यः वा एतद् अक्षरम् गार्गि अविदित्वा अस्मिन् लोके जुहोति यजते तपस् तप्यते बहूनि वर्षसहस्राणि अन्तवत् एव अस्य तत् भवति यः वा एतद् अक्षरम् अविदित्वा गार्गि अस्मत् लोकात् प्रैति सः कृपणः अथ यः एतद् अक्षरं गार्गि विदित्वा अस्मत् लोकात् प्रैति सः ब्राह्मणः
yaḥ vā etad akṣaram gārgi aviditvā asmin loke juhoti yajate tapas tapyate bahūni varṣasahasrāṇi antavat eva asya tat bhavati yaḥ vā etad akṣaram aviditvā gārgi asmat lokāt praiti saḥ kṛpaṇaḥ atha yaḥ etad akṣaraṃ gārgi viditvā asmat lokāt praiti saḥ brāhmaṇaḥ
"He who, Gārgī, not knowing this Akṣara, offers oblations, sacrifices and practises austerity in this world for many thousands of years — all that of his is finite. He who, Gārgī, departs from this world without knowing this Akṣara is wretched (kṛpaṇa). But he who, Gārgī, departs from this world knowing this Akṣara is a brāhmaṇa."
fac2b27e06bd · प्रकाशित 27 जुल॰ 2026, 1:05:26 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Three verdicts, by which every traveller has checked himself for centuries. The first: rites and austerities without knowledge of the Akṣara — "even for thousands of years" — are antavat, finite: for one not fastened to the Imperishable everything wears away, like merits on the moon (ChU 8.1.6). The second, the most terrible: he who departs without having known Her is kṛpaṇaḥ, "wretched", a pauper: he lived beside a treasury and died a beggar. The third: he who departs knowing is brāhmaṇaḥ — a brāhmaṇa not by birth but by knowledge of the Imperishable.
The Gītā opens with this very word of Gārgī's: Arjuna confesses kārpaṇya-doṣa, "the fault of wretchedness" (BG 2.7), and its whole second chapter is an unfolding of this verse about the perishable and the Imperishable. It is not the sinner who is wretched — it is the one who has not known: the only final poverty is to die without knowledge of Him who does not end.