Upaniṣads · Varāha 3.17
॥
Devanāgarī
विनष्टदिग्भ्रमस्यापि यथापूर्वं विभाति दिक् । तथा विज्ञानविध्वस्तं जगन्मे भाति तन्न हि
Transliteración (IAST)
vinaṣṭadigbhramasyāpi yathāpūrvaṃ vibhāti dik | tathā vijñānavidhvastaṃ jaganme bhāti tanna hi
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
विनष्ट-दिक्-भ्रमस्य अपिvinaṣṭa-dik-bhramasya apieven for one whose confusion about directions has vanished
यथा-पूर्वं विभाति दिक्yathā-pūrvaṃ vibhāti dikas before, a direction appears
तथा विज्ञान-विध्वस्तंtathā vijñāna-vidhvastaṃso, destroyed by realization
जगत् मे भातिjagat me bhātithe world appears to me
तत् न हिtat na hiand it does not exist
Traducción
"As, for one whose confusion about directions has vanished, a direction still appears as before, — so the world, destroyed by realization, appears to me, and it does not exist."
Versión
3bed910bc257 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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A comparison is given, rare and precise: dig-bhrama, "confusion about directions." This is what we call "being turned around": a person in an unfamiliar city firmly feels north to be where south is; and, learning he was mistaken, continues to feel the same way as before. It is worth appraising how precise the comparison is, and how much more modest it is than the others.
The rope-serpent, the mirage, and the shell say: once known, the deception vanished. This one says something else: known — and the deception remains; only it is no longer believed. This is, in my view, the honest description of the condition, and it refutes the confident promises of all the other comparisons.
The Vaishnava side holds this comparison and finds in it confirmation of what was discussed when reading the second chapter (2.70): jiva-bhavo na gachchhati, the state of the living being does not depart merely because it was explained to a person. Let us add what follows from the comparison in practice. If the error persists even after recognition, one must live against one's own feeling: walk north while feeling one walks south.
This is, by its reckoning, the whole substance of spiritual life: not to wait for the feeling to change, but to act by knowledge until the feeling catches up. And hence its practice rests on daily repetition, not on illumination: feeling is corrected slowly, and not by reasoning.