Upaniṣads · Mahā 3.57
॥
Devanāgarī
नो चेन्मौनं समास्थाय निर्मानो गतमत्सरः भावयन्मनसा विष्णुं लिपिकर्मार्पितोपमः
Transliteración (IAST)
no cenmaunaṃ samāsthāya nirmāno gatamatsaraḥ bhāvayanmanasā viṣṇuṃ lipikarmārpitopamaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
नो चेत् मौनम् समास्थायno cet maunam samāsthāyaif not — having taken up silence; and otherwise — settled in muteness
निर्मानः गत-मत्सरःnirmānaḥ gata-matsaraḥwithout pride, without envy; without arrogance, having left ill-will
भावयन् मनसा विष्णुम्bhāvayan manasā viṣṇumcontemplating Viṣṇu with the mind; musing on Viṣṇu in consciousness
लिपि-कर्म-अर्पित-उपमःlipi-karma-arpita-upamaḥlike one rendered in painted strokes; just like a figure laid on with a brush
Traducción
“And if not — then, taking up silence, without pride and without envy, contemplating Viṣṇu with my mind, I shall become like a painted figure.”
Versión
0276d67a79dc · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The chapter's last verse, and in it the resolution toward which everything moved, though it was hard to foresee.
After fifty-six verses on decay, craving, the body and death, Nidāgha says what he will do if the preceptor does not wake him: bhāvayan manasā viṣṇum — “contemplating Viṣṇu with the mind”.
This is where the whole inventory of the world leads out. Not into emptiness and not into stupor, but to a name.
It is the first name of the Supreme in the third adhyāya and the first positive refuge Nidāgha has named.
Three conditions attend it: mauna — silence, nirmāna — absence of pride, gata-matsara — absence of envy. The same three that stood in the list of the liberated man's marks in the second chapter (2.50).
And the last image: lipi-karma-arpita-upama — “like a figure laid on with a brush”. A painted man does not move, wants nothing and responds to nothing; and yet he is, and he looks at something.
Note how the chapter has ended in substance. The youth went through the whole world and found no support in it; and, finding none, he named Viṣṇu and fell silent. In the next adhyāya Ṛbhu will answer him.