Upaniṣads · Mahā 4.51
॥
Devanāgarī
संकल्पनं मनो विद्धि संकल्पस्तन्न विद्यते यत्र संकल्पनं तत्र मनोऽस्तीत्यवगम्यताम्
Transliteración (IAST)
saṃkalpanaṃ mano viddhi saṃkalpastanna vidyate yatra saṃkalpanaṃ tatra mano'stītyavagamyatām
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
सङ्कल्पनम् मनः विद्धिsaṅkalpanam manaḥ viddhiknow: the mind is designing; understand: consciousness is intending
सङ्कल्पः तत् न विद्यतेsaṅkalpaḥ tat na vidyateno design — it too is not found; if there is no intent, it is not to be found
यत्र सङ्कल्पनम् तत्रyatra saṅkalpanam tatrawhere there is designing, there; where intending is, there
मनः अस्ति इति अवगम्यताम्manaḥ asti iti avagamyatāmis the mind — let this be understood; is consciousness too — let this be grasped
Traducción
“Know: the mind is designing; no design — no mind. Where there is designing, there is the mind: let this be understood.”
Versión
0989faf1e4c2 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The definition is carried to its end: the mind is saṅkalpana, “designing”.
Not that which designs, but the designing itself. The mind is not a doer but a doing.
Hence the conclusion, simple to the point of surprise: where there is no design, there is no mind. Not “the mind has calmed down”, but “it is not”.
This explains the strange word acittatva of 4.6 — “the state without mind”. It does not mean feeble-mindedness; it means that the work which is the mind has stopped running.
Recall also 2.70: “bound by the power of his own design, freed by designlessness”. The circle has closed: bondage, mind and design are one and the same, taken from different sides.
The practical consequence is worth writing out. He who seeks a way to calm the mind seeks the wrong thing. The mind is not calmed: one ceases to design — and it turns out there was nothing to calm.