Upaniṣads · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 26
॥
Devanāgarī
यो ह वै त्वकामेन कामान् कामयते सोऽकामी भवति
Transliteración (IAST)
yo ha vai tvakāmena kāmān kāmayate so’kāmī bhavati
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
यः ह वै तुyaḥ ha vai tubut he who truly; he, however, who
अकामेन कामान् कामयतेakāmena kāmān kāmayatedesires the desirable without desire; not craving, reaches after objects
सः अकामी भवतिsaḥ akāmī bhavatihe remains free of lust; he stays untouched by lust
Traducción
But he who desires the desirable without desire remains free of lust.
Versión
6a7d0f1200ed · publicado 28 jul 2026, 14:30:24 UTC
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The second half of the pair — and one of the subtlest lines in the book: "without desire he desires the desirable".
The phrase seems self-contradictory until one sees what is being denied. Neither the act nor the closeness: the desirable remains desirable, and the striving toward it is not annulled. What is denied is kāmena — "by desire" as the driver, that is, by lack.
Hence a double conclusion. Of Kṛṣṇa: His closeness with those who love Him is not the making up of a deficiency, for He is full; therefore He is called a brahmacārin while remaining among them. And of those who love: their attraction to Him is not self-interest if it is moved not by emptiness but by love.
Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa reads this line as "a denial within a likeness": not "without desire" but "with a love resembling desire" — passion in appearance, prema in essence. On this reading rests all the later theology of rasa: God has attraction, but no need.
So the riddle of this part's second mantra is resolved. The word by which the cowherd women crossed the river proved true not by indulgence but in substance.