उपनिषद् · Mahā 3.13
॥
देवनागरी
तरवोऽपि हि जीवन्ति जीवन्ति मृगपक्षिणः स जीवति मनो यस्य मननेनोपजीवति
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
taravo'pi hi jīvanti jīvanti mṛgapakṣiṇaḥ sa jīvati mano yasya mananenopajīvati
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
तरवः अपि हि जीवन्तिtaravaḥ api hi jīvantifor trees too live; for even the trees are alive
जीवन्ति मृग-पक्षिणःjīvanti mṛga-pakṣiṇaḥbeasts and birds live; alive are both beasts and fowl
सः जीवति मनः यस्यsaḥ jīvati manaḥ yasyahe lives whose mind; he is alive whose consciousness
मननेन उपजीवतिmananena upajīvatilives upon reflection; feeds upon meditation
अनुवाद
“For trees too live, and beasts and birds live; he lives whose mind feeds upon reflection.”
संस्करण
dece6893ca45 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 6:29:20 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The verse is short and almost an aphorism.
The argument is simple: if life is breathing, growth and feeding, then a tree lives no worse than we, and a bird better. So these marks do not define us.
What defines is manana — reflection turned toward the essence.
Note the verb upajīvati: “feeds upon, lives off”. Not “reflects at times”, but is nourished by it.
It is curious that in the second chapter the same word manana stood among the things ordered left behind (2.52). There is no contradiction: there the speech was of the grinding of everyday cares, here of the inquiry into the essence. One and the same instrument, pointed in different directions.
And further: manana is the second of the three steps of the Vedāntic path, between hearing and concentration. Nidāgha, then, calls life precisely that work for whose sake he came to the teacher.