पायुरध्यात्मं विसर्जयितव्यमधिभूतं मृत्युस्तत्राधिदैवतं नाडी तेषां निबन्धनं यः पायौ यो विसर्जयितव्ये यो मृत्यौ यो नाड्यां यः प्राणे यो विज्ञाने य आनन्दे यो हृद्याकाशे य एतस्मिन्सर्वस्मिन्नन्तरे संचरति सोऽयमात्मा तमात्मानमुपासीताजरममृतमभयमशोकमनन्तम्
pāyuradhyātmaṃ visarjayitavyamadhibhūtaṃ mṛtyustatrādhidaivataṃ nāḍī teṣāṃ nibandhanaṃ yaḥ pāyau yo visarjayitavye yo mṛtyau yo nāḍyāṃ yaḥ prāṇe yo vijñāne ya ānande yo hṛdyākāśe ya etasminsarvasminnantare saṃcarati so'yamātmā tamātmānamupāsītājaramamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantam
The anus — on the side of oneself, the excreted — on the side of beings, and death — on the side of deities; the channel — their bond. Who is in the anus, in the excreted, in death, in the channel, in the breath, in knowledge, in bliss, in the space of the heart, who moves within all this — He is this very Self. Him let one revere — the unageing, immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless.
761eabde7666 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:12:03 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The thirteenth triad, and it is one of those that disconcert the reader: the anus, the excreted, and death.
The Upaniṣad makes no exceptions. Having examined the eye, the ear, the mind and reason, it examines with the same thoroughness excretion too — and assigns death to it as its deity.
The correspondence is apt. Excretion is the separating from oneself of what has ceased to be needed; death is the same thing, only for the last time. Day by day the body does in small what will one day be done with it in whole.
In this, if one thinks it through, there is even consolation. Death is set in one row with an everyday bodily function — not as a horror coming from outside, but as what is always with us and works in us daily.
And the conclusion is not changed by a word: here too one must revere Him who moves “in the anus, in the excreted and in death” — “the unageing, immortal, fearless”. The Immortal is named in the very mantra where death stands as the deity; and this, it seems, is the strongest place in the whole khaṇḍa.