Upanishads · Brahma 3.4
॥
Devanāgarī
सूचनात्सूत्रमित्याहुः सूत्रं नाम परं पदम् । तत्सूत्रं विदितं येन स विप्रो वेदपारगः
Transliteration (IAST)
sūcanātsūtramityāhuḥ sūtraṃ nāma paraṃ padam | tatsūtraṃ viditaṃ yena sa vipro vedapāragaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सूचनात् सूत्रम् इति आहुःsūcanāt sūtram iti āhuḥfrom “indicating” they call it “sūtra”; from pointing-out they name it sūtra
सूत्रम् नाम परम् पदम्sūtram nāma param padamsūtra is the name of the highest abode; sūtra is the title of the supreme station
तत् सूत्रम् विदितम् येनtat sūtram viditam yenaby whom that thread is known; he by whom this cord is understood
सः विप्रः वेदपारगःsaḥ vipraḥ vedapāragaḥhe is the inspired one who has crossed the Vedas; he is the inspired one come to the Vedas' far shore
Translation
From “indicating” they call it “sūtra”; sūtra is the name of the highest abode. He by whom that thread is known — that inspired one has crossed the Vedas.
Version
d1a62e711f34 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:09:07 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Analysis of the word by its root — a device familiar from all these books.
Sūtra is derived from sūcana, “indication, pointing out”, from the root sūc — “to indicate, to hint”. The thread, then, is that which points.
The etymology is grammatically loose — in fact sūtra is from siv, “to sew” — and I will not pass it off as scholarship. But there is sense in it: the cord on the shoulder only points; it does not constitute the worth.
And it is added: sūtraṃ nāma paraṃ padam — “sūtra is the name of the highest abode”.
Then — vedapāraga, “one who has crossed the Vedas”, literally “reached the far shore of the Vedas”.
Here the book says its own word. It does not say the knower of the thread may skip the Vedas; it says he has crossed them — passed through and come out.
Note the word vipra — “the inspired, the quivering one”; it names the poet, not the caste. We met it in the third ṛc with which the Rāma-tāpanī closes.