Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 3p4
॥
Devanāgarī
रुद्राक्षधारणविधिं वै सर्वे श्रोतुमिच्छामह इति
Transliteration (IAST)
rudrākṣadhāraṇavidhiṃ vai sarve śrotumicchāmaha iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
रुद्राक्ष-धारण-विधिं वैrudrākṣa-dhāraṇa-vidhiṃ vaithe rule of wearing the rudrākṣa indeed
सर्वे श्रोतुम् इच्छामहे इतिsarve śrotum icchāmahe itiall of us wish to hear
Translation
The rule of wearing the rudrākṣa — all of us wish to hear it.
Version
56cde8ce286e · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The answer is given, and it is brief: sarve śrotum icchāmahe, "all of us wish to hear." The verb śru, "to hear," in this construction deserves noting, for in Indian literature it carries more than in ours. This whole tradition is called śruti, "that which is heard"; knowledge was transmitted by voice and received by ear, and a learned person was called śrotriya, "one who has heard." Reading a book was held a secondary matter — to know meant to have heard it from someone.
This order has been lost to us, and the loss deserves naming. We receive everything through the eyes and alone, and so we assume that a text suffices for knowledge. The Vaiṣṇava side has preserved the order of hearing and holds it first in its list of nine kinds of service: śravaṇaṃ kīrtanaṃ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam, "hearing, singing, remembering Viṣṇu" (Bhāgavatam 7.5.23). Śravaṇam stands first, even before singing.
The basis for this is not reverence for antiquity, but the substance of the matter, and it deserves stating. Listening, a person is in someone's presence and has no power over the pace; reading, he has power over everything — he can skip, return, set it aside. Hence listening requires what reading does not: trust and patience; and both are properties not of the mind but of a relationship. This is why the old books insist that teaching is received from a person, not from a page.