अथ हैनं सुकेशा भारद्वाजः पप्रच्छ ।
भगवन् हिरण्यनाभः कौसल्यो राजपुत्रो मामुपेत्यैतं प्रश्नमपृच्छत ।
षोडशकलं भारद्वाज पुरुषं वेत्थ ।
तम् अहं कुमारम् अब्रुवं नाहम् इमं वेद ।
यद्य् अहम् इमम् अवेदिषं कथं ते नावक्ष्यम् इति ।
समूलो वा एष परिशुष्यति यो ऽनृतम् अभिवदति ।
तस्मान् नार्हाम्य् अनृतं वक्तुं ।
स तूष्णीं रथम् आरुह्य प्रवव्राज ।
तं त्वा पृच्छामि कासौ पुरुष इति
atha hainaṃ sukeśā bhāradvājaḥ papraccha |
bhagavan hiraṇyanābhaḥ kausalyo rājaputro māmupetyaitaṃ praśnamapṛcchata |
ṣoḍaśakalaṃ bhāradvāja puruṣaṃ vettha |
tam ahaṃ kumāram abruvaṃ nāham imaṃ veda |
yady aham imam avediṣaṃ kathaṃ te nāvakṣyam iti |
samūlo vā eṣa pariśuṣyati yo 'nṛtam abhivadati |
tasmān nārhāmy anṛtaṃ vaktuṃ |
sa tūṣṇīṃ ratham āruhya pravavrāja |
taṃ tvā pṛcchāmi kāsau puruṣa iti
Then Sukeśā Bhāradvāja asked him: "Venerable one! Hiraṇyanābha, the prince of Kosala, came to me and put this question: 'Bhāradvāja, do you know the Puruṣa of sixteen parts?' I answered the youth: 'I do not know him; had I known him, should I not have told you? He who speaks untruth withers root and all; therefore I cannot speak untruth.' He mounted his chariot in silence and drove away. And so I ask you: where is that Puruṣa?"
264368f0a934 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 20:35:21 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The last question opens with a confession — one of the rarest in the literature of any age. A prince asked Sukeśā: "do you know the Puruṣa of sixteen parts?" — and the teacher answered his pupil: nāham imaṁ veda — "I do not know". And he explained why he did not lie: samūlo vā eṣa pariśuṣyati yo 'nṛtam abhivadati — "he who speaks untruth withers root and all": a lie is a drought at the root; one who has lied about spiritual things dries up from within, and first of all in the very capacity to know. Truthfulness is not a teacher's ornament but the condition of his sight.
sa tūṣṇīṁ ratham āruhya pravavrāja — "he mounted his chariot in silence and drove away": a bitter and a dignified scene: no reproach and no self-justification; the question stayed alive in the teacher — and brought him to Pippalāda: taṁ tvā pṛcchāmi — "him I ask of you". An honest "I do not know" did not close the road but opened it: an acknowledged ignorance goes to school; a concealed one ossifies.
So the sixth question carries a double load: it has been asked twice — by the lips of a prince and by the lips of a shamed sage — and therefore sounds like the question of the whole tradition to itself: who is He, the Puruṣa of sixteen parts — He in whom are the parts of which a man is assembled? Pippalāda's answer will be the finale of the whole Upaniṣad.