तत उ ह बालाकिस्तूष्णीमास तं होवाचाजातशत्रुरेतावन्नु बालाका3इ इत्येतावद्धीति होवाच बालाकिस्तं होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मृषा वै किल मा समवादयिष्ठा ब्रह्म ते ब्रवाणीति । स होवाच यो वै बालाक एतेषां पुरुषाणां कर्ता यस्य वैतत्कर्म स वै वेदितव्य इति तत उ ह बालाकिः समित्पाणिः प्रतिचक्रामोपायानीति तं होवाचजातशत्रुः प्रतिलोमरूपमेव स्याद्यत्क्षत्रियो ब्राह्मणमुपनयेत् । एहि व्येव त्वा ज्ञपयिष्यामीति तं ह पाणावभिपद्य प्रवव्राज तौ ह सुप्तं पुरुषमीयतुस्तं हाजातशत्रुरामन्त्रयांचक्रे । बृहत्पाण्डरवासः सोमराजन्निति । स उ ह तूष्णीमेव शिश्ये । तत उ हैनं यष्ट्याविचिक्षेप स तत एव समुत्तस्थौ तं होवाचाजातशत्रुः । क्वैष एतद्वालोके पुरुषोऽशयिष्ट क्वैतदभूत्कुत एतदागा3दिति । तत उ ह बालाकिर्न विजज्ञौ
tata u ha bālākistūṣṇīmāsa taṃ hovācājātaśatruretāvannu bālākā3i ityetāvaddhīti hovāca bālākistaṃ hovācājātaśatrurmṛṣā vai kila mā samavādayiṣṭhā brahma te bravāṇīti | sa hovāca yo vai bālāka eteṣāṃ puruṣāṇāṃ kartā yasya vaitatkarma sa vai veditavya iti tata u ha bālākiḥ samitpāṇiḥ praticakrāmopāyānīti taṃ hovācajātaśatruḥ pratilomarūpameva syādyatkṣatriyo brāhmaṇamupanayet | ehi vyeva tvā jñapayiṣyāmīti taṃ ha pāṇāvabhipadya pravavrāja tau ha suptaṃ puruṣamīyatustaṃ hājātaśatrurāmantrayāṃcakre | bṛhatpāṇḍaravāsaḥ somarājanniti | sa u ha tūṣṇīmeva śiśye | tata u hainaṃ yaṣṭyāvicikṣepa sa tata eva samuttasthau taṃ hovācājātaśatruḥ | kvaiṣa etadvāloke puruṣo'śayiṣṭa kvaitadabhūtkuta etadāgā3diti | tata u ha bālākirna vijajñau
Then Bālāki fell silent. Ajātaśatru said to him: “Is that all, Bālāki?” — “That is all,” said Bālāki. Ajātaśatru said to him: “In vain hast thou talked to me: ‘let me tell thee of Brahman.’ He who is the maker of these puruṣas, Bālāki, and whose work this is — he it is who must be known.” Then Bālāki, firewood in hand, approached: “Let me become a pupil.” Ajātaśatru said to him: “It would be against the grain for a kṣatriya to initiate a brāhmaṇa; come, I will nevertheless give thee knowledge.” And, taking him by the hand, he went. And they came to a sleeping man, and Ajātaśatru called out to him: “Great one, white-robed, king Soma!” But he lay silent. Then he prodded him with a staff, and he rose at once. Ajātaśatru said to him: “Where did this man lie? where was he? whence did he return?” And Bālāki did not know.
abaefe954e83 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The turning-point of the whole chapter, and it begins with silence.
Bālāki has gone through sixteen places — from the sun to the left pupil — and run out. “Is that all?” — “That is all.” The king's verdict is short: mṛṣā samavādayiṣṭhāḥ, “in vain hast thou talked to me”.
And at once the question is set for whose sake the whole chapter was written: “he who is the maker of these puruṣas and whose work this is — he it is who must be known”. The sixteen reverences were not false; they were incomplete. Behind every puruṣa — in the sun, in the shadow, in the eye — stands He who made them, and of Him Bālāki said not a word. It is this very passage that Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa cites to prove that the object of reverence in the Upaniṣads is sometimes what is lower than the Highest — and that it is the Maker one must seek, not His manifestations.
Then is repeated what the book began with: a learned brāhmaṇa takes firewood and asks to become the pupil of a king. Ajātaśatru notes the impropriety — pratiloma, “against the grain”: by the rule a kṣatriya does not initiate a brāhmaṇa. And yet he leads him: “come, I will instruct thee”. The rule yields to the need of knowledge — as it yielded in the first adhyāya too.
And then the lesson begins, and the lesson is not an argument but an experiment. The king takes the brāhmaṇa by the hand and leads him to a sleeping man.
The scene at the bedside is simple to the point of bluntness. Ajātaśatru hails the sleeper with the very grand names by which Bālāki revered the puruṣa in the sun and the moon: “great one, white-robed, king Soma!” The sleeper does not answer. Then the king pokes him with a staff — and he rises.
In this is the whole argument. The names Bālāki clung to did not raise the sleeper; the staff did. Therefore he who rose is neither the sun, nor the moon, nor a reflection, nor a shadow.
And the question is put exactly: “where did he lie? where was he? whence did he return?” Not “what is sleep”, but — where was the man. Bālāki did not know. With this not-knowing the real teaching will begin.