Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 10.13
॥
Devanāgarī
एवमुक्त्वा स भगवान्दत्तात्रेयो महामुनिः । सांकृतिः स्वस्वरूपेण सुखमास्तेऽतिनिर्भयः
Transliteration (IAST)
evamuktvā sa bhagavāndattātreyo mahāmuniḥ | sāṃkṛtiḥ svasvarūpeṇa sukhamāste'tinirbhayaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एवम् उक्त्वा सः भगवान्evam uktvā saḥ bhagavānhaving thus spoken, that Lord
दत्तात्रेयः महा-मुनिःdattātreyaḥ mahā-muniḥDattatreya, the great sage
सांकृतिः स्व-स्व-रूपेणsāṃkṛtiḥ sva-sva-rūpeṇaSankriti, in his own form
सुखम् आस्ते अति-निर्भयःsukham āste ati-nirbhayaḥdwells happily, wholly fearless
Translation
"Having thus spoken, that Lord Dattatreya, the great sage, [fell silent]; and Sankriti, in his own form, dwells happily, wholly fearless. Thus."
Version
44c12c0ead4e · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The book ends, and its last line is, in my view, the finest rebuttal of everything said in the last khanda. Look at what is written here. Dattatreya spoke; Sankriti dwells. Two.
And it adds sva-sva-rupena, "in his own form": he did not dissolve, did not vanish, did not become one — he remained in his own form. And ten lines earlier it was said that the distinction between questioner and answerer is the work of the deluded (10.4), and that one who has attained "does not see all beings" (10.11). The contradiction is complete, and it stands not in different parts of the book, but thirteen lines apart.
Let us say plainly what follows from this. A teaching of complete oneness cannot be narrated, for narration requires two; and any book that carries it to its end is forced to close on a scene where two remain. The Vaishnava side points to exactly this, and not out of pedantry. Its position is this: oneness is the truth about substance and about the ground, and difference is the truth about relation; and both truths stand together, because the book itself holds them together.
Let us now look back over the whole book and say what is in it and what is not. There are fine things in it, worth recounting. The definition of austerity as the thinking-through of two questions (2.4). The definition of celibacy as "the wandering of the mind in brahman" — that is, occupation, not prohibition (1.14). The rule to test everything, including the teacher. The five definitions of withdrawal of the senses, of which the best is to do everything for Him (7.4). The word paramatma, named the goal of breath (6.17). "Remember such-and-such" at every technique — testimony that an abstract teaching cannot be performed abstractly (6.39). And the last line, where two remain.
There is also what cannot be accepted, and we have not softened this: the promise that greyness will vanish (6.19); healing from all diseases by concentration (6.23 and onward); "nothing whatever is hard to attain" (6.20), refuted by Patanjali himself (3.37); and the declaration that the world does not exist (10.7), which, taken seriously, cancels mercy. Its chief merit, however, is that it is honest in its incompleteness. Five times it says athava, "or else," and offers another path to one for whom the stated one is beyond reach; three times it cancels its own details; and not once does it assert that its ladder is the only one.