Upaniṣads · Mahā 2.38
॥
Devanāgarī
दृश्यं नास्तीति बोधेन मनसो दृश्यमार्जनम् सम्पन्नं चेत्तदुत्पन्ना परा निर्वाणनिर्वृतिः
Transliteración (IAST)
dṛśyaṃ nāstīti bodhena manaso dṛśyamārjanam sampannaṃ cettadutpannā parā nirvāṇanirvṛtiḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
दृश्यम् न अस्ति इति बोधेनdṛśyam na asti iti bodhenaby the insight “the seen is not”; through the realising that the visible is not
मनसः दृश्य-मार्जनम्manasaḥ dṛśya-mārjanamthe scouring of the mind from the seen; the washing of consciousness from the visible
सम्पन्नम् चेत् तत् उत्पन्नाsampannam cet tat utpannāif it is accomplished, then is born; should it be achieved, then has arisen
परा निर्वाण-निर्वृतिःparā nirvāṇa-nirvṛtiḥthe supreme delight of extinguishment; the highest bliss of the going-out
Traducción
“If by the insight ‘the seen is not’ the mind's washing from the seen is accomplished, then is born the supreme delight of extinguishment.”
Versión
f5afcc9cd571 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
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The teaching's first step — and the hardest for an honest reader, for it sounds like the denial of the obvious.
“The seen is not.” How is this to be taken?
The word dṛśya means “the seen, the visible” — but in Vedānta it always stands paired with draṣṭṛ, “the seer”, and means not objects in themselves but objects as objects: what confronts me as alien, desired or dangerous.
The washing of the mind from the seen is not blindness. It is the cleansing of perception from that lining of which verse 2.10 spoke.
Note the expression nirvāṇa-nirvṛti: “the delight of extinguishment”. Nirvāṇa is literally “the blown-out”, as a lamp goes out. The word circulates among the Buddhists too, but what matters here is its being joined with nirvṛti — “contentment, peace”. It is not the man that goes out; the fever of surmise goes out, and contentment remains.
The Vaiṣṇava reading adds: an empty place in the mind does not stay empty long. Freed from “the seen”, the mind turns to what can be seen only by the purified.