Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.57
॥
Devanāgarī
तीर्थे ज्ञाने जपे यज्ञे काष्ठे पाषाणके सदा । शिवं पश्यति मूढात्मा शिवे देहे प्रतिष्ठिते
Transliteration (IAST)
tīrthe jñāne jape yajñe kāṣṭhe pāṣāṇake sadā | śivaṃ paśyati mūḍhātmā śive dehe pratiṣṭhite
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तीर्थे ज्ञाने जपे यज्ञेtīrthe jñāne jape yajñein a holy place, in knowledge, in repetition, in sacrifice
काष्ठे पाषाणके सदाkāṣṭhe pāṣāṇake sadāin wood, in stone, always
शिवं पश्यति मूढ-आत्माśivaṃ paśyati mūḍha-ātmāa fool sees Shiva
शिवे देहे प्रतिष्ठितेśive dehe pratiṣṭhitewhile Shiva is established in the body
Translation
"In a holy place, in knowledge, in repetition, in sacrifice, in wood, in stone — a fool sees Shiva, while Shiva is established in the body."
Version
9b5f05d83880 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The word is spoken: mudha-atma, "a fool" — of one who sees God in matter. Let us take this word and set it beside a verse of the Gita, for there the very same word stands and says the exact opposite. The Gita: avajananti mam mudha manushim tanum ashritam, param bhavam ajananto mama bhuta-maheshvaram — "fools despise Me, who have taken on a human form, not knowing My highest being as the great Lord of beings" (9.11).
This comparison deserves being examined slowly, for the whole dispute is contained in it. Here a fool is one who sees God in matter. There a fool is one who does not see Him in matter — in the human body He has taken on.
Both statements use the very same word and divide people into wise and foolish by exactly opposite criteria. This can only be sorted out by asking: on whom does it depend whether He is present in matter? If on us — then these lines are right: imagine as much as you like, wood remains wood. If on Him — then the Gita's verse is right: He is free to take a form, and to refuse to acknowledge this is to place one's own reasoning above His will.
The Vaishnava side chooses the second, and rests this not on feeling, but on what He says of Himself. The Gita continues: "relying on My deluding nature, their hopes are vain, their deeds are vain, their knowledge is vain" (9.12) — that is, the refusal to acknowledge a form is named there not caution, but blindness. Let us add a consideration this line evades. It says: Shiva is established in the body. But the body is matter, just as wood and stone are; and if He can be in flesh, why not in wood? An argument that rejects one kind of matter and accepts another is not an argument about matter — it is a preference.