Upanishads · Mahā 5.44
॥
Devanāgarī
त्वत्ताहन्तात्मता यत्र परता नास्ति काचन न क्वचिद्भावकलना न भावाभाव गोचरा
Transliteration (IAST)
tvattāhantātmatā yatra paratā nāsti kācana na kvacidbhāvakalanā na bhāvābhāva gocarā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
त्वत्ता-अहन्ता-आत्मता यत्रtvattā-ahantā-ātmatā yatrawhere “thou-ness”, “I-ness”, “self-ness”; where “thou”, “I” and “one's own”
परता न अस्ति काचनparatā na asti kācanaand no otherness whatever exists; and not any estrangement is found
न क्वचित् भाव-कलनाna kvacit bhāva-kalanānowhere any positing of states; nowhere a fashioning of appearances
न भाव-अभाव-गोचराna bhāva-abhāva-gocarānot within the range of being and non-being; not subject to presence or absence
Translation
“Where there is no ‘thou’, no ‘I’, no ‘self’, nor any otherness whatever; where nowhere is there a positing of states, and which falls under neither being nor non-being…”
Version
3941b4b1d37a · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The description of the goal begins with the negation of three pronouns: “thou”, “I”, “one's own”.
These are the same three listed in 4.47 as the composition of “the seen”: jagat, tvam, aham.
And paratā is added — “otherness”. Not only “I” and “thou” vanish, but the very relation of estrangement.
Note the word kalanā — “positing, carving up”, familiar since the second chapter (2.53, 2.77). It is nowhere.
The Vaiṣṇava reading of such passages holds to one distinction, spoken of already at 4.78. What is negated is estrangement, not difference. The “thou” and “I” said coldly, as of strangers — that is what departs; the relation remains, for otherwise there would be no one to have this state.
The following verses continue the list.