Upaniṣads · Rudrākṣajābāla 1.7
॥
Devanāgarī
बदरीफलमात्रं तु मध्यमं प्रोच्यते बुधैः । अधमं चणमात्रं स्यात्प्रक्रियैषा मयोच्यते
Transliteración (IAST)
badarīphalamātraṃ tu madhyamaṃ procyate budhaiḥ | adhamaṃ caṇamātraṃ syātprakriyaiṣā mayocyate
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
बदरी-फल-मात्रं तुbadarī-phala-mātraṃ tuof the measure of a badarī fruit, though
मध्यमं प्रोच्यते बुधैःmadhyamaṃ procyate budhaiḥthe middle is called by the wise
अधमं चण-मात्रं स्यात्adhamaṃ caṇa-mātraṃ syātthe lowest is of the measure of a chickpea
प्रक्रिया एषा मया उच्यतेprakriyā eṣā mayā ucyatethis order is set out by me
Traducción
Of the measure of a badarī fruit — the middle, say the wise; the lowest is the measure of a chickpea. This order is set out by me.
Versión
5596e9686948 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The grades are arranged by size: gooseberry-sized is best, jujube-sized is middling, chickpea-sized is worst. This measure is simple, and therefore suspect, and it is worth saying exactly why. Size is a property that says nothing about the essence of the thing: a large seed is no "holier" than a small one — only more noticeable.
Behind such a preference there usually stands not reasoning but rarity: large fruits are found less often, hence dearer, hence more honorable. And however much the book may call this an "order," it is a price. Here is exactly the point at which ritual detail imperceptibly turns into a distinction of wealth. If the best seed is large, and the large is dear, then the poor man is, by definition, left with the worst; and a sign given out "for the grace of all" begins to divide the wearers into ranks by means.
The Vaiṣṇava side sets against this that very passage of the Gītā it has answered with in other books too: "a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water" (9.26) — a list deliberately composed of things the poorest man has, and in it no price of the offering is set at all. The word prakriyā, "order, procedure," with which the line ends, deserves note as an admission. The speaker himself calls what he has said an order, that is, an established custom — not a law of being; and there is nothing to dispute in that definition.