Upanishads · Mahā 4.78
॥
Devanāgarī
यदा ह्येवैष एतस्मिन्नल्पमप्यन्तरं नरः विजानाति तदा तस्य भयं स्यान्नत्र संशयः
Transliteration (IAST)
yadā hyevaiṣa etasminnalpamapyantaraṃ naraḥ vijānāti tadā tasya bhayaṃ syānnatra saṃśayaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यदा हि एव एषः एतस्मिन्yadā hi eva eṣaḥ etasminwhen indeed this man in this; as soon as this one, in that
अल्पम् अपि अन्तरम् नरःalpam api antaram naraḥeven a small difference; even the least interval
विजानाति तदा तस्यvijānāti tadā tasyadiscerns — then for him; perceives, then in him
भयम् स्यात् न अत्र संशयःbhayam syāt na atra saṃśayaḥthere is fear — of this no doubt; fear arises — herein is no doubt
Translation
“As soon as a man discerns in Him even the smallest difference, fear at once arises in him — of this there is no doubt.”
Version
1c3a97456aa0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse is taken from the Taittirīya (2.7), where it is said: where one makes even a small difference, there is fear for him.
It stands here as the reverse side of 4.69, where the knower was called one who never fears.
The word antara means “interval, difference, gap”. The slightest suffices — alpam api — and fear is there.
Why? Because fear is the experience of the gap. There is something that is not I and that can do something to me; that is the whole of fear.
Note how much more exact this is than the usual explanations. Not “fear from ignorance” and not “fear from attachment”, but fear from the interval.
And the Vaiṣṇava reading at once adds its proviso, without which the verse collides with 4.70. The speech is of the gap as estrangement, not of difference as such. A child is different from its mother and does not fear her; one fears not the different but the alien. What must be destroyed is estrangement, not difference.