भिन्ने तमसि चैकत्वमेक एवानुपश्यति ॥ 15॥ शब्दार्णमपरं ब्रह्म तस्मिन्क्षीणे यदक्षरम् । तद्विद्वानक्षरं ध्यायेद्यदीच्छेच्छान्तिमात्मनः ॥ 16॥ द्वे ब्रह्मणी हि मन्तव्ये शब्दब्रह्म परं च यत्
bhinne tamasi caikatvameka evānupaśyati || 15|| śabdārṇamaparaṃ brahma tasminkṣīṇe yadakṣaram | tadvidvānakṣaraṃ dhyāyedyadīcchecchāntimātmanaḥ || 16|| dve brahmaṇī hi mantavye śabdabrahma paraṃ ca yat
«As long as covered by the māyā of sound, so long one abides in fullness; upon the dispersal of darkness, however, one sees oneness, the one alone. The sound-Brahman is the lower; upon its exhaustion — that Imperishable; the knower of the Imperishable let him contemplate it, if he desires peace for himself. Two Brahmans are to be thought: Brahman-sound and what is beyond».
b4b33b2771d3 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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A distinction is introduced that matters for the whole understanding of mantras: śabda-brahman, «Brahman-sound», and para-brahman, «the highest Brahman». This teaching is old and goes back to the grammarians — to Bhartṛhari, for whom everything that exists is the unfolding of a word. Here it is taken in its usual form: sound is the lower stage, and upon its exhaustion the highest opens.
It is said, moreover, śabda-māyā-āvṛtaḥ, «covered by the māyā of sound»; that is, the word is called a covering, not a door. Here lies the difference for whose sake this whole book was worth reading to the end. By this verse, the word must be exhausted in order to arrive; by the Vaishnava teaching, it is by the word precisely that one arrives, for the Name is Him Himself. One side counts speech the outermost shell; the other, a means of meeting.
This dispute is not abstract, and each person's experience settles it. One who goes the first way falls silent at the end and remains alone; one who goes the second calls by name at the end and does not remain alone. Both roads have their witnesses; but a person, generally speaking, is so constituted that a name is more necessary to him than silence — and by this mark he chooses.
Let us add that this very book sets both positions side by side without embarrassment: it has only just listed the syllables as the body of the Goddess (97), and now it bids one exhaust sound. Compendia of this kind are useful precisely because they do not smooth over their own contradictions.