अथ हैनं रैक्वः पप्रच्छ भगवन्योऽयं विज्ञानघन उत्क्रामन्स केन कतरद्वाव स्थानं दहतीति तस्मै स होवाच योऽयं विज्ञानघन उत्क्रामन्प्राणं दहत्यपानं व्यानमुदानं समानं वैरम्भं मुख्यमन्तर्यामं प्रभञ्जनं कुमारं श्येनं श्वेतं कृष्णं नागं दहति पृथिव्यापस्तेजोय्वाकाशं दहति जागरितं स्वप्नं सुषुप्तं तुरीयं च महतां च लोकं परं च लोकं दहति लोकालोकं दहति धर्माधर्मं दहत्यभास्करममर्यादं निरालोकमतः परं दहति महान्तं दहत्यव्यक्तं दहत्यक्षरं दहति मृत्युं दहति मृत्युर्वै परे देव एकीभवतीति परस्तान्न सन्नासन्न सदसदित्येतन्निर्वाणानुशासनमिति वेदानुशासनमिति वेदानुशासनम्
atha hainaṃ raikvaḥ papraccha bhagavanyo'yaṃ vijñānaghana utkrāmansa kena kataradvāva sthānaṃ dahatīti tasmai sa hovāca yo'yaṃ vijñānaghana utkrāmanprāṇaṃ dahatyapānaṃ vyānamudānaṃ samānaṃ vairambhaṃ mukhyamantaryāmaṃ prabhañjanaṃ kumāraṃ śyenaṃ śvetaṃ kṛṣṇaṃ nāgaṃ dahati pṛthivyāpastejoyvākāśaṃ dahati jāgaritaṃ svapnaṃ suṣuptaṃ turīyaṃ ca mahatāṃ ca lokaṃ paraṃ ca lokaṃ dahati lokālokaṃ dahati dharmādharmaṃ dahatyabhāskaramamaryādaṃ nirālokamataḥ paraṃ dahati mahāntaṃ dahatyavyaktaṃ dahatyakṣaraṃ dahati mṛtyuṃ dahati 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 does it burn?” And he said to him: this mass of knowledge, departing, burns the breath, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna, vairambha, the chief, the inner, prabhañjana, kumāra, śyena, śveta, kṛṣṇa and nāga; burns earth, the waters, fire, wind and space; burns waking, dream, deep sleep and the fourth; burns the world of the great and the other world; burns world and non-world; burns dharma and adharma; burns the sunless, the boundless, the lightless that is beyond; burns the great, burns the unmanifest, burns the imperishable, burns 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.
8266c53c2f37 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:12:03 AM UTC
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Raikva puts his question a third time, and one word in it is changed: not “whither does it go” and not “what does it cleave”, but “what does it burn”.
The list of what is burnt is the longest in the book and drawn up so that nothing remain.
First the fourteen breaths — the very ones listed one by one in the ninth khaṇḍa. Then the five elements. Then the four states of consciousness: waking, dream, deep sleep and “the fourth” — that is, even the turīya which the Māṇḍūkya calls highest is burnt.
Then the worlds: the world of the great and the other world. Then loka-aloka — “world and non-world”: so is called both the mythical ridge at the world's edge, beyond which there is nothing, and simply “everything and its absence”.
Then — and this is the most unexpected — dharma and adharma. Both law and lawlessness are burnt. Not “lawlessness is burnt and law remains”: both are burnt. The same move was in the first adhyāya of the Kauṣītaki, where at the river Vijarā one shakes off both good and evil deeds.
Then is described what lies beyond: “the sunless, the boundless, the lightless”. Three words about the place where both light and measure have ended.
And at the last — the great, the unmanifest, the imperishable and death.
Note the difference from the eleventh khaṇḍa. There the departing one cleft the layers and passed through them; here he burns them. What is cleft remains; what is burnt does not.
This is the book's last word on the departure. The departing one does not leave the world behind him — he leaves nothing at all. And therefore “beyond that” there is nothing left to describe except by the same three negations with which the book began.