अप्रमाणममुखमश्रोत्रमवागमनोऽतेजस्कम् अचक्षुष्कमनामगोत्रमशिरस्कम् अपाणिपादमस्निग्धमलोहितमप्रमेयम् अह्रस्वमदीर्घमस्थूलमनण्वनल्पमपारम् अनिर्देश्यमनपावृतमप्रतर्क्यम् अप्रकाश्यमसंवृतमनन्तरमबाह्यं न तदश्नाति किञ्चन न तदश्नाति कश्चन
apramāṇamamukhamaśrotramavāgamano'tejaskam acakṣuṣkamanāmagotramaśiraskam apāṇipādamasnigdhamalohitamaprameyam ahrasvamadīrghamasthūlamanaṇvanalpamapāram anirdeśyamanapāvṛtamapratarkyam aprakāśyamasaṃvṛtamanantaramabāhyaṃ na tadaśnāti kiñcana na tadaśnāti kaścana
Measureless, mouthless, earless, speechless, mindless, without lustre, eyeless, nameless and kinless, headless, handless and footless, not unctuous, bloodless, immeasurable, not short and not long, not coarse, not minute, not little, boundless, unindicable, uncovered, ungraspable by reason, unrevealable, unencompassed, without inside and without outside. It eats nothing, and nothing eats it.
e487ecb89ae2 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:12:03 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The negations continue and are carried to the limit: there are about thirty of them here in a row, and every one removes something by which we usually describe what exists.
Removed are the organs: mouth, ear, speech, mind, eye, head, hands, feet. Removed is substance: unctuousness, blood. Removed are dimensions: the short and the long, the coarse and the minute, the little. Removed are name and kin. Removed is even the possibility of approach: unindicable, ungraspable by reason.
A pair at the end stands apart: “without inside and without outside”. This is the strongest of the negations, for the division into within and without is the first condition of every representation. Taking it away, the Upaniṣad takes from the mind its last foothold.
Here one must keep a measure for which the book itself will provide further on. All these “without” deny not the being of the Highest but our yardstick. What is denied is the materiality of organs, not the capacity to see and hear; in the sixth khaṇḍa this same book will name Him Nārāyaṇa, mother and father, refuge and friend. Were it not for that continuation, the negations would turn into a description of emptiness.
And the last line leads out of the row: “it eats nothing, and nothing eats it”. In the Upaniṣads eating is the image of every dependence: he who eats is in need; he who is eaten is in another's power. Here both are rejected. He of whom the speech is needs nothing and falls to no one as food.
And this is no longer a negation at all, but a positive property spoken negatively: complete self-sufficiency.