Upanishads · Kaṭharudra 38
॥
Devanāgarī
इति सप्तविधं प्रोक्तं भिद्यते व्यवहारतः । मायोपाधिविनिर्मुक्तं शुद्धमित्यभिधीयते
Transliteration (IAST)
iti saptavidhaṃ proktaṃ bhidyate vyavahārataḥ | māyopādhivinirmuktaṃ śuddhamityabhidhīyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
इति सप्त-विधं प्रोक्तंiti sapta-vidhaṃ proktaṃthus the sevenfold is named
भिद्यते व्यवहारतःbhidyate vyavahārataḥit is distinguished by usage
माया-उपाधि-विनिर्मुक्तंmāyā-upādhi-vinirmuktaṃfree of the limiting adjunct of māyā
शुद्धम् इति अभिधीयतेśuddham iti abhidhīyateis called pure
Translation
Thus the sevenfold is named; it is distinguished by usage. Free of the limiting adjunct of māyā, it is called pure.
Version
33da7cf4ceb2 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the word on which this whole construction rests: vyavahārataḥ, "by usage." Vyavahāra means "usage, practical life, application"; and it is set against paramārtha, "the highest sense." The teaching consists in this: distinctions are real in usage and unreal by the highest reckoning.
This is the famous division into two levels, discussed when reading the Tripurā-tāpanī (106); and here it is named directly, not merely implied. It is worth examining it without haste, then. The device itself is legitimate: we use it constantly. The table is solid for us, and for physics almost empty, and both statements are true in their own order.
The Vaiṣṇava objection is not that there are no levels, but what is placed on them. If the distinction between the soul and God is assigned to the level of usage, then love, service, and every petition are assigned to it too — that is, everything for whose sake these books were written. And then it turns out that at the highest level there is neither one who prays nor one prayed to; and at that level, as has been said, no one lives.
There is one more thing, and it settles more than the rest. The distinction between usage and the highest sense is itself a distinction; and it cannot be declared real at the highest level, for there are no distinctions there, and to declare it unreal is to cancel this very teaching. This difficulty is old, and no satisfactory answer to it has been given.