Upanishads · Avadhūta 30
॥
Devanāgarī
धन्योऽहं धन्योऽहं तृप्तेर्मे कोपमा भवेल्लोके । धन्योऽहं धन्योऽहं धन्यो धन्यः पुनः पुनर्धन्यः
Transliteration (IAST)
dhanyo'haṃ dhanyo'haṃ tṛpterme kopamā bhavelloke | dhanyo'haṃ dhanyo'haṃ dhanyo dhanyaḥ punaḥ punardhanyaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तृप्तेः मे का उपमाtṛpteḥ me kā upamāwhat likeness to my satisfaction
भवेत् लोकेbhavet lokecould be found in the world
धन्यः धन्यःdhanyaḥ dhanyaḥblessed, blessed
पुनः पुनः धन्यःpunaḥ punaḥ dhanyaḥagain and again blessed
Translation
Blessed am I, blessed am I: what likeness to my satisfaction could be found in the world? Blessed am I, blessed am I, blessed, blessed, again and again blessed.
Version
c8ec0916c276 · published Aug 6, 2026, 4:24:37 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
This line closes the jubilation, and it closes it by ceasing to assert anything at all: only one word remains, repeated five times. Look at the question in the first half: kā upamā bhavel loke, "what likeness could be found in the world?" The whole book, like every such book, was built on similes: sun, fire, ocean, guñjā. And here it is said: there is no likeness.
This admission is, in its way, more honest than all the arguments. Having reached what it is speaking of, the book finds there is nothing to compare it to; and instead of description, an exclamation comes out. The Vaiṣṇava reading finds here what recurs constantly in Vaiṣṇava books and is held a mark of the genuine. Argument ends where the object begins; and the last word is not a definition, but a cry.
Let us add that the repetition itself is testimony. No one repeats something five times to convince himself of it; one convinces by argument. One repeats what is too much to fit into a single utterance; and so "blessed, blessed, again and again blessed" is not rhetoric, but overflow.