उपनिषद् · Mahāvākya p8
॥
देवनागरी
विद्या हि काण्डान्तरादित्यो ज्योतिर्मण्डलं ग्राह्यं नापरम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
vidyā hi kāṇḍāntarādityo jyotirmaṇḍalaṃ grāhyaṃ nāparam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
विद्या हि काण्ड-अन्तरा आदित्यःvidyā hi kāṇḍa-antarā ādityaḥknowledge, however, is beyond the boundary — the sun
ज्योतिः-मण्डलं ग्राह्यं न अपरम्jyotiḥ-maṇḍalaṃ grāhyaṃ na aparamthe disc of light, graspable; there is no other
अनुवाद
«Knowledge, however, is beyond the boundary [of darkness] — the sun, the disc of light; it is graspable, and there is no other.»
संस्करण
4bd2f698dfa0 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Darkness is set against the sun, and this image is basic in the upaniṣads: darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge. Note the word grāhyam, “graspable,” from grah, “to seize.” That is, of light it is said that it is seized: it is that which can be grasped, unlike darkness, which cannot be grasped, being an absence.
This remark is subtle and worth unfolding, for it explains the asymmetry of light and darkness. Darkness is not a thing: it cannot be brought or taken away. It is the absence of light; and hence one does not struggle with it — one dispels it.
This position is a favorite in the Vaiṣṇava books, and is cited whenever the question arises of how one is rid of what is bad. The Bhāgavatam, as discussed reading the Jābāla-darśana (4.54), compares the action of service to the sun dispersing fog (6.1.15). Let us add what follows from this for a person struggling with his own faults.
Struggling with darkness is a hopeless occupation, for there is no object to struggle with. One who fights his bad inclinations year after year is fighting an absence, and hence does not win. He wins who brings in light: that is, occupies himself not with what he does not want, but with what he does want. And the difference between “do not think of the bad” and “think of the good” is, for all its simplicity, the difference between defeat and victory.