अथ ये च अस्य इह जीवाः ये च प्रेताः यत् च अन्यत् इच्छन् न लभते सर्वम् तत् अत्र गत्वा विन्दते अत्र हि अस्य एते सत्याः कामाः अनृतापिधानाः तत् यथा अपि हिरण्यनिधिम् निहितम् अक्षेत्रज्ञाः उपरि उपरि सञ्चरन्तः न विन्देयुः एवम् एव इमाः सर्वाः प्रजाः अहर् अहर् गच्छन्ति एतम् ब्रह्मलोकम् न विन्दन्ति अनृतेन हि प्रत्यूढाः
atha ye ca asya iha jīvāḥ ye ca pretāḥ yat ca anyat icchan na labhate sarvam tat atra gatvā vindate atra hi asya ete satyāḥ kāmāḥ anṛtāpidhānāḥ tat yathā api hiraṇyanidhim nihitam akṣetrajñāḥ upari upari sañcarantaḥ na vindeyuḥ evam eva imāḥ sarvāḥ prajāḥ ahar ahar gacchanti etam brahmalokam na vindanti anṛtena hi pratyūḍhāḥ
And his living kinsmen, and those who have departed, and everything he desires and does not obtain — all this he finds on entering there: there are his true desires, covered with falsehood. As those who do not know the spot walk again and again over a buried hoard of gold and do not find it, so all these creatures go day after day into that world of Brahman and do not find it, for they are carried past by falsehood.
c89a23e67c0b · प्रकाशित 26 जुल॰ 2026, 11:51:21 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
An image for which this khaṇḍa alone would have been remembered for ages: a hoard of gold beneath the path. Hiraṇya-nidhiṁ nihitam, a buried treasure, and over it "again and again" (upary upari — right on top of it!) walk the akṣetrajñāḥ, "those who do not know the spot". Not a step aside was needed — a spade underfoot was.
And the interpretation is more staggering than the image: "all these creatures go day after day into the world of Brahman and do not find it". Every night, in deep sleep, every soul enters the treasure itself (we have known it since 6.8.1: the sleeper "has become united with Being") — and comes out empty-handed, "for they are carried past by falsehood" (anṛtena pratyūḍhāḥ). Not driven off — carried past: falsehood does not guard the hoard; it averts the eyes of one walking over it.
The word a-kṣetra-jña — "not knowing the field" — the Gītā will turn into a term: kṣetra-jña, the Knower of the field, the Lord and the soul in the body (BG 13.2–3). To find the hoard is to become the knower of one's own field: not to acquire something new but to recognise the ground one has walked all one's life. The whole practice of remembrance is a spade on that path.