Upanishads · Mahā 5.131
॥
Devanāgarī
क्वचित्प्रकृतिरित्युक्तं क्वचिन्मायेति कल्पितम् क्वचिन्मलमिति प्रोक्तं क्वचित्कर्मेति संस्मृतम्
Transliteration (IAST)
kvacitprakṛtirityuktaṃ kvacinmāyeti kalpitam kvacinmalamiti proktaṃ kvacitkarmeti saṃsmṛtam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
क्वचित् प्रकृतिः इति उक्तम्kvacit prakṛtiḥ iti uktamsomewhere it is called “prakṛti”; in one place it is termed “prakṛti”
क्वचित् माया इति कल्पितम्kvacit māyā iti kalpitamsomewhere it is fancied “māyā”; in one place it is contrived as “māyā”
क्वचित् मलम् इति प्रोक्तम्kvacit malam iti proktamsomewhere it is declared “taint”; in one place it is pronounced “defilement”
क्वचित् कर्म इति संस्मृतम्kvacit karma iti saṃsmṛtamsomewhere it is remembered as “karma”; in one place it is recorded as “karma”
Translation
“Somewhere it is called ‘prakṛti’, somewhere fancied ‘māyā’, somewhere declared ‘taint’, somewhere remembered as ‘karma’.”
Version
ee0739dea005 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list continues, and here are named the names behind which stand whole schools.
Prakṛti — the primal ground of Sāṅkhya.
Māyā — the word of Vedānta.
Mala — “taint”, a notion of the Śaiva schools of Kashmir, where the soul's boundness is explained by three defilements.
Karma — the notion of Mīmāṃsā and of all ritual thought generally.
Four different explanations of what holds us — and the book sets them in one row.
Note the verbs: uktam, kalpitam, proktam, saṃsmṛtam — “called, contrived, declared, remembered”. All of them concern words, not one the thing.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta, which has its own doctrine of māyā as the Supreme's power, reads this list without offence: it does not abolish the differences between schools; it only points out that the object of their dispute is common.