Upanishads · Mahā 4.14
॥
Devanāgarī
ते द्वे ब्रह्मणि विन्देति कर्तृताकर्तृते मुने यत्रैवैष चमत्कारस्तमाश्रित्य स्थिरो भव
Transliteration (IAST)
te dve brahmaṇi vindeti kartṛtākartṛte mune yatraivaiṣa camatkārastamāśritya sthiro bhava
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ते द्वे ब्रह्मणि विन्द इतिte dve brahmaṇi vinda itifind these two in Brahman; obtain these twain in Brahman
कर्तृता-अकर्तृते मुनेkartṛtā-akartṛte munedoership and non-doership, O sage; action and non-action, O silent one
यत्र एव एषः चमत्कारःyatra eva eṣaḥ camatkāraḥwhere precisely is this wonder; just there is this marvel
तम् आश्रित्य स्थिरः भवtam āśritya sthiraḥ bhavaresorting to it, become firm; having taken refuge in it, be unshakable
Translation
“Find these two — doership and non-doership — in Brahman, O sage; there precisely is the wonder. Resorting to it, be firm.”
Version
db734bdad547 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The word for whose sake the verse deserves remembering: camatkāra — “wonder, amazement”.
The contradiction is not explained away to the end, nor smoothed over. It is named a marvel.
This is more honest than feigned clarity. How the doer can be a non-doer cannot be fully resolved by the mind; one can only see that it is so.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta gave this a name: acintya, “the inconceivable”. Acintya-bheda-abheda — the doctrine of inconceivable difference-and-non-difference — stands on exactly such a coupling, and the word camatkāra here foretells it.
Note the order at the end: not “understand”, but tam āśritya sthiro bhava — “resorting to it, be firm”.
Āśritya — “having found refuge”. One does not arrive at a wonder by inference; one shelters in it.