Upanishads · Yājñavalkya 24
॥
Devanāgarī
यतीनां तदुपादेयं पारहंस्यं परं पदम् । नातः परतरं किञ्चिद्विद्यते मुनिपुङ्गवः
Transliteration (IAST)
yatīnāṃ tadupādeyaṃ pārahaṃsyaṃ paraṃ padam | nātaḥ parataraṃ kiñcidvidyate munipuṅgavaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यतीनां तत् उपादेयंyatīnāṃ tat upādeyaṃfor ascetics, that is to be accepted
पारहंस्यं परं पदम्pārahaṃsyaṃ paraṃ padamthe swan-like supreme place
न अतः परतरं किञ्चित्na ataḥ parataraṃ kiñcitnothing higher than this
विद्यते मुनि-पुङ्गवःvidyate muni-puṅgavaḥexists, O bull among sages
Translation
For ascetics, that is to be accepted — the swan-like supreme place; nothing higher than this exists, O bull among sages. Such is the upaniṣad.
Version
4c4f0e786f9a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The book ends, and it is worth noting the last word: paraṃ padam, "the supreme place." Of the word pada, "foot, footprint, place," it was said when reading the Tārasāra (1.11), and the main point was said there: what is attained is a place, not an essence. Let us now look back over the whole book and say what is in it.
It consists of two prose sections and twenty-four verses, and falls into parts of unequal worth. Three passages in it are the finest, and all three deserve remembering. p4 — yad ahar eva virajet tad ahar eva pravrajet, "on whatever day he becomes averse, on that very day let him go forth": all ritual conditions are set aside, and one state remains.
p13 — the cut thread is replaced by praṇava and the self: the mark of belonging is transferred from what is given to few, to what everyone has. Verse 4 — praṇamed daṇḍa-vad bhūmāv a-śva-caṇḍāla-go-kharam, "let him bow, prostrate on the ground, down to a dog, an outcast, a cow, and a donkey," for īśvaro jīva-kalayā praviṣṭaḥ. With this one verse everything we read in earlier books about exclusion by birth is annulled.
The three verses on anger (19–21) are fine too, especially the last, where anger is thanked for revealing faults. There is also what cannot be accepted, and we have not softened it. p15 — the list of five methods of killing oneself, called the path of wanderers; and the arguments against it were given there.
Verses 5–14 — ten verses reviling women; and this was discussed in detail when reading the fifth. Let me recall only the main point: the argument "dissect and show part by part" applies to any body, including the speaker's own; the blame is transferred from one's own desire to the object; and the woman in these verses is not a person but an element — whereas in Vaiṣṇava books women speak, argue, and reproach, and the highest of the devotees is named a woman. Verse 3 — "to whom, then, would the knower of the self bow?" — and the book itself annuls it with verse four, which commands bowing to a donkey.