प्रतर्दनो ह दैवोदासिरिन्द्रस्य प्रियं धामोपजगाम । युद्धेन च पौरुषेण च तं हेन्द्र उवाच । प्रतर्दन वरं ते ददानीति स होवाच प्रतर्दनः । त्वमेव मे वृणीष्व यं त्वं मनुष्याय हिततमं मन्यस इति तं हेन्द्र उवाच । न वै वरोऽवरस्मै वृणीते त्वमेव वृणीष्वेत्येवमरो वै किल म इति होवाच प्रतर्दनोऽथो खल्विन्द्रः सत्यादेव नेयाय । सत्यं हीन्द्रः स होवाच । मामेव विजानीह्येतदेवाहं मनुष्याय हिततमं मन्ये । यन्मां विजानीयात् । त्रिशीर्षाणं त्वाष्ट्रमहनमवाङ्मुखान्यतीन्सालावृकेभ्यः प्रायच्छं बह्वीः सन्धा अतिक्रम्य दिवि प्रह्लादीयानतृणमहमन्तरिक्षे पौलोमान्पृथिव्यां कालखाञ्जान् । तस्य मे तत्र न लोम च मामीयते । स यो मां विजानीयान्नास्य केन च कर्मणा लोको मीयते । न मातृवधेन न पितृवधेन न स्तेयेन न भ्रूणहत्यया नास्य पापं च न चकृषो मुखान्नीलं वेत्तीति
pratardano ha daivodāsirindrasya priyaṃ dhāmopajagāma | yuddhena ca pauruṣeṇa ca taṃ hendra uvāca | pratardana varaṃ te dadānīti sa hovāca pratardanaḥ | tvameva me vṛṇīṣva yaṃ tvaṃ manuṣyāya hitatamaṃ manyasa iti taṃ hendra uvāca | na vai varo'varasmai vṛṇīte tvameva vṛṇīṣvetyevamaro vai kila ma iti hovāca pratardano'tho khalvindraḥ satyādeva neyāya | satyaṃ hīndraḥ sa hovāca | māmeva vijānīhyetadevāhaṃ manuṣyāya hitatamaṃ manye | yanmāṃ vijānīyāt | triśīrṣāṇaṃ tvāṣṭramahanamavāṅmukhānyatīnsālāvṛkebhyaḥ prāyacchaṃ bahvīḥ sandhā atikramya divi prahlādīyānatṛṇamahamantarikṣe paulomānpṛthivyāṃ kālakhāñjān | tasya me tatra na loma ca māmīyate | sa yo māṃ vijānīyānnāsya kena ca karmaṇā loko mīyate | na mātṛvadhena na pitṛvadhena na steyena na bhrūṇahatyayā nāsya pāpaṃ ca na cakṛṣo mukhānnīlaṃ vettīti
Pratardana, son of Divodāsa, came by battle and manliness to the beloved abode of Indra. And Indra said to him: “Pratardana, I will give thee a boon.” Pratardana said: “Choose thou for me that which thou deemest most beneficial for a man.” Indra said to him: “The higher does not choose for the lower; choose thyself.” — “Then there is no boon for me”, said Pratardana. But Indra did not depart from the truth, for Indra is truth. And he said: “Know me myself; this I deem the most beneficial thing for a man — that he should know me. I slew the three-headed son of Tvaṣṭṛ; I gave the ascetics with downcast faces to the wolves; transgressing many compacts, I destroyed the Prahlādīyas in heaven, the Paulomas in the mid-air, the Kālakhāñjas on earth — and not a hair of mine was harmed thereby. And who knows me, his world is diminished by no deed whatever: not by the killing of a mother, not by the killing of a father, not by theft, not by the killing of an embryo; and, having done evil, he does not blanch in the face.”
a2805c71327f · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:43:45 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The third adhyāya is the heart of the book, and it begins with a conversation whose opening is strange.
Pratardana came to Indra not by prayer and not by austerity, but “by battle and manliness”: he is a warrior and comes as one. Indra offers a boon, and he declines to choose for himself: “choose for me what thou thyself deemest most beneficial for a man”. A rare and wise request — to ask not for the desired but for the best.
Indra answers with a refusal of rank: “the higher does not choose for the lower”. Pratardana does not yield: “then there is no boon for me”. And here the chief thing about Indra himself is said: “but he did not depart from the truth, for Indra is truth”. The compact of a boon binds even a god; a word once given is kept.
And the gift proves to be this: “know me myself”. Of all the goods the king of the gods might have named, the knowledge of himself is named.
Then follows what disturbs every reader: Indra recounts his misdeeds. The slaying of Tvaṣṭṛ's three-headed son, the ascetics handed to the wolves, the broken compacts, three peoples destroyed — and the conclusion: “not a hair of mine was harmed thereby”. And after it a promise sharper still: he who knows him will suffer no loss from any deed — not even from the murder of mother or father.
This must be understood exactly. First, it is Indra speaking, not the book's highest principle: in the first adhyāya the traveller passed through Indra's world and went on. Second, the Upaniṣad itself at once removes the literalness: in the next mantra Indra will call himself prāṇa and prajñā — he will speak no longer of his feats but of what he in fact is. The list of misdeeds is the speech of a power that has not yet named itself.
And third: the promise “his world is not diminished” is no licence to do evil. It says that the knowledge of Him who is beyond deeds is not measured by deeds. The same thought the third adhyāya will finish at its close, where it is declared outright: he becomes neither greater by a good deed nor lesser by an evil one.