Upaniṣads · Kaṭha 2.5
॥
Devanāgarī
अविद्यायाम् अन्तरे वर्तमानाः स्वयं धीराः पण्डितं मन्यमानाः ।
दन्द्रम्यमाणाः परियन्ति मूढा अन्धेनैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः
Transliteración (IAST)
avidyāyām antare vartamānāḥ svayaṃ dhīrāḥ paṇḍitaṃ manyamānāḥ /
dandramyamāṇāḥ pariyanti mūḍhā andhenaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
अविद्यायाम्avidyāyāmin ignorance; in avidyā
अन्तरेantarewithin; in the midst
वर्तमानाःvartamānāḥabiding (from √vṛt — 'to turn, to be situated'); stagnating; living
स्वयम्svayamthemselves; themselves
धीराःdhīrāḥwise; intelligent
पण्डितम्paṇḍitamlearned; experts
मन्यमानाःmanyamānāḥdeeming themselves (from √man — 'to imagine'); imagining; reckoning themselves
दन्द्रम्यमाणाःdandramyamāṇāḥrushing to and fro, winding (intensive of √dram — 'to run'); wandering back and forth; bustling about
परियन्तिpariyantithey go round in circles (pari-√i); go round; they wander in a ring
मूढाःmūḍhāḥfools (from √muh — 'to be bewildered'); the deluded; the misled
अन्धेनandhenaby a blind man; by the sightless
एवevaindeed; as it were
नीयमानाःnīyamānāḥbeing led (from √nī — 'to lead'); guided; conducted
यथाyathāhow; like
अन्धाःandhāḥthe blind; the sightless
Traducción
Stagnating in ignorance, deeming themselves wise and learned, fools wander winding about — like the blind led by the blind.
Versión
5f38167596c0 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 21:13:03 UTC
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A portrait of self-satisfied ignorance, one of the most merciless in the world's scriptures. avidyāyām antare vartamānāḥ — "abiding within ignorance": ignorance here is not a gap in one's knowledge but a habitat, the water a fish does not notice. svayaṁ dhīrāḥ paṇḍitam manyamānāḥ — "themselves deeming themselves wise and learned": the trouble is not that they do not know but that they are convinced they do; a closed door is not darkness but the certainty that there is nothing behind the door.
dandramyamāṇāḥ — a rare intensive verb from √dram: "rushing to and fro, winding"; pariyanti — "they go round in circles". Movement without direction, a bustle indistinguishable from a journey. And the final image, which has passed into the proverbs of mankind: andhenaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ — "like the blind led by a blind man". Blindness would be but half the trouble — what is ruinous is a blindness that has undertaken to guide others: a culture in which the sightless teach the sightless the roads reproduces its wandering from generation to generation.
The antidote the Upaniṣad has already shown: a seeing guide (vaktā tvādṛk — "a speaker like you", verse 22) and a pupil who has admitted his own blindness. Knowledge begins with the words "I do not see" — spoken to one who does.