सः अहम् भगवः मन्त्रवित् एव अस्मि न आत्मवित् श्रुतम् हि एव मे भगवद्दृशेभ्यः तरति शोकम् आत्मवित् इति सः अहम् भगवः शोचामि तम् मा भगवान् शोकस्य पारम् तारयतु इति तम् ह उवाच यत् वै किंच एतत् अध्यगीष्ठाः नाम एव एतत्
saḥ aham bhagavaḥ mantravit eva asmi na ātmavit śrutam hi eva me bhagavaddṛśebhyaḥ tarati śokam ātmavit iti saḥ aham bhagavaḥ śocāmi tam mā bhagavān śokasya pāram tārayatu iti tam ha uvāca yat vai kiṃca etat adhyagīṣṭhāḥ nāma eva etat
But I, sir, am a knower of mantras, not a knower of the ātman. From men like your reverence I have heard: one who knows the ātman crosses over sorrow. And I grieve, sir. Ferry me, sir, to the far shore of sorrow." And he said to him: "Whatever you have studied is only a name.
bbb8009ca090 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 23:42:49 UTC
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One of the most piercing confessions in all the Veda: so 'haṁ bhagavo mantravid evāsmi nātmavit — "I am a knower of mantras, not a knower of the ātman… I grieve." A man who knows eighteen sciences comes with a single burden — a sorrow that none of them can lift. Learning can do everything except the one thing: it does not ferry one across sorrow. Śocāmi — "I grieve" — is the very word with which Arjuna will describe his state before the Gītā (śocāmi, BG 1); and the medicine will be the same: knowledge of the eternal.
Nārada's request is cast as a ferrying: tarati śokam ātmavit — "the knower of the ātman crosses over sorrow"; "ferry me" (tārayatu). Sorrow is a river; one cannot swim it alone — a ferryman is needed. So prays every living soul that has ripened into honesty: not "explain to me" but "carry me across".
And the teacher's first answer is stunning: "whatever you have studied is a name" (nāma). Not "rubbish" — a name: a real but initial rung of reality. Eighteen sciences are eighteen baskets of names. With this appraisal the chapter's great ladder begins: fifteen rungs from name to the Boundless, and Sanatkumāra will first praise each and then surpass it.