Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 3.25
॥
Devanāgarī
अनाख्यमनभिव्यक्तं सत्किञ्चिदवशिष्यते । ध्यात्वा मध्यस्थमात्मानं कलशान्तरदीपवत्
Transliteration (IAST)
anākhyamanabhivyaktaṃ satkiñcidavaśiṣyate | dhyātvā madhyasthamātmānaṃ kalaśāntaradīpavat
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अन्-आख्यम् अन्-अभिव्यक्तंan-ākhyam an-abhivyaktaṃnameless, unmanifest
सत् किञ्चित् अवशिष्यतेsat kiñcit avaśiṣyatesomething existent remains
ध्यात्वा मध्य-स्थम् आत्मानंdhyātvā madhya-stham ātmānaṃhaving contemplated the self, standing in the middle
कलश-अन्तर-दीप-वत्kalaśa-antara-dīpa-vatlike a lamp within a pot
Translation
"Nameless, unmanifest, — something existent remains. Having contemplated the self standing in the middle, like a lamp within a pot…**
Version
782180765aef · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is a line worth more attention than many others: sat kinchid avashishyate, "something existent remains." After all the negations — nameless, unmanifest, neither light nor darkness — it is said: something existent remains. The word kinchit, "something," is the most remarkable thing here. Not "nothing remains" and not "everything remains," but — something; and moreover sat, "existent."
This position deserves holding on to, for it is the limit reached by negations. One can negate for a long time; but every negation is a negation of something, and at the end remains that which there is nothing left to negate. The Vaishnava side stands on this and says: what remains is not an absence. If nothing remained, there would be no word "remains" either; and this word stands in the text, and stands after the strongest negations the book could find.
It is worth adding the simile standing right there too: kalasha-antara-dipa-vat, "like a lamp within a pot." This is the same image as in the fifteenth line, and again it is a light within a vessel, not emptiness in a vessel. That is, even where the book describes the limit through negations, the image by which it shows it is the image of a burning fire within. The fire is small, the vessel is closed, and outside is dark; but the fire exists.