उपनिषद् · Varāha 3.18
॥
देवनागरी
न देहो नेन्द्रियप्राणो न मनोबुद्ध्यहंकृति । न चित्तं नैव माया च न च व्योमादिकं जगत्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
na deho nendriyaprāṇo na manobuddhyahaṃkṛti | na cittaṃ naiva māyā ca na ca vyomādikaṃ jagat
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
न देहः न इन्द्रिय-प्राणःna dehaḥ na indriya-prāṇaḥnot the body, not the senses and breath
न मनः बुद्धि-अहंकृतिna manaḥ buddhi-ahaṃkṛtinot the mind, intellect, ego-making
न चित्तं नna cittaṃ nanot consciousness, not
एव माया चeva māyā caindeed maya, either
न च व्योम-आदिकं जगत्na ca vyoma-ādikaṃ jagatnor the world of space and the rest
अनुवाद
"Not the body, not the senses and breath, not the mind, intellect, and ego-making, not consciousness, nor indeed maya, and not the world of space and the rest…"
संस्करण
639d179fc34c · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A list of neti neti is given, and it proceeds through the very principles laid out in the first chapter. Worth noting is that the list exhausts the inventory: body, senses, breath, the four inner instruments, maya, the elements. That is, everything counted is rejected; and this confirms what was said when reading the first chapter (1.15): the list was composed in order to point to what is not included in it.
Let us add what deserves saying of this device at this point. Neti neti is a device of excision, and it is faultless as long as it excises. The difficulty begins at the last step: when everything has been excised, one must say what remains; and here the device, capable only of taking away, falls silent.
We noted this when reading the Mahavakya (p7), and said the Brihadaranyaka, after all its negations, does not stop, but goes on to speak positively — of how "not for the wife's sake is the wife dear, but for the Atman's" (2.4.5). Let us add that the very next verse of this book will do the same: it will continue the negations — and end in a name. That is, here too the device of excision will not hold to the end; and this, in my view, is not the compiler's weakness, but a property of the device itself: it leads to the threshold and does not carry one across it.