उपनिषद् · Praśna 3.7
॥
देवनागरी
अथैकयोर्ध्व उदानः पुण्येन पुण्यं लोकं नयति ।
पापेन पापम् ।
उभाभ्याम् एव मनुष्यलोकम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
athaikayordhva udānaḥ puṇyena puṇyaṃ lokaṃ nayati |
pāpena pāpam |
ubhābhyām eva manuṣyalokam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
अथathathereupon; further
एकयाekayāby one; through a single channel
ऊर्ध्वः उदानःūrdhvaḥ udānaḥupward — udāna (ud-āna — 'the up-leading breath'); the ascending current; the uplifting force
पुण्येनpuṇyenaby good [deeds] (puṇya); by merit; by a good work
पुण्यम् लोकम्puṇyam lokama good world; the world of merit
नयतिnayatileads (from √nī); conducts; escorts
पापेनpāpenaby evil [deeds] (pāpa); by sin; by a bad work
पापम्pāpaman evil [world]; the world of evil
उभाभ्याम् एवubhābhyām evaby both together; by the two mixed
मनुष्यलोकम्manuṣyalokamthe human world; the world of men
अनुवाद
"And by one [channel] upward [moves] udāna: by a good [deed] she leads to a good world, by an evil one to an evil, and by both to the human world."
संस्करण
4ab29c26d638 · प्रकाशित 26 जुल॰ 2026, 8:35:21 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
athaikayordhva udānaḥ — "and by one — upward — udāna": the fifth breath, "the up-leading" (ud- — "upward"), governs not a district of the body but its boundary: the passage. Along the single ascending channel (that one of the hundred and one) udāna bears consciousness out at the hour of departure — and bears it out by the reckoning of the life: puṇyena puṇyaṁ lokaṁ nayati — "by good to a good world", pāpena pāpam — "by evil to an evil", ubhābhyām eva manuṣya-lokam — "by both to the human world".
The formula of the three roads is simple and terrible in its symmetry: the after-death is neither a lottery nor the mercy of chance — it is a balance drawn by udāna from the whole of a life. The third case is especially significant: the human world is the portion of the mixed, of those in whom good and evil are inseparably interwoven; that is why earthly life is so mottled and so precious — it is the world of the second chance, a crossroads from which both roads are open.
Udāna, then, is the "governor of the passage", the inner conductor of the soul (later tradition will call this ascending exit through the crown the road of the yogīs — Kaṭha 117, Gītā 8.12–13: "having fixed the prāṇa between the brows… with Oṁ on the lips"). But the conductor does not rule of himself: the next verse will recall by whose will and by what reckoning.