उपनिषद् · Brahma 3.9
॥
देवनागरी
ज्ञानमेव परं तेषां पवित्रं ज्ञानमुत्तमम् । अग्नेरिव शिखा नान्या यस्य ज्ञानमयी शिखा
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
jñānameva paraṃ teṣāṃ pavitraṃ jñānamuttamam | agneriva śikhā nānyā yasya jñānamayī śikhā
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
ज्ञानम् एव परम् तेषाम्jñānam eva param teṣāmknowledge for them is the highest; to them knowing is supreme
पवित्रम् ज्ञानम् उत्तमम्pavitram jñānam uttamampurifying; knowledge is the best; the purifier; knowing is most excellent
अग्नेः इव शिखा न अन्याagneḥ iva śikhā na anyāas the fire's crest is no other; like the flame's tongue, not other
यस्य ज्ञानमयी शिखाyasya jñānamayī śikhāwhose tuft is made of knowledge; whose śikhā is woven of knowing
अनुवाद
Knowledge for them is the highest, knowledge is the best purifier; and as the fire's crest is nothing other than the fire, so is the tuft of him whose tuft is made of knowledge.
संस्करण
12ef5b1cc7fe · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:09:07 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The simile of fire, and it is exact.
Śikhā means both “the tuft of hair on the crown” and “the tongue of flame”. One word, and the book makes use of it.
The fire's tongue is not attached to it: it is the fire in its burning. So the knower's tuft is not worn — he is it.
Note the first half-verse too: pavitraṃ jñānam uttamam — “knowledge is the best purifier”.
Pavitra is that with which one purifies: the tuft of kuśa grass for sprinkling, the act of cleansing itself. And the best of all this, it says, is knowledge.
Here a measure should be stated which this chapter keeps and which is easily lost in reading.
Nowhere does it revile the rite, nowhere declare it harmful. It says only that the rite has an object, and the object outweighs the sign. He who removed the sign without possessing the object is left with nothing.
Hence the repeated conditions: the wise, the knower of yoga, the established.