Upaniṣads · Varāha 3.28
॥
Devanāgarī
ये केचन जगद्भावास्तानविद्यामयान्विदुः । कथं तेषु किलात्मज्ञस्त्यक्ताविद्यो निमज्जति
Transliteración (IAST)
ye kecana jagadbhāvāstānavidyāmayānviduḥ | kathaṃ teṣu kilātmajñastyaktāvidyo nimajjati
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
ये केचन जगत्-भावाःye kecana jagat-bhāvāḥwhatever states of the world there are
तान् अविद्या-मयान् विदुःtān avidyā-mayān viduḥthey know as consisting of ignorance
कथं तेषु किल आत्म-ज्ञःkathaṃ teṣu kila ātma-jñaḥhow then, indeed, would the knower of the self
त्यक्त-अविद्यः निमज्जतिtyakta-avidyaḥ nimajjatihaving abandoned ignorance, sink into them?
Traducción
"Whatever states of the world there are, they know as consisting of ignorance; how then would the knower of the self, having abandoned ignorance, sink into them?"
Versión
5d9ae4eb836b · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The argument is correctly built: if perfections belong to the world, and the world is ignorance, then one who has abandoned ignorance will not seek them. Let us add, however, what deserves saying of the premise, for this book does not hold to it. The premise states: all states of the world are ignorance.
But verse twelve of this very chapter said that remembering His feet liberates; and remembrance is a state of mind, that is, a state of the world by this same reckoning. This difficulty is known in nondualist teaching and has been discussed within its own schools: how does a means belonging to ignorance remove ignorance? The answer usually given is a comparison: as a thorn is removed by a thorn, and afterward both are discarded.
The comparison is clever; and the Vaishnava side sets against it an objection worth citing. The thorn that removed the thorn was a genuine thorn; and hence the comparison proves not the means's illusoriness, but its reality. And if the means is real, the world is not sheer ignorance; and if it is unreal, it will remove nothing.
Its own solution was cited when reading the Jabala-darshana (4.54), and let us briefly repeat it: hearing and singing do not belong to matter, but are manifestations of His own power, svarupa-shakti; they act from within, not from without. And hence here there is no thorn removing a thorn, but a hand removing both.