Upaniṣads · Mahā 4.26
॥
Devanāgarī
विनष्टदिग्भ्रमस्यापि यथापूर्वं विभाति दिक् तथा विज्ञानविध्वस्तं जगन्नास्तीति भावय
Transliteración (IAST)
vinaṣṭadigbhramasyāpi yathāpūrvaṃ vibhāti dik tathā vijñānavidhvastaṃ jagannāstīti bhāvaya
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
विनष्ट-दिक्-भ्रमस्य अपिvinaṣṭa-dik-bhramasya apieven for one whose confusion of the quarters is gone; even with him who is rid of the tangling of directions
यथा पूर्वम् विभाति दिक्yathā pūrvam vibhāti dikthe quarters appear as before; the region of sky appears the same as earlier
तथा विज्ञान-विध्वस्तम्tathā vijñāna-vidhvastamso, demolished by knowledge; thus, shattered by understanding
जगत् न अस्ति इति भावयjagat na asti iti bhāvayacontemplate: the world — “it is not”; muse thus of the world: “it is not”
Traducción
“As for one whose confusion about the quarters has passed the quarters appear as before — so contemplate: the world, demolished by knowledge, is not.”
Versión
5f73d403806e · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The comparison is exact, and it explains what “the world is not” means.
Everyone knows the state: having lost his way, a man is certain that north is over there. Then it is explained to him, and the confusion passes.
What has changed? The quarters are in place, the view is the same, nothing has vanished. Only the “north is there” has vanished.
In this sense the world is “demolished by knowledge”. Not that the things have disappeared, but that the error has.
This is perhaps the best explanation of the Vedāntic “the world is not” to be found in the Upaniṣads, and it at once shuts out the crude reading. No one promises that after insight the house will vanish.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta takes up this comparison gladly, for it is exactly its own: the world is real; false is our “north is there” — that is, “this is mine, this is for me”. Remove the error — the same world will remain, but nothing alien will be in it.