Upanishads · Kaṭharudra 9
॥
Devanāgarī
न कर्मणा न प्रजया न चान्येनापि केचित् । ब्रह्मवेदनमात्रेण ब्रह्माप्नोत्येव मानवः
Transliteration (IAST)
na karmaṇā na prajayā na cānyenāpi kecit | brahmavedanamātreṇa brahmāpnotyeva mānavaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
न कर्मणा न प्रजयाna karmaṇā na prajayānot by deed, not by offspring
न च अन्येन अपि केचित्na ca anyena api kecitand not by anything else, no one
ब्रह्म-वेदन-मात्रेणbrahma-vedana-mātreṇaby knowledge of Brahman alone
ब्रह्म आप्नोति एव मानवःbrahma āpnoti eva mānavaḥdoes a person attain Brahman
Translation
Not by deed, not by offspring, and not by anything else does anyone [attain]; by knowledge of Brahman alone does a person attain Brahman.
Version
38da9f0b4494 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
This verse is a reworking of a famous Vedic line, and it is worth showing the reworking, for it is instructive. In the original (Mahānārāyaṇa, and Kaivalya 1.2) it is said: na karmaṇā na prajayā dhanena tyāgenaike amṛtatvam ānaśuḥ — "not by deed, not by offspring, not by wealth; by renunciation some have attained immortality." The key word there is tyāga, "renunciation."
Here it is replaced: instead of "by renunciation" stands brahma-vedana-mātreṇa, "by knowledge of Brahman alone." This substitution is no accident and betrays the collection's direction: merit is shifted from deed to knowledge. It is worth noting this without irritation — all schools have done so, Vaiṣṇava ones included — but also without pretending the verse is ancient: it has been reworked.
The substantive objection is this. The word mātreṇa, "alone," is here the strongest and most doubtful. That knowledge is necessary, no one disputes; that it alone suffices contradicts both experience and the rest of this very book. For why else forty lines on how to cut the tuft, what to eat, where to sleep, and how to walk? If knowledge suffices, all of this is superfluous; but the book does not say this, and, on the contrary, begins precisely with rite.
The Vaiṣṇava answer is given in the Gītā itself, and briefly: "even the wise acts according to his own nature" (3.33). Knowledge does not cancel the person; it shows him where to go, but he still has to walk with his own feet.