Upanishads · Mahāvākya p2
॥
Devanāgarī
गुह्याद्गुह्यपरमेषा न प्राकृतायोपदेष्टव्या
Transliteration (IAST)
guhyādguhyaparameṣā na prākṛtāyopadeṣṭavyā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गुह्यात् गुह्य-परा एषाguhyāt guhya-parā eṣāit is more secret than the secret
न प्राकृताय उपदेष्टव्याna prākṛtāya upadeṣṭavyāit must not be taught to the ordinary
Translation
«It is more secret than the secret; it must not be taught to the ordinary.»
Version
bfee7a7c0e37 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Again a prohibition on transmission, and prohibitions of this kind were discussed reading the Gaṇapati (11.3); there is no need to repeat the arguments. It is worth examining, however, the word prākṛta itself, which names the one to whom it is not taught. This word means “natural, ordinary, of nature”; from the same root comes the name of the language Prakrit — the vernacular, as opposed to learned Sanskrit.
In common usage it means “simple, uncultivated”; and the Vaiṣṇava books use it in the fixed expression prākṛta-bhakta, “a material devotee,” that is, one who honors the form but does not discern among people. So the prohibition here is set not by birth, but by state: it is not taught to the uncultivated. This distinction matters, and is worth noting, for it separates this prohibition from those we read before. There, the condition was birth — “eight brāhmaṇas,” “a low ear”; here, the condition is what the person is.
A prohibition by state, unlike a prohibition by birth, is not a wall: a state changes, and anyone can cease to be prākṛta. The Vaiṣṇava side draws exactly this distinction and holds to it. The Gītā, having forbidden transmission to “one who lacks austerity, is not devoted, unwilling to listen, or scornful” (18.67), lists precisely states, not categories of birth; and in the very next verse commands that it be spread among the devoted (18.68).
Let us add what follows from this in practice. Whether a listener is fit should be checked not by who he is, but by whether he wants to listen; and the first condition, named in the next line, will be exactly this.