उपनिषद् · Yājñavalkya 4
॥
देवनागरी
ईश्वरो जीवकलया प्रविष्टो भगवानिति । प्रणमेद्दण्डवद्भूमावाश्वचण्डालगोखरम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
īśvaro jīvakalayā praviṣṭo bhagavāniti | praṇameddaṇḍavadbhūmāvāśvacaṇḍālagokharam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
ईश्वरः जीव-कलयाīśvaraḥ jīva-kalayāthe Lord, by a portion of the living being
प्रविष्टः भगवान् इतिpraviṣṭaḥ bhagavān itihas entered — the Lord
प्रणमेत् दण्ड-वत् भूमौpraṇamet daṇḍa-vat bhūmaulet him bow, prostrate on the ground
आ-श्व-चण्डाल-गो-खरम्ā-śva-caṇḍāla-go-kharamdown to a dog, an outcast, a cow, and a donkey
अनुवाद
"The Lord has entered by a portion of the living being" — thinking thus, let him bow, prostrate on the ground — down to a dog, an outcast, a cow, and a donkey.
संस्करण
f59f5d18caa4 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Here is a verse for whose sake this book is worth reading, and it is, to my mind, the finest in the whole series of books on renunciation. It says: bow prostrate — and not to an elder, not to a teacher, but ā-śva-caṇḍāla-go-kharam, "down to a dog, an outcast, a cow, and a donkey." It is worth examining the list, for it is deliberately chosen.
Śvan, "dog," is, in Indian usage, the most impure of animals. Caṇḍāla is a person outside the castes, an outcast. Go, "cow," is the most revered. Khara, "donkey," is an image of stupidity.
That is, the despised and the revered are taken together, interspersed, so that none can be chosen apart. And the reason is named: īśvaro jīva-kalayā praviṣṭo bhagavān, "the Lord has entered by a portion of the living being." That is, one does not bow to the dog or the donkey, but to the One who has entered.
Let us compare this with the Gītā, where the same list stands, with almost the same items: "upon a learned and humble brahmin, upon a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater, the wise look equally" — vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini, śuni caiva śvapāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (5.18). This coincidence is word for word: in both, the dog and the outcast stand beside the cow. Let us add what is worth saying about the difference between the two verses.
The Gītā commands looking equally; here it commands bowing. The second is harder and more definite: one can look equally even in silence, but a bow is an action that is seen. And with this one verse everything we read in earlier books about exclusion by birth is annulled: the one the books commanded not to give a mantra to is here the one commanded to be bowed to, prostrate on the ground.