Upanishads · Mahāvākya p19
॥
Devanāgarī
ते ह नाकं महिमानः सचन्ते । यत्र पूर्वे साध्याः सन्ति देवाः
Transliteration (IAST)
te ha nākaṃ mahimānaḥ sacante | yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ते ह नाकं महिमानः सचन्तेte ha nākaṃ mahimānaḥ sacantethey, the great ones, attain heaven
यत्र पूर्वे साध्याः सन्ति देवाःyatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥwhere the former sādhyas, the gods, are
Translation
«They, the great ones, attain heaven, where the former sādhyas, the gods, are.»
Version
5596a821f9a8 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse continues the previous one (Ṛgveda 10.90.16) and tells where those who sacrificed arrive: nākam, “to heaven,” where pūrve sādhyāḥ, “the former sādhyas” are. Sādhya means “attainable,” and is also the name of a class of deities; it is interpreted, too, as “those who have attained,” that is, those who arrived there earlier. This last reading deserves note, for it gives a thought worth attention: the one who arrives arrives not at an empty place, but at a place where others already are.
This conception is fundamental in the Vaiṣṇava books, and deserves stating, for it distinguishes their description of the goal from others. Their goal is described as populated. There is He, His companions, occupations, society; and the one who attains enters it as one enters a house where one is awaited.
Compare this with the description that abstract ladders lead to: there, at the top, one remains alone, and the word kevala, “solitary,” discussed reading the Jābāla-darśana (6.47), expresses this precisely. The difference between “alone” and “among those who arrived before” is, to my mind, the most vivid of all differences between the two teachings; and it is not abstract, for everyone knows the difference between silence and a household. The word nākam, “heaven,” deserves note, however, with a qualification. Heaven, in Indian reckoning, is a place with a term, as discussed reading the Rudrākṣa-jābāla (1.5); and hence the promise of heaven, by itself, is not a promise of the ultimate.