Upanishads · Mantrikā 18
॥
Devanāgarī
यस्मिन्भावाः प्रलीयन्ते लीनाश्चाव्यक्ततां ययुः । पश्यन्ति व्यक्ततां भूयो जायन्ते बुद्बुदा इव
Transliteration (IAST)
yasminbhāvāḥ pralīyante līnāścāvyaktatāṃ yayuḥ | paśyanti vyaktatāṃ bhūyo jāyante budbudā iva
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यस्मिन् भावाः प्रलीयन्तेyasmin bhāvāḥ pralīyantein whom the states dissolve; in whom the conditions pass away
लीनाः च अव्यक्तताम् ययुःlīnāḥ ca avyaktatām yayuḥand, dissolved, have gone to unmanifestness; dissolved, they reach the unevident
पश्यन्ति व्यक्तताम् भूयःpaśyanti vyaktatām bhūyaḥthey see manifestness again; again they behold the evident
जायन्ते बुद्बुदाः इवjāyante budbudāḥ ivathey are born like bubbles; they appear like bubbles
Translation
In whom the states dissolve and, dissolved, pass into unmanifestness — again they see manifestness and are born, like bubbles.
Version
33335370383f · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:00:17 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The same element of water, but taken from the other end: not the river entering the sea, but the bubbles on its surface.
A bubble arises out of water and bursts back into water; nothing has been added or lost, yet the bubble was.
This speaks of recurrence. The previous verse spoke of dissolution; this one, of manifestation following dissolution again.
That is why the figure of bubbles is truer than the figure of rivers for describing the round of birth. Rivers enter once; bubbles swell without end.
Note the word bhāvāḥ — “states, modes of being”. With the same word the ninth mantra of the Rāma-tāpanī's litany named the classes of the born: gods, asuras, men.
What dissolves, then, is not things, but the positions in which someone has found himself.
And further: it says paśyanti, “they see”. Not “they become manifest” — they see the manifestness. Someone watches both the dissolving and the new swelling.
The next verse will say who.