उपनिषद् · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 26
॥
देवनागरी
यो ह वै त्वकामेन कामान् कामयते सोऽकामी भवति
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
yo ha vai tvakāmena kāmān kāmayate so’kāmī bhavati
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
यः ह वै तुyaḥ ha vai tubut he who truly; he, however, who
अकामेन कामान् कामयतेakāmena kāmān kāmayatedesires the desirable without desire; not craving, reaches after objects
सः अकामी भवतिsaḥ akāmī bhavatihe remains free of lust; he stays untouched by lust
अनुवाद
But he who desires the desirable without desire remains free of lust.
संस्करण
6a7d0f1200ed · प्रकाशित 28 जुल॰ 2026, 2:30:24 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The second half of the pair — and one of the subtlest lines in the book: "without desire he desires the desirable".
The phrase seems self-contradictory until one sees what is being denied. Neither the act nor the closeness: the desirable remains desirable, and the striving toward it is not annulled. What is denied is kāmena — "by desire" as the driver, that is, by lack.
Hence a double conclusion. Of Kṛṣṇa: His closeness with those who love Him is not the making up of a deficiency, for He is full; therefore He is called a brahmacārin while remaining among them. And of those who love: their attraction to Him is not self-interest if it is moved not by emptiness but by love.
Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa reads this line as "a denial within a likeness": not "without desire" but "with a love resembling desire" — passion in appearance, prema in essence. On this reading rests all the later theology of rasa: God has attraction, but no need.
So the riddle of this part's second mantra is resolved. The word by which the cowherd women crossed the river proved true not by indulgence but in substance.