Upanishads · Mahā 6.72
॥
Devanāgarī
भावाभावविनिर्मुक्तं जरामरणवर्जितम् प्रशान्तकलनारभ्यं नीरागं पदमाश्रय
Transliteration (IAST)
bhāvābhāvavinirmuktaṃ jarāmaraṇavarjitam praśāntakalanārabhyaṃ nīrāgaṃ padamāśraya
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
भाव-अभाव-विनिर्मुक्तम्bhāva-abhāva-vinirmuktamfreed from being and non-being; released from presence and absence
जरा-मरण-वर्जितम्jarā-maraṇa-varjitamdevoid of old age and death; exempt from decrepitude and dying
प्रशान्त-कलना-आरभ्यम्praśānta-kalanā-ārabhyamreached when the positing has grown still; attainable when the surmising has subsided
नीरागम् पदम् आश्रयnīrāgam padam āśrayato the passionless state resort; to the station without fondness flee for refuge
Translation
“To the state freed from being and non-being, devoid of old age and death, reached when the positing has grown still, passionless — resort.”
Version
c5dac9c01d53 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The answer to the question of 6.24: “to what one thing shall I resort?”
The verb is the same: āśraya — “resort, take refuge”.
Note that the answer is given not by a name but by a description. The book here keeps to its language of negations.
Yet its name it did utter, and uttered at the very start: the first adhyāya did not reason but narrated — “Nārāyaṇa alone was”.
Such is the whole book's design. It opens with a Person and closes with a state; between them, six chapters of inquiry.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta reads this frame in its own favour and, I think, justly: that to which one is bidden resort is He with whom it all began.
Praśānta-kalanā-ārabhya — “reached when the positing has grown still”. One condition, and a familiar one.