Upanishads · Mahā 4.66
॥
Devanāgarī
मनसा भाव्यमानो हि देहतां याति देहकः देहवासनया मुक्तो देहधर्मैर्न लिप्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
manasā bhāvyamāno hi dehatāṃ yāti dehakaḥ dehavāsanayā mukto dehadharmairna lipyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
मनसा भाव्यमानः हिmanasā bhāvyamānaḥ hifor, being thought upon by the mind; since, being dwelt upon by consciousness
देहताम् याति देहकःdehatām yāti dehakaḥthe little body comes to bodihood; the frame arrives at the state of a body
देह-वासनया मुक्तःdeha-vāsanayā muktaḥfreed from the inclination to the body; released from the leaning toward the corporeal
देह-धर्मैः न लिप्यतेdeha-dharmaiḥ na lipyateone is not stained by the body's properties; one is not soiled by the laws of the flesh
Translation
“For the body becomes a body because the mind keeps thinking it; and he who is freed from the inclination to the body is not stained by the properties of the flesh.”
Version
aa37ccaa94aa · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse explains what our boundness to the body is held by, and the explanation is unexpected.
The body becomes the body — that is, what you are — because the mind bhāvyamāna, “keeps thinking” it.
We make ourselves the body every minute: noticing it, guarding it, adorning it, worrying over it. That work is the tether.
Hence the remedy: deha-vāsanā, “the inclination to the body” — not the body.
The last line promises: such a man “is not stained by the properties of the flesh” — deha-dharmaiḥ na lipyate.
The verb lipyate is the same as in 2.48: it does not stick. The body's properties — hunger, ageing, pain — remain; but they cease to be his properties.
Vaiṣṇava thought adds the familiar rule: a body given over to service ceases to be an object of care without ceasing to be an instrument. The mind is busy not with it but with the work, and the tie breaks of itself.