उपनिषद् · Kaṭha 5.7
॥
देवनागरी
योनिम् अन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः ।
स्थाणुम् अन्ये ऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
yonim anye prapadyante śarīratvāya dehinaḥ /
sthāṇum anye 'nusaṃyanti yathākarma yathāśrutam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
योनिम्yoniminto a womb (yoni); into the matrix; into the place of birth
अन्येanyesome; some
प्रपद्यन्तेprapadyantethey enter (pra-√pad — 'to step into'); they resort; they betake themselves
शरीरत्वायśarīratvāyafor bodiliness (śarīra-tva); in order to gain a body; for embodiment
देहिनःdehinaḥthe embodied; the bearers of bodies
स्थाणुम्sthāṇuminto the immobile (sthāṇu — 'a post'); into the torpid; into fixed forms
अन्येanyeother; others
अनुसंयन्तिanusaṃyantithey pass (anu-sam-√i); they follow; they go along
यथाकर्मyathākarmaaccording to their deeds (yathā-karma); by their karma; by what they have done
यथाश्रुतम्yathāśrutamaccording to what they have heard [as knowledge] (yathā-śruta); by their knowledge; by what the ear has taken in
अनुवाद
Some embodied ones enter a womb in order to gain a body; others pass into the immobile — according to their deeds, according to their knowledge.
संस्करण
5168812d088a · प्रकाशित 26 जुल॰ 2026, 9:13:03 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Here is the direct answer to the question of the third boon — in two lines, without thunder. yonim anye prapadyante śarīratvāya dehinaḥ — "some enter a womb for the sake of bodiliness": death falls into birth; the stream of life is not cut off but turns into a new bed. sthāṇum anye 'nusaṁyanti — "others pass into the immobile": into fixed forms — the vegetal, the stony torpor: there is a movement downward too, into the twilight of consciousness.
The law of the passage is named in a pair of words worth volumes: yathā-karma yathā-śrutam — "according to their deeds and according to what they have heard [as knowledge]". Two registrars of destiny: what a man did — and what he heard, attended to, let into his consciousness. Deeds mould the circumstances of the new birth; knowledge, the level of consciousness at which those circumstances will be lived. That is why the Upaniṣads prize hearing so highly: what is heard is karma too, the subtlest and the longest-acting.
The answer to Naciketas, then, is: the man beyond death is — and not merely is: he continues to be the gathered sum of himself. Death is not a judge from without — it is the mirror of what has been accumulated. The Gītā (8.6) will compress this into the law of the last thought: whatever state of being one remembers on leaving the body, that one attains. There is in the verse a quiet door out of both roads as well: of it speaks all the rest of the vallī: the knower of the Eternal goes neither into a womb nor into a post — he goes home.