Upaniṣads · Brahma 4.3
॥
Devanāgarī
इदं यज्ञोपवीतं तु पवित्रं यत्परायणम् । स विद्वान्यज्ञोपवीती स्यात्स यज्ञः स च यज्ञवित्
Transliteración (IAST)
idaṃ yajñopavītaṃ tu pavitraṃ yatparāyaṇam | sa vidvānyajñopavītī syātsa yajñaḥ sa ca yajñavit
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
इदम् यज्ञोपवीतम् तुidam yajñopavītam tubut this sacred thread; this very yajñopavīta
पवित्रम् यत्परायणम्pavitram yatparāyaṇamthe purifier whose goal is That; purifying, directed toward That
सः विद्वान् यज्ञोपवीती स्यात्saḥ vidvān yajñopavītī syātlet the knower be a wearer of the thread; let the knowing one be clothed with the cord
सः यज्ञः सः च यज्ञवित्saḥ yajñaḥ saḥ ca yajñavithe is the sacrifice and the knower of the sacrifice; he is the yajña and the one who knows the yajña
Traducción
But this sacred thread is the purifier whose goal is That; and let the knower be a wearer of the thread: he is the sacrifice, and he is the knower of the sacrifice.
Versión
c081dbf3c68f · publicado 29 jul 2026, 3:09:07 UTC
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The verse draws everything to one person: sa yajñaḥ sa ca yajñavit — “he is the sacrifice, and he is the knower of the sacrifice”.
The wearer of the inner thread, that is, does not offer a sacrifice — he is one.
We read this in the last section of the Garbha Upaniṣad, where the body was set out as a sacrificial ground: the Ātman the offerer, the mind the priest, greed the sacrificial beasts, the mouth the altar.
Here the same is said more briefly and of the whole man.
Note the word yatparāyaṇa — “whose highest goal is That”. Parāyaṇa means “the last refuge, that toward which one goes”. The thread is called not an end in itself but a directed thing.
And this explains why the outer one may be removed: what is removed is not the goal but the signpost — when one has arrived.
With this the discourse on the thread ends. The next verses leave the rite and go to that for whose sake it all is: to the One hidden in all beings.