Upanishads · Kaivalya 22
॥
Devanāgarī
वेदैर् अनेकैर् अहम् एव वेद्यो वेदान्तकृद् वेदविद् एव चाहम् न पुण्यपापे मम नास्ति नाशो न जन्म देहेन्द्रियबुद्धिर् अस्ति
Transliteration (IAST)
vedair anekair aham eva vedyo vedāntakṛd vedavid eva cāham na puṇyapāpe mama nāsti nāśo na janma dehendriyabuddhir asti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
वेदैः अनेकैः अहम् एव वेद्यःvedaiḥ anekaiḥ aham eva vedyaḥby the many Vedas I alone am to be known; by the manifold Vedas it is I who am known
वेदान्तकृत् वेदवित् एव च अहम्vedāntakṛt vedavit eva ca ahamI am the maker of the Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas; I am the author of the Vedānta and the one who knows the Vedas
न पुण्यपापे ममna puṇyapāpe mamano merit and sin are mine; neither virtue nor stain belongs to me
न अस्ति नाशः न जन्मna asti nāśaḥ na janmathere is no destruction, no birth; there is neither perishing nor being born
देहेन्द्रियबुद्धिः अस्तिdehendriyabuddhiḥ astino body, senses, intellect; neither flesh, nor senses, nor buddhi
Translation
By the many Vedas I am to be known; I am the maker of the Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas. No merit and no sin are mine, no destruction and no birth, no body, no senses, no intellect.
Version
1f5e8973df7c · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:04:38 AM UTC
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The first half of the verse is taken from the Gītā almost word for word: “by all the Vedas I am to be known; I am the maker of the Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas”.
There Kṛṣṇa speaks those words. Here they are spoken by the one who has arrived.
The juxtaposition deserves note, for it explains how to read all the “I”s of the book's second part. The speaker's speech is built out of sayings about the Highest — and therein lies its meaning: he speaks not of himself as a person, but of that in which he has come to share.
Then come the negations, and they are exact.
“No merit and no sin” — puṇya-pāpe. Beyond requital, that is: merit and sin are the measures of deeds, and deeds do not belong to consciousness.
“No destruction and no birth” — what Kṛṣṇa taught Arjuna in the second chapter of the Gītā.
And the last: “no body, senses, intellect”.
Buddhi, the intellect, is named last and together with the body. This deserves note: in the Vedānta the intellect is not consciousness. It is an instrument, like the eye, and therefore falls away with the rest.
The next verse will carry the negations to their end — to the five elements.