Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 1.25
॥
Devanāgarī
तस्मात्सर्वप्रयत्नेन मुनेऽहिंसादिसाधनैः । आत्मानमक्षरं ब्रह्म विद्धि ज्ञानात्तु वेदनात्
Transliteration (IAST)
tasmātsarvaprayatnena mune'hiṃsādisādhanaiḥ | ātmānamakṣaraṃ brahma viddhi jñānāttu vedanāt
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तस्मात् सर्व-प्रयत्नेनtasmāt sarva-prayatnenatherefore, with every effort
मुने अ-हिंसा-आदि-साधनैःmune a-hiṃsā-ādi-sādhanaiḥO sage, by non-harming and other means
आत्मानम् अक्षरं ब्रह्मātmānam akṣaraṃ brahmathe self, the imperishable brahman
विद्धि ज्ञानात् तु वेदनात्viddhi jñānāt tu vedanātknow, by knowledge and by direct understanding
Translation
"Therefore, with every effort, O sage, by the means of non-harming and the rest, — know the self, the imperishable brahman, by knowledge and by direct understanding."
Version
89404f613c89 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The first khanda ends, and it ends with the word sadhana, "means." That is, the ten restraints just enumerated are named not the goal, but the instrument; and it deserves noting that this is said directly, not left for the reader to infer. Worth examining too are the two words standing at the close: jnanat and vedanat, "from knowledge" and "from direct understanding." Both come from roots meaning "to know"; and as a pair they are usually distinguished this way: jnana is knowledge received from someone, vedana is understanding that has become one's own.
This difference is familiar to anyone from daily life. It is one thing to know that fire burns because one was told; another to know it by having been burned. The first can be conveyed in words; the second cannot.
The Vaishnava side places a third term between them and calls it anubhava, "lived experience"; and it says the path runs from what is heard to what is lived, not from one argument to the next. Let us now look back over the whole first khanda, for it forms a complete unit. Ten restraints have been listed, and each has been defined twice: first in an ordinary sense (do not kill, do not lie, do not take), then raised to its ground (no one can be killed, only being is truly real, nothing is truly one's own).
This construction is, in my view, the book's chief merit. It does not cancel the ordinary rule for the sake of the lofty one, and it does not leave the reader with the ordinary rule alone; it gives both tiers, and does not pretend that the upper makes the lower unnecessary. The danger of the upper tier we have named, and shall say once more in closing: raising a commandment to its ground is, for one who has attained, an explanation, and for one who has not, a temptation; and hence these definitions should be read from the bottom up, not from the top down.