Upanishads · Varāha 2.59
॥
Devanāgarī
अज्ञाने बुद्धिविलये निद्रा सा भण्यते बुधैः । विलीनाज्ञानतत्कार्ये मयि निद्रा कथं भवेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
ajñāne buddhivilaye nidrā sā bhaṇyate budhaiḥ | vilīnājñānatatkārye mayi nidrā kathaṃ bhavet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अ-ज्ञाने बुद्धि-विलयेa-jñāne buddhi-vilayeat the dissolution of the intellect in ignorance
निद्रा सा भण्यते बुधैःnidrā sā bhaṇyate budhaiḥthat the wise call sleep
विलीन-अ-ज्ञान-तत्-कार्येvilīna-a-jñāna-tat-kāryefor one who has dissolved ignorance and its effects
मयि निद्रा कथं भवेत्mayi nidrā kathaṃ bhavethow could there be sleep for me?
Translation
"The wise call the dissolution of the intellect in ignorance sleep; for me, who have dissolved ignorance and its effects, how could there be sleep?"
Version
cc1d4e9ec13b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Three verses begin in which the speaker, in turn, denies himself the three states: sleep, waking, dream. This construction is common in the Upanishads and goes back to the Mandukya: what is beyond the three is called turiya, "the fourth," discussed when reading the Panchabrahma (13). Worth noting is that the definition here is given through absence: I have no sleep, no waking, no dream.
A definition through absence is, as we have said more than once, half the task: it cuts away the false and communicates nothing. Let us add what deserves saying of the word turiya itself. The Mandukya, having listed the negations, could not resist adding a positive one: shantam shivam advaitam, "peaceful, benign, non-dual" (7); discussed when reading the Panchabrahma (13).
Let us repeat the conclusion: one is benign who is benign to someone; and this one word, at the end of all the negations, restores the relation the negations had removed. Let us add what the Vaishnava side adds to the teaching of the fourth. It accepts the three states and the fourth; but says that beyond the fourth there is still more, and calls it turya-atita, "that which exceeds the fourth."
It is defined not negatively, but by content: there, He is; and hence it is described not as the absence of the three, but as the presence of the One.