Upanishads · Mahā 3.13
॥
Devanāgarī
तरवोऽपि हि जीवन्ति जीवन्ति मृगपक्षिणः स जीवति मनो यस्य मननेनोपजीवति
Transliteration (IAST)
taravo'pi hi jīvanti jīvanti mṛgapakṣiṇaḥ sa jīvati mano yasya mananenopajīvati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तरवः अपि हि जीवन्तिtaravaḥ api hi jīvantifor trees too live; for even the trees are alive
जीवन्ति मृग-पक्षिणःjīvanti mṛga-pakṣiṇaḥbeasts and birds live; alive are both beasts and fowl
सः जीवति मनः यस्यsaḥ jīvati manaḥ yasyahe lives whose mind; he is alive whose consciousness
मननेन उपजीवतिmananena upajīvatilives upon reflection; feeds upon meditation
Translation
“For trees too live, and beasts and birds live; he lives whose mind feeds upon reflection.”
Version
dece6893ca45 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is short and almost an aphorism.
The argument is simple: if life is breathing, growth and feeding, then a tree lives no worse than we, and a bird better. So these marks do not define us.
What defines is manana — reflection turned toward the essence.
Note the verb upajīvati: “feeds upon, lives off”. Not “reflects at times”, but is nourished by it.
It is curious that in the second chapter the same word manana stood among the things ordered left behind (2.52). There is no contradiction: there the speech was of the grinding of everyday cares, here of the inquiry into the essence. One and the same instrument, pointed in different directions.
And further: manana is the second of the three steps of the Vedāntic path, between hearing and concentration. Nidāgha, then, calls life precisely that work for whose sake he came to the teacher.