Upanishads · Rudrahṛdaya 51
॥
Devanāgarī
आकाशमेकं सम्पूर्णं कुत्रचिन्नैव गच्छति । तद्वत्स्वात्मपरिज्ञानी कुत्रचिन्नैव गच्छति
Transliteration (IAST)
ākāśamekaṃ sampūrṇaṃ kutracinnaiva gacchati | tadvatsvātmaparijñānī kutracinnaiva gacchati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
आकाशम् एकं सम्पूर्णंākāśam ekaṃ sampūrṇaṃspace, one, full
कुत्रचित् न एव गच्छतिkutracit na eva gacchatigoes nowhere at all
तत्-वत् स्व-आत्म-परिज्ञानीtat-vat sva-ātma-parijñānīlike that, one who has fully known his own self
कुत्रचित् न एव गच्छतिkutracit na eva gacchatigoes nowhere at all
Translation
"Space, one, full, goes nowhere at all; likewise, one who has fully known his own self goes nowhere at all."
Version
0b7bcffb54bc · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The likeness with space appears a third time, and this time without pots: space is one, full, and goes nowhere. The observation is true: space has nowhere to move, for every motion occurs within it. Let us add to what was said earlier (43) one objection relevant to this version.
Space goes nowhere not because it has enough, but because it cannot. Its immobility is not peace, but incapacity; and to liken a person's peace to it is to equate what is attained with what is impossible. The difference is seen in a simple example. A stone does not steal — and we do not call it honest; space does not move — and we do not call it satisfied. Virtue is what occurs in one capable of the opposite.
Hence the Vaiṣṇava side dislikes likenesses drawn from the inert, convenient as they are. Every such likeness, taken from a thing, spoils the matter precisely because the thing cannot be otherwise; while everything said of the soul and of Him has value only insofar as it could have been otherwise — and was not. Let us add that the Gītā too, in describing one who is established, takes a likeness not from space, but from the ocean: "as waters enter the ocean, which is being filled, yet it remains unmoved — so he into whom all desires enter attains peace" (2.70). The ocean is moving and can be stirred; and so its stillness is a property, not an incapacity.