Upanishads · Yājñavalkya 21
॥
Devanāgarī
नमोऽस्तु मम कोपाय स्वाश्रयज्वालिने भृशम् । कोपस्य मम वैराग्यदायिने दोषबोधिने
Transliteration (IAST)
namo'stu mama kopāya svāśrayajvāline bhṛśam | kopasya mama vairāgyadāyine doṣabodhine
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नमः अस्तु मम कोपायnamaḥ astu mama kopāyahomage let there be to my anger
स्व-आश्रय-ज्वालिने भृशम्sva-āśraya-jvāline bhṛśamwhich strongly burns its own vessel
कोपस्य मम वैराग्य-दायिनेkopasya mama vairāgya-dāyineto my anger, which gives dispassion
दोष-बोधिनेdoṣa-bodhinewhich reveals faults
Translation
Homage let there be to my anger, which strongly burns its own vessel; to my anger, which gives dispassion and reveals faults.
Version
a180c7ca9127 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The third verse on anger, and it is fine for its unexpected turn: anger is bowed to and thanked. Two reasons are named, and both are worth examining. The first: sva-āśraya-jvaline, "which burns its own vessel." Anger burns the one in whom it blazes — and so punishes itself.
This observation is true and familiar to everyone: an angry person harms himself more than the one he was angry at. The second: doṣa-bodhine, "which reveals faults." This is the main point, and it is worth voicing.
Anger shows a person himself. As long as all is calm, he does not know what is in him; but flaring up, he learns it all at once — of his own pettiness, his vindictiveness, of what he actually treasures. Hence anger is called vairāgya-dāyine, "giver of dispassion": having seen himself thus, a person becomes more modest about himself.
This turn, to my mind, is the finest in the book, and it is worth keeping as a rule. A fault noticed in oneself is more useful than a virtue one admires; and any slip, if not healed over with self-justification, gives more than a month of even conduct. The Vaiṣṇava side expresses this through kārpaṇya, "the acknowledgment of one's own helplessness," discussed when reading the Kṛṣṇa-upaniṣad (2.12): it is counted, for her, among the six conditions of self-surrender — and is, accordingly, not a hindrance but a condition.
Let us add what follows from this practically. A person with nothing bad behind him has nothing to surrender; and so one who has slipped is closer to the beginning of the path than one satisfied with himself.