Upaniṣads · Yājñavalkya 8
॥
Devanāgarī
श्मनानेषु दिगन्तेषु स एव ललनास्तनः । श्वभिरास्वाद्यते काले लघुपिण्ड इवान्धसः
Transliteración (IAST)
śmanāneṣu diganteṣu sa eva lalanāstanaḥ | śvabhirāsvādyate kāle laghupiṇḍa ivāndhasaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
श्मशानेषु दिक्-अन्तेषुśmaśāneṣu dik-anteṣuat cemeteries, at the ends of the directions
सः एव ललना-स्तनःsaḥ eva lalanā-stanaḥthat very same breast of a woman
श्वभिः आस्वाद्यते कालेśvabhiḥ āsvādyate kāleis tasted by dogs in time
लघु-पिण्डः इव अन्धसःlaghu-piṇḍaḥ iva andhasaḥlike a small lump of food
Traducción
At cemeteries, at the ends of the directions, that very same breast of a woman is, in time, tasted by dogs, like a small lump of food.
Versión
9cfef2ca88a4 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The line delivers what the previous one was leading to, and delivers it with deliberate crudeness. Let us say plainly about the device itself, for here it is seen in pure form. Disgust is deliberately provoked. This is not an observation and not an argument: it is a device calculated for a bodily reaction.
We have met such devices more than once — in the Bhasma-jābāla (2.43), where one who ate what was not shown became an eater of seed, and in the Rudrākṣa-jābāla; and each time we said the same thing about them. Let us repeat it briefly: disgust passes. It works for a few days, and then dulls; and a person restrained by disgust returns to the very place he was driven from — only now with shame added.
Let us add what is especially worth saying about this section. Its harm is not only its ineffectiveness. A person trained to see a future corpse in a living body unlearns how to see the living; and having unlearned it in one case, unlearns it in all.
The Vaiṣṇava side holds a rule against this, worth citing. For her, the body of a devotee is not matter: the Bhāgavatam says that the bodies and words of the devoted are consecrated, and so are addressed with reverence, not taken apart. Let us add what she does with death itself. The departure of a devotee is called, in her practice, not death but tirobhāva, "concealment," and the day of it is marked as a celebration; and one comes to the grave not with disgust, but with flowers.