Upanishads · Tripurātāpinī 103
॥
Devanāgarī
मन एव मनुष्याणां कारणं बन्धमोक्षयोः । बन्धनं विषयासक्तं मुक्त्यै निर्विषयं मनः ॥ 3॥ निरस्तविषयासङ्गं संनिरुध्य मनो हृदि । यदा यात्यमनीभावस्तदा तत्परमं पदम् ॥ 4
Transliteration (IAST)
mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandhamokṣayoḥ | bandhanaṃ viṣayāsaktaṃ muktyai nirviṣayaṃ manaḥ || 3|| nirastaviṣayāsaṅgaṃ saṃnirudhya mano hṛdi | yadā yātyamanībhāvastadā tatparamaṃ padam || 4
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
मनः एव मनुष्याणां कारणं बन्ध-मोक्षयोःmanaḥ eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandha-mokṣayoḥthe mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation of people
बन्धनं विषय-आसक्तम्bandhanaṃ viṣaya-āsaktambondage — attached to objects
मुक्त्यै निर्विषयं मनःmuktyai nirviṣayaṃ manaḥfor liberation — the objectless mind
संनिरुध्य मनः हृदिsaṃnirudhya manaḥ hṛdihaving restrained the mind in the heart
यदा याति अ-मनी-भावःyadā yāti a-manī-bhāvaḥwhen mindlessness comes
Translation
«The mind is the cause of the bondage and liberation of people: attached to objects — bondage; the objectless mind — for liberation. Having renounced attachment to objects and restrained the mind in the heart, when mindlessness comes — then that is the highest place».
Version
a31e5c30b8af · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The verse mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandha-mokṣayoḥ — «the mind is the cause of the bondage and liberation of people» — is famous and rightly so: it stands in the Amṛtabindu (2), in the Maitrī (6.34), and is repeated in hundreds of compositions. Worth noting a play on words lost in translation: manas, «mind», and manuṣya, «human being», are from the same root man, «to think». «Human being» in Sanskrit is, literally, «a being with a mind»; and so the verse essentially says: that by which a person is a person both binds him and frees him.
This observation is precise and does not depend on school. Nothing torments a person as much as his own head, and nothing rescues him as much either; and anyone who has spent a sleepless night knows both sides. The disagreement begins at the next word — amanībhāva, «mindlessness», a state in which there is no mind. It is said that the highest place is attained then.
The objection here is the same as to the previous line, but one further consideration is worth adding. If the limit is a mindless state, then in it there is no one to know that the limit has been attained. Every attainment presupposes one who attains; and one who has attained without a mind can neither know, nor love, nor remember anything. Such a limit is indistinguishable from deep sleep, and deep sleep is no reward, for it happens to everyone every night and has liberated no one yet.
Hence Vaishnavas hold that the mind is not destroyed, but changes its object; and the Gītā, speaking of the limit, does not say «leave the mind», but «fix the mind on Me» — mayi manaḥ ādhatsva (12.8).