अथोत्तरेण तपसा ब्रह्मचर्येण श्रद्धया विद्ययात्मानम् अन्विष्यादित्यम् अभिजयन्ते ।
एतद् वै प्राणानाम् आयतनम् एतद् अमृतम् अयम् एतत् परायणम् ।
एतस्मान् न पुनरावर्तन्त इति ।
एष निरोधः ।
तद् एष श्लोकः
athottareṇa tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śraddhayā vidyayātmānam anviṣyādityam abhijayante |
etad vai prāṇānām āyatanam etad amṛtam ayam etat parāyaṇam |
etasmān na punarāvartanta iti |
eṣa nirodhaḥ |
tad eṣa ślokaḥ
"But by the northern [path] — having sought the Ātman by austerity, continence, faith and knowledge — they win the sun. This is the home of the prāṇas, this is the immortal, the fearless, this is the supreme refuge: from there they return no more. This is the [path of] stopping [the round]. Of this, this verse."
b1f4bf315d0f · publicado 26 jul 2026, 20:35:21 UTC
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The northern road — uttareṇa: by the way of the growing light. Its equipment is listed exactly: tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śraddhayā vidyayā — austerity, continence, faith, knowledge — the same three that Pippalāda enjoined upon his pupils for a year (verse 2), plus vidyā: the year of preparation was, it turns out, the beginning of the northern path itself. And its heart is ātmānam anviṣya — "having sought the Ātman": not an accumulation of works but the search for the Self and its Source.
The fruit: ādityam abhijayante — "they win the sun": not the lunar world of hoardings but the solar abode of life itself: etad vai prāṇānām āyatanam — "this is the home of the prāṇas", etad amṛtam abhayam — "this is the immortal, the fearless" (abhaya is the very word with which the Kaṭha called the far shore), etat parāyaṇam — "the supreme refuge". And the decisive line: etasmān na punar āvartante — "from there they do not return". eṣa nirodhaḥ — "this is the stopping": the wheel of returns that turned on the southern path is here brought to a halt.
The two paths are the two gates of the year, moon and sun, rayi and prāṇa, works and knowledge: the Gītā (8.26) will call them "the bright and the dark ways of the world" (śukla-kṛṣṇe gatī), and will tell its pupil that one who knows both goes by the bright. The Upaniṣad has laid the choice into the calendar itself: every half-year the sky reminds us that there are two roads.