सः होवाच गार्ग्यः यः एव अयम् छायामयः पुरुषः एतम् एव अहम् ब्रह्म उपास इति सः होवाच अजातशत्रुः मा म एतस्मिन् संवदिष्ठाः मृत्युः इति वै अहम् एतम् उपास इति सः यः एतम् एवम् उपास्ते सर्वम् ह एव अस्मिन् लोके आयुः एति न एनम् पुरा कालात् मृत्युः आगच्छति
saḥ hovāca gārgyaḥ yaḥ eva ayam chāyāmayaḥ puruṣaḥ etam eva aham brahma upāsa iti saḥ hovāca ajātaśatruḥ mā ma etasmin saṃvadiṣṭhāḥ mṛtyuḥ iti vai aham etam upāsa iti saḥ yaḥ etam evam upāste sarvam ha eva asmin loke āyuḥ eti na enam purā kālāt mṛtyuḥ āgacchati
Gārgya said: "The person who consists of shadow — him I venerate as Brahman." Ajātaśatru said: "Do not speak to me of him! I venerate him as Death." He who venerates him thus attains his full span in this world, and death does not come to him before his time.
4dc03edbfc54 · publicado 27 jul 2026, 0:52:10 UTC
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The eleventh address is the shadow, the chāyāmaya puruṣa, the dark double that follows everyone. The king names him outright: Death. The shadow is the walking reminder of mortality — a dark "second", as inseparable however much light you add. Gārgya venerated this too; the Upaniṣad disdains nothing in which a man has ever sensed a presence.
The fruit of venerating death is paradoxically good: a full span of life, and death "will not come before its time". He who venerates death — that is, remembers it soberly and without horror — is not hurried by it: memento mori as a means of long life. We have seen this book's gift for speaking of death without a tremor (1.2); here is one more stroke: even the shadow is set to serve life.