Upaniṣads · Mantrikā 20
॥
Devanāgarī
ब्रह्म ब्रह्मेत्यथायान्ति ये विदुर्ब्राह्मणास्तथा । अत्रैव ते लयं यान्ति लीनाश्चाव्यक्तशालिनः
Transliteración (IAST)
brahma brahmetyathāyānti ye vidurbrāhmaṇāstathā | atraiva te layaṃ yānti līnāścāvyaktaśālinaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
ब्रह्म ब्रह्म इति अथ आयान्तिbrahma brahma iti atha āyānti“Brahman, Brahman” — so they come; with the cry “Brahman, Brahman” they approach
ये विदुः ब्राह्मणाः तथाye viduḥ brāhmaṇāḥ tathāthose who know, and the brāhmaṇas; those who have knowledge, and the brāhmaṇas
अत्र एव ते लयम् यान्तिatra eva te layam yāntihere they dissolve; here they pass into dissolution
लीनाः च अव्यक्तशालिनःlīnāḥ ca avyaktaśālinaḥdissolved, abiding in the unmanifest; dissolved, dwelling in the unevident
Traducción
“Brahman, Brahman” — so come those who know, and the brāhmaṇas; here they dissolve and, dissolved, abide in the unmanifest.
Versión
06946b2eadc2 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 3:00:17 UTC
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The last verse, and it bears no number: the book itself marks its end by repeating its final words.
First — brahma brahmeti, “Brahman, Brahman”: the word is spoken twice, as one speaks it while drawing near.
Then it is said who draws near: ye viduḥ — “those who know” — and brāhmaṇāḥ.
Two classes are named separately, and this deserves note. The knowers are not the same as brāhmaṇas by birth; the book names both.
And finally: layaṃ yānti līnāś cāvyakta-śālinaḥ — “they dissolve and, dissolved, abide in the unmanifest”.
The last word, śālin, means “possessing, dwelling in, adorned with”. Not “they vanish into the unmanifest”: they abide in it.
The difference is fine, and the whole reading rests on it. The eighteenth verse said that the dissolved swell up again like bubbles; of those who have come it says otherwise — they remain.
Let us look back over the book. Twenty verses: the riddle of the swan whom none see; the cow without beginning or end, whom the Sovereign milks and the striplings drink; the roll of names and the roll of counts; and at the end — those who came repeating one word.
A small book, and in it is packed what Vedāntins disputed for centuries: beginningless does not mean self-existent, and the counters are many while the Counted is one.