अथ हैनं रैक्वः पप्रच्छ भगवन्योऽयं विज्ञानघन उत्क्रामन्स केन कतरद्वाव स्थानमुत्सृज्यापक्रामतीति तस्मै स होवाच । हृदयस्थ मध्ये लोहितं मांसपिण्डं यस्मिऽन्स्तद्दहरं पुण्डरीकं कुमुदमिवानेकधा विकसितं तस्य मध्ये समुद्रः समुद्रस्य मध्ये कोशस्तस्मिन्न्नाड्यश्चतस्रो भवन्ति रमारमेच्छाऽपुनर्भवेति तत्र रमा पुण्येन पुण्यं लोकं नयत्यरमा पापेन पापमिच्छया यत्स्मरति तदभिसंपद्यते अपुनर्भवया कोशं भिनत्ति कोशं भित्त्वा शीर्षकपालं भिनत्ति शीर्षकपालं भित्त्वा पृथिवीं भिनत्ति पृथिवीं भित्त्वापो भिनत्त्यापो भित्त्वा तेजो भिनत्ति तेजो भित्त्वा वायुं भिनत्ति वायुं भित्त्वाकाशं भिनत्त्याकाशं भित्त्वा मनो भिनत्ति मनो भित्त्वा भूतादिं भिनत्ति भूतादिं भित्त्वा महान्तं भिनत्ति महान्तं भित्त्वाव्यक्तं भिनत्त्यव्यक्तं भित्त्वाक्षरं भिनत्त्यक्षरं भित्त्वा मृत्युं भिनत्ति मृत्युर्वै परे देव एकीभवतीति परस्तान्न सन्नासन्न सदसदित्येतन्निर्वाणानुशासनमिति वेदानुशासनमिति वेदानुशासनम्
atha hainaṃ raikvaḥ papraccha bhagavanyo'yaṃ vijñānaghana utkrāmansa kena kataradvāva sthānamutsṛjyāpakrāmatīti tasmai sa hovāca | hṛdayastha madhye lohitaṃ māṃsapiṇḍaṃ yasmi'nstaddaharaṃ puṇḍarīkaṃ kumudamivānekadhā vikasitaṃ tasya madhye samudraḥ samudrasya madhye kośastasminnnāḍyaścatasro bhavanti ramāramecchā'punarbhaveti tatra ramā puṇyena puṇyaṃ lokaṃ nayatyaramā pāpena pāpamicchayā yatsmarati tadabhisaṃpadyate apunarbhavayā kośaṃ bhinatti kośaṃ bhittvā śīrṣakapālaṃ bhinatti śīrṣakapālaṃ bhittvā pṛthivīṃ bhinatti pṛthivīṃ bhittvāpo bhinattyāpo bhittvā tejo bhinatti tejo bhittvā vāyuṃ bhinatti vāyuṃ bhittvākāśaṃ bhinattyākāśaṃ bhittvā mano bhinatti mano bhittvā bhūtādiṃ bhinatti bhūtādiṃ bhittvā mahāntaṃ bhinatti mahāntaṃ bhittvāvyaktaṃ bhinattyavyaktaṃ bhittvākṣaraṃ bhinattyakṣaraṃ bhittvā mṛtyuṃ bhinatti mṛtyurvai pare deva ekībhavatīti parastānna sannāsanna sadasadityetannirvāṇānuśāsanamiti vedānuśāsanamiti vedānuśāsanam
And now Raikva asked him: “Master, this mass of knowledge, departing — by what, and which place having left, does it go away?” And he said to him: in the middle of the heart is a red lump of flesh, in which is that small lotus, opened into many petals like a water-lily; in its middle — an ocean, in the middle of the ocean — a receptacle, and in it four channels: Ramā, Aramā, Icchā and Apunarbhavā. And Ramā by merit leads to the good world, Aramā by sin — to the sinful; by Icchā he obtains what he remembers, and by Apunarbhavā he cleaves the receptacle; having cleft the receptacle, he cleaves the skull; having cleft the skull — the earth; having cleft the earth — the waters; the waters — fire; fire — wind; wind — space; space — the mind; the mind — the origin of the elements; the origin of the elements — the great; the great — the unmanifest; the unmanifest — the imperishable; the imperishable — death; and death becomes one in the Highest God. Beyond that — neither the existent, nor the non-existent, nor the existent-and-non-existent. Such is the teaching of nirvāṇa, such is the teaching of the Veda, such is the teaching of the Veda.
5a74f114d656 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
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Raikva asks about the departure: by what way does the departing one go?
The answer begins with the already familiar: the heart, the red lump of flesh, the small lotus. But then something new is added, and the image grows strange to the point of magnificence: in the middle of the lotus — an ocean, in the middle of the ocean — a receptacle, and in it four channels.
Their names are a whole doctrine. Ramā — “delight”: by merit she leads to the good world. Aramā — “undelight”: by sin she leads to the evil one. Icchā — “wish”: by her a man obtains what he remembers in his last hour. And apunarbhavā — “non-return”.
The first three lead back into the round. Even the first, which leads for good deeds to the good world: the merit will be spent, and one will have to return. And the third, the most human: what he remembered, that he received — hence the weight the śāstras give to the last thought.
And the fourth leads nowhere: by it one cleaves.
And then comes the list of what is cleft, and it is built exactly inverse to the ladder of creation from the first khaṇḍa. First the bodily: the receptacle, the skull. Then the elements from below upward: earth, the waters, fire, wind, space. Then the inner: the mind, the origin of the elements, the great, the unmanifest, the imperishable. And last — death.
The verb throughout is one: bhinatti, “cleaves, pierces”. Not “dissolves”, as in the second khaṇḍa, but breaks through. There the world folded up of itself at the end of time; here a single soul pierces its layers — and, having pierced the last, finds itself where there is “neither the existent nor the non-existent”.
So the two ways for the world to end are set side by side: the common dissolution and the personal breakthrough. The outcome of both is one and the same, and it is named by the same three negations with which the book began.