Upanishads · Mahā 2.69
॥
Devanāgarī
द्रष्टृदर्शनदृश्यानां मध्ये यद्दर्शनं स्मृतम् नातः परतरं किंचिन्निश्चयोऽस्त्यपरो मुने
Transliteration (IAST)
draṣṭṛdarśanadṛśyānāṃ madhye yaddarśanaṃ smṛtam nātaḥ parataraṃ kiṃcinniścayo'styaparo mune
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
द्रष्टृ-दर्शन-दृश्यानाम्draṣṭṛ-darśana-dṛśyānāmof the seer, the seeing and the seen; of the looker, the looking and the looked-upon
मध्ये यत् दर्शनम् स्मृतम्madhye yat darśanam smṛtamthat among them which is called seeing; what among them is named the looking
न अतः परतरम् किंचित्na ataḥ parataram kiṃcitthere is nothing higher than this; nothing whatever surpasses this
निश्चयः अस्ति अपरः मुनेniścayaḥ asti aparaḥ munethere is no other conclusion, O sage; no other determination exists, O silent one
Translation
“Of the three — seer, seeing and seen — that which is called seeing is the middle one; there is nothing higher than this, and no other conclusion, O sage.”
Version
1f599aed5c4d · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is compressed to the limit and therefore hard. Let us take it apart.
All cognition resolves into three: draṣṭṛ — the one who looks; dṛśya — that which is looked upon; darśana — the looking itself, the link between them.
The book points to the middle one: darśana. Not to the looker and not to the object, but to the act itself.
Why? Because the first and the third are extremes: the “I” apart and the “thing” apart. Both are carved out of something simpler — out of the very shining in which alone both the one and the other exist.
Hence it is said: there is nothing higher.
Note the firmness of the last line: niścayo'sty aparo — “there is no other conclusion”. After all the “neither this nor that”, Janaka ends the inquiry with an assertion that admits no bargaining.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta takes this verse as a description, not as the last word: consciousness is indeed prior to both the knower and the known. But this consciousness itself belongs to someone; the question kasya, “whose”, asked by Śuka in 2.15, still stands here.