उपनिषद् · Varāha 2.72
॥
देवनागरी
भातीत्युक्ते जगत्सर्वं भानं ब्रह्मैव केवलम् । मरुभूमौ जलं सर्वं मरुभूमात्रमेव तत् । जगत्त्रयमिदं सर्वं चिन्मात्रं स्वविचारतः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
bhātītyukte jagatsarvaṃ bhānaṃ brahmaiva kevalam | marubhūmau jalaṃ sarvaṃ marubhūmātrameva tat | jagattrayamidaṃ sarvaṃ cinmātraṃ svavicārataḥ
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
भाति इति उक्ते जगत् सर्वंbhāti iti ukte jagat sarvaṃwhen it is said 'shines,' the whole world
भानं ब्रह्म एव केवलम्bhānaṃ brahma eva kevalamthe shining is brahman alone
मरु-भूमौ जलं सर्वंmaru-bhūmau jalaṃ sarvaṃall the water in a desert
मरु-भू-मात्रम् एव तत्maru-bhū-mātram eva tatis nothing but the desert
अनुवाद
"When 'shines' is said, the whole world; and the shining is brahman alone. All the water in a desert is nothing but the desert; and these three worlds, upon their own examination, are one consciousness."
संस्करण
a2486303358c · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The comparison with a mirage is given: the water seen in a desert is nothing but desert. This comparison is common in nondualist polemic and deserves examination, for it differs from the others. The rope and the serpent, the pot and space, are comparisons where something real exists: the rope exists, the pot exists.
The mirage is different: there is nothing there but sand and refracted light; there was no water at all. That is, this comparison is the strongest of all, for it denies the object outright. It is worth examining, however, what it fails to explain.
A mirage does not quench thirst and does not wet; and anyone who reaches it learns this at once. But the world feeds, wounds, and heals; and a person burned by it learns not that there is no fire, but that fire exists. That is, the comparison works only in the part concerning the mismatch of the visible and the real, and does not work concerning efficacy.
The Vaishnava side points to a second thing too, discussed when reading verse fifty-eight: a mirage disperses of itself, the moment one approaches; but from the cycle, no one exits of himself. Let us add what deserves saying of the mirage in substance, and is rarely said. A mirage is a reflection of something real: it shows not a fiction, but a distant lake or sky. And hence even it is not pure falsehood, but a displaced truth.