Upaniṣads · Mahāvākya p8
॥
Devanāgarī
विद्या हि काण्डान्तरादित्यो ज्योतिर्मण्डलं ग्राह्यं नापरम्
Transliteración (IAST)
vidyā hi kāṇḍāntarādityo jyotirmaṇḍalaṃ grāhyaṃ nāparam
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
विद्या हि काण्ड-अन्तरा आदित्यःvidyā hi kāṇḍa-antarā ādityaḥknowledge, however, is beyond the boundary — the sun
ज्योतिः-मण्डलं ग्राह्यं न अपरम्jyotiḥ-maṇḍalaṃ grāhyaṃ na aparamthe disc of light, graspable; there is no other
Traducción
«Knowledge, however, is beyond the boundary [of darkness] — the sun, the disc of light; it is graspable, and there is no other.»
Versión
4bd2f698dfa0 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Darkness is set against the sun, and this image is basic in the upaniṣads: darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge. Note the word grāhyam, “graspable,” from grah, “to seize.” That is, of light it is said that it is seized: it is that which can be grasped, unlike darkness, which cannot be grasped, being an absence.
This remark is subtle and worth unfolding, for it explains the asymmetry of light and darkness. Darkness is not a thing: it cannot be brought or taken away. It is the absence of light; and hence one does not struggle with it — one dispels it.
This position is a favorite in the Vaiṣṇava books, and is cited whenever the question arises of how one is rid of what is bad. The Bhāgavatam, as discussed reading the Jābāla-darśana (4.54), compares the action of service to the sun dispersing fog (6.1.15). Let us add what follows from this for a person struggling with his own faults.
Struggling with darkness is a hopeless occupation, for there is no object to struggle with. One who fights his bad inclinations year after year is fighting an absence, and hence does not win. He wins who brings in light: that is, occupies himself not with what he does not want, but with what he does want. And the difference between “do not think of the bad” and “think of the good” is, for all its simplicity, the difference between defeat and victory.