Upaniṣads · Kena 4.1
॥
Devanāgarī
सा ब्रह्मेति होवाच ब्रह्मणो वा एतद् विजये महीयध्वम् इति ततो हैव विदाञ्चकार ब्रह्मेति ॥
Transliteración (IAST)
sā brahmeti hovāca brahmaṇo vā etad vijaye mahīyadhvam iti tato haiva vidāñcakāra brahmeti ||
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
साsāshe; Umā
ब्रह्म इतिbrahma itithis is Brahman; Brahman, thus
हhaindeed; truly
उवाचuvācasaid; answered
ब्रह्मणःbrahmaṇaḥof Brahman; of the Absolute
वैvaiverily; indeed
एतत्etatthis; that
विजयेvijayein the victory; because of the victory
महीयध्वम्mahīyadhvamyou exalted yourselves (from √mah — 'to magnify'); you were lifted up in glory; you thought yourselves great
इतिitithus; saying
ततःtataḥthen; after that
हhaindeed; truly
एवevaprecisely; only then
विदाञ्चकारvidāñcakārahe knew (periphrastic perfect of √vid — 'to know'); he realised; he understood
ब्रह्म इतिbrahma itithis is Brahman; Brahman, thus
Traducción
She said: "This is Brahman. It was in the victory of Brahman that you exalted yourselves." And then he knew: "This is Brahman."
Versión
8e79344d6ee1 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 19:28:41 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
Umā's answer is a single sentence, and in it lies the solution of the whole parable: brahmaṇo vā etad vijaye mahīyadhvam — "it was in Brahman's victory that you exalted yourselves". The glory the gods took for their own was His glory, lent to them; the greatness of the created is always a reflected greatness.
tato haiva vidāñcakāra — "precisely from this he knew". Not from the trials, not from the disappearance, not from his own conjectures — from a word spoken by one who knows. The trials had ploughed the soil: they humbled, wounded, taught him to ask; but the knowledge sprang from the seed of a word. This is the same law of hearing by which both Upaniṣads live: śuśruma — "we have heard from those who explained it to us" (Kena 1.4; Īśa 10, 13). Revelation completes what chastening began.
Indra comes to know Brahman without seeing Him again: the yakṣa never returned, and yet the knowledge is here. Recognising God requires no repeated miracle; it is enough to accept the truth about Him who has already come — and the whole lived history is reinterpreted at once: the victory, the blade of grass, the vanishing all take their places around a single centre.