जिह्वामेवाप्येति यो जिह्वामेवास्तमेति रसयितव्यमेवाप्येति यो रसयितव्यमेवास्तमेति वरुणमेवाप्येति यो वरुणमेवास्तमेति सौम्यामेवाप्येति यः सौम्यामेवास्तमेत्युदानमेवाप्येति य उदानमेवास्तमेति विज्ञानमेवाप्येति तदमृतमभयमशोकमनन्तनिर्बीजमेवाप्येतीति होवाच
jihvāmevāpyeti yo jihvāmevāstameti rasayitavyamevāpyeti yo rasayitavyamevāstameti varuṇamevāpyeti yo varuṇamevāstameti saumyāmevāpyeti yaḥ saumyāmevāstametyudānamevāpyeti ya udānamevāstameti vijñānamevāpyeti tadamṛtamabhayamaśokamanantanirbījamevāpyetīti hovāca
Into the tongue enters that which sets in the tongue; into the tasted enters that which sets in the tasted; into Varuṇa enters that which sets in Varuṇa; into Saumyā enters that which sets in Saumyā; into the rising breath enters that which sets in it; into knowledge it enters; and into that immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless, seedless — into it it enters. So he said.
a3ad8676e5bd · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:12:03 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The fourth step: the tongue, the tasted, Varuṇa, the channel Saumyā, the rising breath.
Saumyā means “lunar, gentle, mild” — from the name of Soma. And here it is joined with Varuṇa, lord of the waters, and with the tongue that takes taste. All three are of the realm of the moist and flowing; the combination has come out harmonious.
Udāna, “the rising breath”, is the one to which the śāstras ascribe speech and the soul's departure at the hour of death. It is named that into which taste sets.
Here something should be said of the very word vijñāna, with which every row ends. It means “discerning knowledge” — not consciousness in general, but the capacity to recognise what a thing is. And in this sense it truly is that into which everything sensory sets: a taste not recognised by the tongue remains nothing; recognised, it becomes knowledge and remains in it.
So this ladder describes not only the end of the world but the ordinary course of perception: everything we take with the senses sets, minute by minute, into knowledge.