तस्मै स होवाच ।
यथा गार्ग्य मरीचयोऽर्कस्यास् तं गच्छतः सर्वा एतस्मिंस् तेजोमण्डल एकीभवन्ति ।
ताः पुनः पुनर् उदयतः प्रचरन्ति ।
एवं ह वै तत् सर्वं परे देवे मनस्य् एकीभवति ।
तेन तर्ह्य् एष पुरुषो न शृणोति ।
न पश्यति ।
न जिघ्रति ।
न रसयते ।
न स्पृशते ।
नाभिवदते ।
नादत्ते ।
नानन्दयते ।
न विसृजते ।
नेयायते ।
स्वपतीत्य् आचक्षते
tasmai sa hovāca |
yathā gārgya marīcayo'rkasyās taṃ gacchataḥ sarvā etasmiṃs tejomaṇḍala ekībhavanti |
tāḥ punaḥ punar udayataḥ pracaranti |
evaṃ ha vai tat sarvaṃ pare deve manasy ekībhavati |
tena tarhy eṣa puruṣo na śṛṇoti |
na paśyati |
na jighrati |
na rasayate |
na spṛśate |
nābhivadate |
nādatte |
nānandayate |
na visṛjate |
neyāyate |
svapatīty ācakṣate
He answered: "As, O Gārgya, the rays of the setting sun all become one in the orb of light, and spread out again at its rising — so all this becomes one in the supreme god, the mind. Therefore a man then does not hear, does not see, does not smell, does not taste, does not touch, does not speak, does not take, does not enjoy, does not excrete, does not move. They say: 'he sleeps.'"
50e59437e176 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 20:35:21 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The answer to "what sleeps" comes through the brightest image possible. marīcayo 'rkasya astaṁ gacchataḥ — "the rays of the setting sun": at sunset they do not perish — ekī-bhavanti, "they become one" in the shining disc, and at sunrise they spread out again. So at the setting of a creature's day all the powers — sight, hearing, taste, speech, grasping, movement — gather into manas, here called para deva — "the supreme god" of the inner world: the mind is the sun, the senses are its rays.
Ten "nots" in a row (does not hear, does not see…) are an exact inventory of falling asleep: one after another the faculties are drawn in; svapatīty ācakṣate — "they say: he sleeps". Sleep, then, is not a switching-off but a folding-in: the nightly repetition of that same "gathering of the rays" which at death is performed once and for all (verse 38 said it in the same words — the senses "converge into the mind"). Every evening a man rehearses dying — and every morning, the resurrection of the rays' spreading out.
The lesson of the image: the powers are not lost when they return to their source — they are stored there unspent. He who has seen this sleeps without fear and dies without the horror of loss: rays are more whole in the disc than in dispersion. But the mind is "the supreme god" only of this, the sensory circle: who is awake when it too has fallen asleep — of that, the next verses.