तस्य यथा अभिनहनम् प्रमुच्य प्रब्रूयात् एताम् दिशम् गन्धाराः एताम् दिशम् व्रज इति सः ग्रामात् ग्रामम् पृच्छन् पण्डितः मेधावी गन्धारान् एव उपसंपद्येत एवम् एव इह आचार्यवान् पुरुषः वेद तस्य तावत् एव चिरम् यावत् न विमोक्ष्ये अथ संपत्स्ये इति
tasya yathā abhinahanam pramucya prabrūyāt etām diśam gandhārāḥ etām diśam vraja iti saḥ grāmāt grāmam pṛcchan paṇḍitaḥ medhāvī gandhārān eva upasaṃpadyeta evam eva iha ācāryavān puruṣaḥ veda tasya tāvat eva ciram yāvat na vimokṣye atha saṃpatsye iti
But then someone took off his bandage and said: 'Gandhāra is in that direction; go that way.' And he, asking from village to village, being sensible and shrewd, would reach Gandhāra. Just so here: a man who has a teacher knows. His delay lasts only until he is released; then he is home.
356a99cee0dc · प्रकाशित 26 जुल॰ 2026, 11:42:00 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The parable's denouement is the good news of the whole chapter: someone is found who takes off the bandage and points the direction. Then the traveller goes on himself — "asking from village to village", sensibly and shrewdly: mercy does not carry one in its arms; it restores sight and gives a direction; the road remains a road, but from now on it leads home.
And the Upaniṣad mints a phrase that has become the banner of the whole Vedic tradition: ācāryavān puruṣo veda — "the man who has a teacher knows". Not the well-read, not the gifted — the one who has an ācārya: the truth about home is transmitted only by one who knows the road, as a bandage cannot be taken off by the very eyes it binds. The Śvetāśvatara will close its teaching with the same seal: truth "shines forth for him who has the highest devotion to God and, as to God, to his teacher" (Śv. 6.23).
The last line is quiet and immense: "his delay lasts only until he is released; then he is home" (atha sampatsye). For one who walks with open eyes, saṁsāra is no longer a prison but the last stretch of the road; his very life is an arriving. So a devotee lives: still on the way — already one of the household; asking from village to village — and knowing where he is going.