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Upaniṣads · Jābāli 6
॥
Devanāgarī
स पुनस्तं होवाच कथं जीवाः पशव इति । कथं तत्पतिरिति
Transliteración (IAST)
sa punastaṃ hovāca kathaṃ jīvāḥ paśava iti | kathaṃ tatpatiriti
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
सः पुनः तं ह उवाचsaḥ punaḥ taṃ ha uvācahe again said to him
कथं जीवाः पशवः इतिkathaṃ jīvāḥ paśavaḥ iti“how are the living beings the beast?
कथं तत्-पतिः इतिkathaṃ tat-patiḥ itihow is he their master?”
Traducción
“He again said to him: ‘how are the living beings the beast? how is he their master?’”
Versión
b5cfb4465665 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The pupil asks for the third time, and this deserves note. He has been given a definition (4) and had it repeated (5); and he asks again: katham, “how?” That is, he is not satisfied with being told a word, and demands an explanation of the very comparison. This conduct is, to my mind, a model of what it is to be a pupil, and it deserves to be said outright.
There are two kinds of questions: “what is this?” and “why is it said this way?” The first is satisfied by a definition; the second only by an analysis. And the pupil here asks the second; and the teacher, as we shall see, answers not with a new definition but with a picture: he describes oxen at the plough.
Add, too, what the Vaiṣṇava side says about such questions. Its paripraśna, “inquiry,” discussed reading the second passage, is precisely this second kind: one asks not for information but for grounds. And it holds as a rule that a teaching unable to bear the question “why is it said this way?” thereby reveals its own weakness.
Add, too, what should be said in advance about the comparison itself, since the pupil has asked about it. Every comparison works only in one part, and the rule of eka-deśa-nyāya has been discussed more than once. So the question “how exactly are souls the beast?” is a legitimate and necessary one: without an answer to it, the comparison stretches to cover everything and becomes false.