Upanishads · Varāha 1.8
॥
Devanāgarī
षड्भावविकृतिश्चास्ति जायते वर्धतेऽपि च । परिणामं क्षयं नाशं षड्भावविकृतिं विदुः
Transliteration (IAST)
ṣaḍbhāvavikṛtiścāsti jāyate vardhate'pi ca | pariṇāmaṃ kṣayaṃ nāśaṃ ṣaḍbhāvavikṛtiṃ viduḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
षट्-भाव-विकृतिः च अस्तिṣaṭ-bhāva-vikṛtiḥ ca astiand there are six changes of state
जायते वर्धते अपि चjāyate vardhate api cais born, grows, likewise
परिणामं क्षयं नाशंpariṇāmaṃ kṣayaṃ nāśaṃtransforms, diminishes, perishes
षट्-भाव-विकृतिं विदुःṣaṭ-bhāva-vikṛtiṃ viduḥthey know as the six changes
Translation
"And there are six changes of state: is born, exists, grows, transforms, diminishes, perishes; these they know as the six changes."
Version
27a6c4765e5a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The shad-bhava-vikara, "six changes," are named, and they are one of the finest lists in Indian literature. Here they are: asti ("exists"), jayate ("is born"), vardhate ("grows"), parinamate ("transforms"), apakshiyate ("diminishes"), vinashyati ("perishes"). Worth noting is that this is an inventory of everything that happens to a thing; and everything existing in the world passes through these six.
The list is ascribed to the grammarian Yaska, and in Vedanta it is used as a criterion of the material: what these six happen to is matter. Correspondingly, what they do not happen to is not matter; and the whole argument for the imperishable is built on this one list. Let us add what follows from this for a person, and deserves stating directly.
Each of us was born, grows, changes, diminishes, and will perish. If this happened to us, we would not exist after sixty years. And yet a person of sixty says "I" of the same one he said it of at six; and not one part of his body has remained the same through that time.
This gap is, in my view, the single most convincing argument that not everything changes; and the whole Upanishadic literature is, in substance, the working-out of this one observation. The Gita speaks of the same, in its most famous verse of all: "as the embodied one passes through childhood, youth, and old age, so too the taking of another body" (2.13) — that is, he passes through, not something that happens to him.