उपनिषद् · Jābāladarśana 2.2
॥
देवनागरी
एते च नियमाः प्रोक्तास्तान्वक्ष्यामि क्रमाच्छृणु
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
ete ca niyamāḥ proktāstānvakṣyāmi kramācchṛṇu
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
एते च नियमाः प्रोक्ताःete ca niyamāḥ proktāḥand this has been named observances
तान् वक्ष्यामि क्रमात् शृणुtān vakṣyāmi kramāt śṛṇuI shall set them out in order — listen
अनुवाद
"And this has been named observances; I shall set them out in order — listen."
संस्करण
f7918db90cff · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A transitional line, and in it only one word is worth noting: kramat, "in order." The order of exposition in Sanskrit books is a matter of care, and this is no idle courtesy. Oral transmission requires that the listener know where he stands; hence a list is given first, then examined item by item, and each time it is announced that an examination is about to follow.
This custom is worth noting, because it explains why these books strike us as verbose. They are written for the ear, not for the eye: a reader with the eye can go back, a listener cannot, and so things must be repeated for him. The Vaishnava side uses the same order, and its finest example is the Bhagavatam itself, where a subject is announced, then set out, then repeated elsewhere in other words.
This construction has a second purpose too, less obvious. Repetition is not only an aid to memory, but a way of inhabiting a subject: what is heard twice and thrice ceases to be news and becomes one's own; a teaching heard once is forgotten, as everything heard once is forgotten. The word shrinu, "listen," at the end of the line repeats what was already said when reading the Rudraksha-jabala: knowledge here is not read, but received; and this whole literature is a record of a conversation, not a composition.