उपनिषद् · Kaṭharudra p8
॥
देवनागरी
अत ऊर्ध्वमनशनमपां प्रवेशमग्निप्रवेशं वीराध्वानं महाप्रस्थानं वृद्धाश्रमं वा गच्छेत्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
ata ūrdhvamanaśanamapāṃ praveśamagnipraveśaṃ vīrādhvānaṃ mahāprasthānaṃ vṛddhāśramaṃ vā gacchet
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
अतः ऊर्ध्वम् अन्-अशनम्ataḥ ūrdhvam an-aśanamthen further — fasting
अपां प्रवेशम् अग्नि-प्रवेशंapāṃ praveśam agni-praveśaṃentering the waters, entering fire
वीर-अध्वानंvīra-adhvānaṃthe hero's road
महा-प्रस्थानंmahā-prasthānaṃthe great departure
वृद्ध-आश्रमं वा गच्छेत्vṛddha-āśramaṃ vā gacchetor let him go to the abode of old age
अनुवाद
Then further — fasting, entering the waters, entering fire, the hero's road, the great departure — or let him go to the abode of old age.
संस्करण
5fd64299ee97 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Here is a passage that must be spoken of plainly and without any circumlocution: what is listed here are ways to kill oneself. Anāśana — to starve oneself to death; apāṃ praveśa — to enter water; agni-praveśa — to enter fire; vīra-adhvan, "the hero's road," and mahā-prasthāna, "the great departure" — to walk into the mountains until one falls. This is not allegory. These customs existed, there is testimony to them, and in some places they held on into modern times.
We do not accept this, and the reason is not a single commandment. Life is given to a person, not taken by him; and to dispose of it as one's own property is to appropriate what belongs to another. The Gītā says a person is not even fully the doer of his own deeds in the complete sense (18.14–16) — still less the master of his own span. And one who departs by his own hand takes not only from himself: he takes from those remaining the time he might still have given them.
It is worth noting that the book itself places something else beside this: vṛddhāśramaṃ vā gacchet, "or let him go to the abode of old age." That is, another way out is also offered — simply to live out one's days, in a shelter, among one's own. And the conjunction "or" stands in the text: even this strict book did not make death obligatory.
It is by this "or" that the whole passage must be read. Of what is listed, we choose the last and decline the rest; and this refusal is not a softening of the ancient rule, but a following of what the rule itself left to choice.