Upaniṣads · Mahā 5.131
॥
Devanāgarī
क्वचित्प्रकृतिरित्युक्तं क्वचिन्मायेति कल्पितम् क्वचिन्मलमिति प्रोक्तं क्वचित्कर्मेति संस्मृतम्
Transliteración (IAST)
kvacitprakṛtirityuktaṃ kvacinmāyeti kalpitam kvacinmalamiti proktaṃ kvacitkarmeti saṃsmṛtam
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
क्वचित् प्रकृतिः इति उक्तम्kvacit prakṛtiḥ iti uktamsomewhere it is called “prakṛti”; in one place it is termed “prakṛti”
क्वचित् माया इति कल्पितम्kvacit māyā iti kalpitamsomewhere it is fancied “māyā”; in one place it is contrived as “māyā”
क्वचित् मलम् इति प्रोक्तम्kvacit malam iti proktamsomewhere it is declared “taint”; in one place it is pronounced “defilement”
क्वचित् कर्म इति संस्मृतम्kvacit karma iti saṃsmṛtamsomewhere it is remembered as “karma”; in one place it is recorded as “karma”
Traducción
“Somewhere it is called ‘prakṛti’, somewhere fancied ‘māyā’, somewhere declared ‘taint’, somewhere remembered as ‘karma’.”
Versión
ee0739dea005 · publicado 29 jul 2026, 6:29:20 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The list continues, and here are named the names behind which stand whole schools.
Prakṛti — the primal ground of Sāṅkhya.
Māyā — the word of Vedānta.
Mala — “taint”, a notion of the Śaiva schools of Kashmir, where the soul's boundness is explained by three defilements.
Karma — the notion of Mīmāṃsā and of all ritual thought generally.
Four different explanations of what holds us — and the book sets them in one row.
Note the verbs: uktam, kalpitam, proktam, saṃsmṛtam — “called, contrived, declared, remembered”. All of them concern words, not one the thing.
Vaiṣṇava Vedānta, which has its own doctrine of māyā as the Supreme's power, reads this list without offence: it does not abolish the differences between schools; it only points out that the object of their dispute is common.