奥义书 · 1.2
॥
天城文
कुर्वन्न् एवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः ।
एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतो ऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे
转写 (IAST)
kurvann eveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṃ samāḥ |
evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto 'sti na karma lipyate nare
逐字释义
梵语IAST释义
कुर्वन्kurvanperforming (participle of √kṛ — 'to do'); doing; carrying out
एवevaprecisely; only thus; indeed
इहihahere; in this world; in this life
कर्माणिkarmāṇiactions; duties; ritual works
जिजीविषेत्jijīviṣetlet him wish to live (desiderative of √jīv — 'to live'); let him seek to live out; he may rightly wish to live
शतम्śatama hundred; a full hundred; a long span
समाःsamāḥyears; seasons; ages
एवम्evamthus; in this way; with such an understanding
त्वयिtvayiin you; for you; as regards you
नnanot; there is no; in no way
अन्यथाanyathāotherwise; by another way; differently
इतःitaḥthan this; besides this; apart from this
अस्तिastithere is; exists; is to be found
नnanot; no; will not
कर्मkarmaaction; work; karma
लिप्यतेlipyatestains (from √lip — 'to smear, to stain'); clings; defiles
नरेnarea man; in a man; a mortal
译文
Performing works here, a man may wish to live a hundred years. For you there is no other way: work does not stain the man who lives so.
版本
6c116995db15 · 发布于 2026年7月26日 19:17:19 UTC
可用语言RUEN用方向键翻颂
If the first mantra gave the vision — "everything belongs to the Lord" — the second answers the question that inevitably follows: how, then, is one to live and to act? The answer is direct: kurvann eva — "precisely by acting" — a man may wish to live out a full hundred years. The Upaniṣad does not summon us to flee from work; it summons us to work performed in the spirit of the first mantra — as service to the Master of all, not as a means of appropriation.
The key lies in the closing line: na karma lipyate nare. The root √lip means "to smear, to stain"; work literally "does not stick" to the man who acts in this way. Action does not defile by itself, but through the claim mixed into it — "my work, my fruit". The Bhagavad-gītā (3.9) says the same: yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ — "this world is bound by action unless that action is performed as sacrifice". evaṁ tvayi nānyatheto 'sti — "for you there is no other way": for an embodied being inactivity is impossible; what is possible is only a change in the one to whom the action is offered.
So the first two mantras form a whole: contemplation without action would degenerate into abstraction, action without contemplation into bondage. A life of a hundred years is blessed here precisely because the whole of it, down to its last day, can be one unbroken offering.