Upaniṣads · Jābāladarśana 1.21
॥
Devanāgarī
अत्यन्तमलिनो देहो देही चात्यन्तनिर्मलः । उभयोरन्तरं ज्ञात्वा कस्य शौचं विधीयते
Transliteración (IAST)
atyantamalino deho dehī cātyantanirmalaḥ | ubhayorantaraṃ jñātvā kasya śaucaṃ vidhīyate
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
अत्यन्तम् मलिनः देहःatyantam malinaḥ dehaḥutterly impure is the body
देही च अत्यन्त-निर्मलःdehī ca atyanta-nirmalaḥthe embodied one, however, is utterly stainless
उभयोः अन्तरं ज्ञात्वाubhayoḥ antaraṃ jñātvāhaving known the difference of the two
कस्य शौचं विधीयतेkasya śaucaṃ vidhīyatewhose purity is prescribed?
Traducción
"Utterly impure is the body; the embodied one, however, is utterly stainless. Having known the difference of the two, — whose purity, then, is prescribed?"
Versión
e23c7be07037 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The question is put sharply: the body is impure by nature, the soul is pure by nature — so whose is to be purified? This question, followed through to its end, would cancel the whole rite of washing; and the book, having just prescribed earth and water, poses it itself. The contradiction here is not carelessness but a device, and it deserves naming. The book leads the reader by rungs: first it gives a rule, then it shows its limit. The rule is not cancelled — but neither is it given out as the final word.
Worth noting too is the word dehin, "the embodied," that is, one who has a body. Not "spirit in general" and not "consciousness," but precisely one who has a body. This word is one of the chief ones in the Gita, and is explained there too: "as the embodied one in this body passes through childhood, youth, and old age, so too the taking of another body; the steadfast one is not troubled by this" (2.13).
For our discussion this circumstance matters. Were the soul the same single undifferentiated self, the word "embodied" would have no sense: only one who is multiple and who enters a body as a dwelling can be embodied. From this the Vaishnava side draws its own position, that souls are many and that each remains itself. The Gita says this directly, and in regard both to God and to men: "never was there a time when I was not, or you, or these rulers of men; nor shall there be a time when we shall cease to be hereafter" (2.12).
This verse deserves being held decisive in the dispute over multiplicity. It lists three — Me, you, them — and asserts the eternity of each separately, not the dissolution of all into one.