Upanishads · Brahma 4.12
॥
Devanāgarī
निरोदकाध्यानसंध्या वाक्कायक्लेशवर्जिता । संधिनी सर्वभूतानां सा संध्या ह्येकदण्डिनाम्
Transliteration (IAST)
nirodakādhyānasaṃdhyā vākkāyakleśavarjitā | saṃdhinī sarvabhūtānāṃ sā saṃdhyā hyekadaṇḍinām
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
निरोदका ध्यानसंध्याnirodakā dhyānasaṃdhyāthe “waterless” — the contemplative sandhyā; the unwashed sandhyā of contemplation
वाक्कायक्लेशवर्जिताvākkāyakleśavarjitāfree of the toil of speech and body; released from the labours of word and flesh
संधिनी सर्वभूतानाम्saṃdhinī sarvabhūtānāmjoining all beings; binding together every creature
सा संध्या हि एकदण्डिनाम्sā saṃdhyā hi ekadaṇḍināmthat is the sandhyā of the one-staffed; such is the sandhyā of the bearers of one staff
Translation
The waterless, contemplative sandhyā, free of the toil of speech and body, joining all beings — that is the sandhyā of those who carry a single staff.
Version
0ca423200058 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:09:07 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A verse on what the sandhyā of the renounced is like, and it is transmitted corruptly: the first word reads unreliably in our witnesses, and I have left it as printed rather than substitute a guess.
The general sense, however, is clear from what stands beside it.
This sandhyā is called vāk-kāya-kleśa-varjitā — “free of the toil of speech and body”. Without utterance, that is, and without bodily labour: no ablutions, no libations, no counting of mantras.
Then — saṃdhinī sarvabhūtānām, “joining all beings”. A prayer that joins not the one praying with a god, but all with all.
And it is named whose it is: ekadaṇḍin — “bearing one staff”. So are called renouncers of a certain rank, as distinct from the “three-staffed”.
Here is the point to pause on. The book did not repeal the sandhyā for the renounced — it gave him his own.
The same measure we saw in the first verse of this chapter: who has the rite, wears the cord; who does not — wears the inner one. Nothing is taken away without replacement.