivisṛjate sṛjate | vācā sarvāṇi nāmānyāpnoti prāṇo'smātsarvāngandhānabhivisṛjate prāṇena sarvāngandhānāpnoti cakṣurasmātsarvāṇi rūpāṇyabhivisṛjate cakṣuṣā sarvāṇi rūpāṇyāpnoti śrotramasmātsarvāñcchabdānabhivisṛjate śrotreṇa sarvāñcchabdānāpnoti mano'smātsarvāṇi dhyātānyabhivisṛjate manasā sarvāṇi dhyātānyāpnoti saiṣā prāṇe sarvāptiḥ | yo vai prāṇaḥ sā prajñā yā vā prajñā sa prāṇaḥ sa ha hyetāvasmiñccharīre vasataḥ sahotkrāmataḥ | atha khalu yathā'syai prajñāyai sarvāṇi bhūtānyekaṃ bhavanti tadvyākhyāsyāmaḥ
When he goes out of this body, he goes out together with them all. Speech gives over to him all names, and by speech he obtains all names; the breath gives over to him all smells, and by the breath he obtains all smells; the eye gives over to him all forms, and by the eye he obtains all forms; the ear gives over to him all sounds, and by the ear he obtains all sounds; the mind gives over to him all thoughts, and by the mind he obtains all thoughts. This is the all-obtaining in the breath. What is breath, that is insight; what is insight, that is breath — for together they dwell in this body and together they depart. And now we shall explain how all beings become one for this insight.
a8af2d1f8d7c · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The mantra describes the departure, and describes it with a word one does not expect in an account of death: obtaining.
Usually the leaving of the body is imagined as loss: the eyes are taken away, the hearing is taken away. Here the opposite is said. Speech “gives over to him all names” — and he obtains all names; the eye gives over all forms — and he obtains all forms. The departing one is not stripped of his powers; he carries them with him, together with everything they ever took.
Note the verb abhivisṛjate: “lets go, yields up, releases from the hand”. The organs are not taken from the man — they themselves hand over their estate to him. So at the close of the second adhyāya the father handed speech, breath and mind to his son: there from hand to hand, here — inward.
The sum is named in one word: sarvāpti, “the all-obtaining in prāṇa”. All that was scattered among the faculties gathers into life; and this is the same movement as in the sleep of the previous mantra, only now without return.
Then the formula of prāṇa and prajñā is repeated word for word. Repetition in śruti is a device: one and the same proposition is set down twice to divide two different inquiries. The first is finished; the second begins at once.
And the last line announces the theme of the next five mantras: “how all beings become one for this insight”. So far the talk was of what happens to a man; now comes the analysis of how cognition itself is built — of what it is made and on what it rests.