श्रोत्रमेवाप्येति यः श्रोत्रमेवास्तमेति श्रोतव्यमेवाप्येति यः श्रोतव्यमेवास्तमेति दिशमेवाप्येति यो दिशमेवास्तमेति सुदर्शनामेवाप्येति यः सुदर्शनामेवास्तमेत्यपानमेवाप्येति योऽपानमेवास्तमेति विज्ञानमेवाप्येति यो विज्ञानमेवास्तमेति तदमृतमभयमशोकमनन्तनिर्बीजमेवाप्येतीति होवाच
śrotramevāpyeti yaḥ śrotramevāstameti śrotavyamevāpyeti yaḥ śrotavyamevāstameti diśamevāpyeti yo diśamevāstameti sudarśanāmevāpyeti yaḥ sudarśanāmevāstametyapānamevāpyeti yo'pānamevāstameti vijñānamevāpyeti yo vijñānamevāstameti tadamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantanirbījamevāpyetīti hovāca
Into the ear enters that which sets in the ear; into the heard enters that which sets in the heard; into the quarter enters that which sets in the quarter; into Sudarśanā enters that which sets in Sudarśanā; into the lower breath enters that which sets in it; into knowledge enters that which sets in knowledge; and into that immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless, seedless — into it it enters. So he said.
3e404be8ab66 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
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The second step, and it is built on the same model: hearing, the heard, the quarter of space, the channel Sudarśanā, the lower breath, knowledge — and the seedless.
Note that here and in all the further mantras except the first and the last the row is shorter: there is neither bliss nor “the fourth”. Straight from knowledge — to the seedless.
This is no carelessness. The first mantra gave the ladder entire, with all its steps; the last, the fourteenth, will repeat it just as fully. The twelve middle ones go the short way: the organ, its object, its deity, its channel, its breath — and at once vijñāna.
Thereby it is said where the real knot is. All multiplicity is taken up in knowledge; and what is beyond knowledge is one and the same for all fourteen rows.
The channel's name here is Sudarśanā, “fair to behold”; in the sixth khaṇḍa it was named second in the list. The correspondence of hearing with “the fair to behold” sounds strange, but the Upaniṣad does not explain it: the list of channels is given in one order, the list of senses in another, and they are laid against each other by count.