Upanishads · Mahā 2.17
॥
Devanāgarī
अज्ञासिषं पूर्वमेवमहमित्यथ तत्पितुः स शुकः स्वकया बुद्ध्या न वाक्यं बहु मन्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
ajñāsiṣaṃ pūrvamevamahamityatha tatpituḥ sa śukaḥ svakayā buddhyā na vākyaṃ bahu manyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अज्ञासिषम् पूर्वम् एवम् अहम्ajñāsiṣam pūrvam evam aham“I knew this even before”; “this I had grasped already”
इति अथ तत्-पितुःiti atha tat-pituḥso then, his father's; and therefore his own parent's
सः शुकः स्वकया बुद्ध्याsaḥ śukaḥ svakayā buddhyāthat Śuka, by his own reason; this Śuka, by his own understanding
न वाक्यम् बहु मन्यतेna vākyam bahu manyatedoes not value the words highly; gives the words no great weight
Translation
“This I knew myself before” — and so Śuka, by his own reason, did not set great store by his father's words.
Version
b4a6f7044154 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the very cause, and it is named with merciless exactness.
Śuka does not argue with his father. He agrees. Precisely for this reason nothing happened: what he heard coincided with what he already had, and so it landed not as an answer but as a repetition.
“I knew this myself” — the phrase with which every teaching is cut short. It is not false; it simply closes.
The words svakayā buddhyā, “by his own reason”, repeat what Śuka was praised for in 2.2. There it was a merit. Here the same thing has become a hindrance. His own reason brought him to the truth, and the same reason keeps the truth from becoming a support.
This place is a verdict on the notion that spiritual teaching is a transfer of information. The information Śuka had. What he lacked was acceptance — and acceptance is a relation, not knowledge.
Here is rooted the Vaiṣṇava insistence on the guru. Not because the teacher knows more than the pupil — Vyāsa knew no less than Janaka. But because truth must be received from someone; and one can receive only where one is ready not to be the source.