Upanishads · Bhāvanā p12
॥
Devanāgarī
वचनादानगमनविसर्गानन्दहानो पेक्षा बुद्धयोऽनङ्गकुसुमादिशक्तयोऽष्टौ
Transliteration (IAST)
vacanādānagamanavisargānandahāno pekṣā buddhayo'naṅgakusumādiśaktayo'ṣṭau
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
वचन-आदान-गमन-विसर्ग-vacana-ādāna-gamana-visarga-speech, taking, walking, evacuation
आनन्द-हान-उपेक्षा-ānanda-hāna-upekṣā-delight, abandonment, indifference
बुद्धयःbuddhayaḥand understanding
अनङ्ग-कुसुम-आदि-शक्तयः अष्टौanaṅga-kusuma-ādi-śaktayaḥ aṣṭauare Anaṅgakusuma and the other eight powers
Translation
Speech, taking, walking, evacuation, delight, abandonment, indifference, and understanding are Anaṅgakusuma and the other eight powers.
Version
200f2c759e00 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Eight actions, and the last three of them deserve examination: hāna, "abandonment"; upekṣā, "indifference"; buddhi, "understanding." Hāna and upādāna — "abandonment" and "acceptance" — are, in Indian behavioral science, a pair describing every choice: a person either takes or leaves. And between them stands a third, upekṣā, "non-interference, disregard."
This word is worth remembering, for it names something our languages have almost no word for. There is consent, there is refusal — and there is leaving a thing in peace: neither taking nor pushing away, but not engaging with it. In Vaiṣṇava manuals, upekṣā is named directly, with an indication of to whom it applies. Rūpa Gosvāmī speaks of four relations: to God — love; to a devotee — friendship; to the innocent — mercy; and to the hostile — upekṣā, non-interference.
This counsel, to my mind, is among the soberest given in these books. One is not enjoined to argue with the hostile, quarrel with him, or correct him: one is enjoined to leave him in peace. Anyone who has tried to out-stubborn a hostile person knows this only strengthens the hostility; and left without fuel, it most often dies out on its own.