Upanishads · Varāha 1.17
॥
Devanāgarī
ये षण्णवतितत्त्वज्ञा यत्र कुत्राश्रमे रताः । जटी मुण्डी शिखी वापि मुच्यते नात्र संशयः
Transliteration (IAST)
ye ṣaṇṇavatitattvajñā yatra kutrāśrame ratāḥ | jaṭī muṇḍī śikhī vāpi mucyate nātra saṃśayaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ये षट्-णवति-तत्त्व-ज्ञाःye ṣaṭ-ṇavati-tattva-jñāḥwho knows the ninety-six principles
यत्र कुत्र आश्रमे रताःyatra kutra āśrame ratāḥin whatever station he delights
जटी मुण्डी शिखी वा अपिjaṭī muṇḍī śikhī vā apimatted-haired, shaven, or with a topknot
मुच्यते न अत्र संशयःmucyate na atra saṃśayaḥis freed — there is no doubt here
Translation
"Who knows the ninety-six principles — in whatever station he delights, matted-haired or shaven or with a topknot — is freed, there is no doubt here."
Version
31b4f397546d · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The first chapter ends with a verse cancelling every external condition: yatra kutrashrame ratah, "in whatever station he delights." That is, it makes no difference whether he is a student, a householder, a forest-dweller, or a wanderer. And of appearance it is added: jati mundi shikhi va api, "matted-haired, shaven, or with a topknot."
Three kinds of distinguishing marks are listed: the tangled locks of the hermit, the shaved head of the renunciate, the topknot of the householder. That is, both status and mark are cancelled at once. Worth comparing this to what we read in the Yajnavalkya, where the whole book was devoted to the rite of renunciation — cutting the topknot and the sacred thread; and yet there too, in the fourth verse, one was told to bow to a donkey.
Here the same is said directly and without ritual: no distinguishing marks are needed. The Vaishnava side reads this verse as its own, and cites in confirmation the word of Chaitanya, discussed when reading the Rudraksha-jabala (3p11): "whether a brahmin, a renunciate, or even a shudra — whoever knows the truth about Krishna is a teacher" (Madhya 8.128). Let us add what deserves noting in the combination of the last two verses.
In the sixteenth, the condition named is devotion; in the seventeenth — knowledge of the ninety-six principles. The book, then, names two paths and does not choose between them. The choice will be made in the fifth chapter; and we shall see it return to the first.