उपनिषद् · Rudrahṛdaya 52p
॥
देवनागरी
इत्युपनिषत्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
ityupaniṣat
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
इति उपनिषत्iti upaniṣatsuch is the upaniṣad
अनुवाद
Such is the upaniṣad.
संस्करण
4de6fabb8ff9 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Two words with which the book is sealed, and about them a last word is worth saying. The word upaniṣad is interpreted in parts: upa, "near," ni, "down," sad, "to sit" — "sitting near," that is, at the teacher's feet. This interpretation is old and probably correct; others derive it from sad in the sense "to destroy" — that which destroys ignorance.
Both interpretations coexist, and both say something about the matter. By the first, knowledge is transmitted near at hand and sitting: not from a podium, not by letter, but when two sit beside each other long enough. By the second, it does not add, but removes.
This book, in any case, is built by the first: it is a conversation between father and son, and Śuka asks, bowing to his feet (2). And it is on this that we should end. Everything said in it about unity and difference, about the birds, space, and consciousness, was said by one person to another, face to face; and as long as this is so, all the proofs of unity are uttered in a position that refutes them.
This is not a quibble and not wordplay. A teaching that requires two people to be transmitted testifies to two no less than its content testifies to one; and in the very word upaniṣad, standing at the end, it is recorded that someone sat beside another.