Upanishads · Varāha 4.22
॥
Devanāgarī
नोदेति नास्तमायाति सुखे दुःखे मनःप्रभा । यथाप्राप्तस्थितिर्यस्य स जीवन्मुक्त उच्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
nodeti nāstamāyāti sukhe duḥkhe manaḥprabhā | yathāprāptasthitiryasya sa jīvanmukta ucyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
न उदेति न अस्तम् आयातिna udeti na astam āyātidoes not rise, does not set
सुखे दुःखे मनः-प्रभाsukhe duḥkhe manaḥ-prabhāin happiness and suffering, the light of the mind
यथा-प्राप्त-स्थितिः यस्यyathā-prāpta-sthitiḥ yasyafor whom the standing is by what comes
सः जीवत्-मुक्तः उच्यतेsaḥ jīvat-muktaḥ ucyatethat one is called liberated while living
Translation
"For whom the light of the mind does not rise and does not set in happiness and suffering, for whom the standing is by what comes, — that one is called liberated while living."
Version
6924342a33a8 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second mark: evenness in happiness and suffering. Worth noting is the phrase yatha-prapta-sthiti, "standing by what comes": the person takes what has come and does not arrange things. This mark is fundamental in these books and is stated more than once in the Gita: samaduhkha-sukhah sva-sthah (14.24), yadrichha-labha-santushtah (4.22).
Let us add what the Vaishnava side adds here, and which constitutes its distinctive feature, for a distinction exists here, and it is sharp. Its attained ones are not even: they are described as having wept, cried out, fallen unconscious, lost track of time. That is, by this mark, they would not pass.
Its explanation is this: evenness is required with regard to what is one's own; but a feeling stirred by Him is not one's own. A person indifferent to profit and loss may, at the same time, weep hearing a story of Krishna; and one does not contradict the other, for the first pertains to oneself, the second to another. This distinction deserves holding onto, for it resolves a puzzlement that often arises when comparing the two teachings: dispassion toward one's own fate is not insensibility.
More than that, it asserts the opposite: the less a person is occupied with himself, the more strongly he responds to everything else, for nothing muffles it.