वेत्थ यथा इमाः प्रजाः प्रयत्यो विप्रतिपद्यन्ता इति न इति ह उवाच वेत्थः यथा इमम् लोकम् पुनर् आपद्यन्ता इति न इति ह एव उवाच वेत्थः यथा असौ लोकः एवम् बहुभिः पुनः पुनः प्रयद्भिर् न संपूर्यता इति न इति ह एव उवाच वेत्थः यतिथ्याम् आहुत्यां हुतायाम् आपः पुरुषवाचो भूत्वा समुत्थाय वदन्ती इति न इति ह एव उवाच वेत्थः देवयानस्य वा पथः प्रतिपदं पितृयाणस्य वा यत् कृत्वा देवयानं वा पन्थानं प्रतिपद्यन्ते पितृयाणं वा अपि हि न ऋषेर् वचः श्रुतं द्वे सृती अशृणवं पितॄणाम् अहम् देवानाम् उत मर्त्यानाम् ताभ्याम् इदम् विश्वम् एजत् समेति यद् अन्तरा पितरं मातरं च इति न अहम् अत एकं चन वेद इति ह उवाच
vettha yathā imāḥ prajāḥ prayatyo vipratipadyantā iti na iti ha uvāca vetthaḥ yathā imam lokam punar āpadyantā iti na iti ha eva uvāca vetthaḥ yathā asau lokaḥ evam bahubhiḥ punaḥ punaḥ prayadbhir na saṃpūryatā iti na iti ha eva uvāca vetthaḥ yatithyām āhutyāṃ hutāyām āpaḥ puruṣavāco bhūtvā samutthāya vadantī iti na iti ha eva uvāca vetthaḥ devayānasya vā pathaḥ pratipadaṃ pitṛyāṇasya vā yat kṛtvā devayānaṃ vā panthānaṃ pratipadyante pitṛyāṇaṃ vā api hi na ṛṣer vacaḥ śrutaṃ dve sṛtī aśṛṇavaṃ pitṝṇām aham devānām uta martyānām tābhyām idam viśvam ejat sameti yad antarā pitaraṃ mātaraṃ ca iti na aham ata ekaṃ cana veda iti ha uvāca
"Do you know how creatures, when they depart, go their different ways?" — "No." — "Do you know how they come back to this world?" — "No." — "Do you know why that world is not filled up, though many depart again and again?" — "No." — "Do you know at which oblation the waters, being offered, take on a human voice, rise up and speak?" — "No." — "Do you know the entrance to the path that leads to the gods, or to the one that leads to the fathers — by doing what one enters the path of the gods or of the fathers? For we have heard the ṛṣi's word: 'Of two roads of mortals I have heard — the road of the fathers and the road of the gods: by them moves all this that is between Father and Mother.'" — "I know not one of them," he said.
d53b67b9f3a0 · प्रकाशित 27 जुल॰ 2026, 1:24:18 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Pravāhaṇa's five questions, in a recension with a Ṛgvedic ornament: the king quotes the hymn (RV 10.88.15) about "two roads of mortals" — the road of the fathers and the road of the gods, "between Father and Mother" (heaven and earth). The questions about the soul's destiny are placed under the authority of the most ancient seer: this is no new science but an old one the brāhmaṇas had forgotten.
And Śvetaketu's fivefold "no" — after that self-assured "Oṁ"! Five minutes of an assembly wiped out twelve years of school: the youth knows neither the departure nor the return, neither the non-filling nor the fifth oblation nor the fork of the roads. An examination at the border of life and death is not passed with lecture notes.