Upanishads · Mahā 4.35
॥
Devanāgarī
अप्राप्तं हि परित्यज्य सम्प्राप्ते समतां गतः अदृष्टखेदाखेदो यः सन्तुष्ट इति कथ्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
aprāptaṃ hi parityajya samprāpte samatāṃ gataḥ adṛṣṭakhedākhedo yaḥ santuṣṭa iti kathyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अप्राप्तम् हि परित्यज्यaprāptam hi parityajyahaving relinquished the unattained; having cast off what did not fall to him
सम्प्राप्ते समताम् गतःsamprāpte samatām gataḥcome to evenness in what has come; arrived at equalness in what was obtained
अदृष्ट-खेद-अखेदः यःadṛṣṭa-kheda-akhedaḥ yaḥwho has neither grief nor joy over the unseen; in whom is neither chagrin nor exultation over the unbeheld
सन्तुष्टः इति कथ्यतेsantuṣṭaḥ iti kathyatehe is called content; he is named the satisfied one
Translation
“Who has cast off the unattained, is even toward what has come to him, and is touched by neither grief nor joy over the unseen — he is called content.”
Version
7741a1f7c560 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A definition of contentment, and it is laid out in three parts.
First: to leave aprāpta — “the unattained”. Not to desire what is not there.
Second: to be even toward samprāpta — “what has come”. This is harder: it is not enough not to covet another's; one must also not keep sorting over one's own.
Third, the subtlest: adṛṣṭa-kheda-akheda — neither grief nor joy over “the unseen”, that is, over what a man does not know and has not seen.
This third part deserves examination. We grieve and rejoice much over what we have not seen: that somewhere people live better, that another's lot fell out differently, that things might have gone otherwise. All this is feeling about the unseen.
The word santuṣṭa is from the root tuṣ, “to be pleased, to be sated”. Contentment here is neither submission nor listlessness: it is the state of one who has enough.