Upanishads · Mahā 3.57
॥
Devanāgarī
नो चेन्मौनं समास्थाय निर्मानो गतमत्सरः भावयन्मनसा विष्णुं लिपिकर्मार्पितोपमः
Transliteration (IAST)
no cenmaunaṃ samāsthāya nirmāno gatamatsaraḥ bhāvayanmanasā viṣṇuṃ lipikarmārpitopamaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नो चेत् मौनम् समास्थायno cet maunam samāsthāyaif not — having taken up silence; and otherwise — settled in muteness
निर्मानः गत-मत्सरःnirmānaḥ gata-matsaraḥwithout pride, without envy; without arrogance, having left ill-will
भावयन् मनसा विष्णुम्bhāvayan manasā viṣṇumcontemplating Viṣṇu with the mind; musing on Viṣṇu in consciousness
लिपि-कर्म-अर्पित-उपमःlipi-karma-arpita-upamaḥlike one rendered in painted strokes; just like a figure laid on with a brush
Translation
“And if not — then, taking up silence, without pride and without envy, contemplating Viṣṇu with my mind, I shall become like a painted figure.”
Version
0276d67a79dc · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The chapter's last verse, and in it the resolution toward which everything moved, though it was hard to foresee.
After fifty-six verses on decay, craving, the body and death, Nidāgha says what he will do if the preceptor does not wake him: bhāvayan manasā viṣṇum — “contemplating Viṣṇu with the mind”.
This is where the whole inventory of the world leads out. Not into emptiness and not into stupor, but to a name.
It is the first name of the Supreme in the third adhyāya and the first positive refuge Nidāgha has named.
Three conditions attend it: mauna — silence, nirmāna — absence of pride, gata-matsara — absence of envy. The same three that stood in the list of the liberated man's marks in the second chapter (2.50).
And the last image: lipi-karma-arpita-upama — “like a figure laid on with a brush”. A painted man does not move, wants nothing and responds to nothing; and yet he is, and he looks at something.
Note how the chapter has ended in substance. The youth went through the whole world and found no support in it; and, finding none, he named Viṣṇu and fell silent. In the next adhyāya Ṛbhu will answer him.