The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Taittiriya · Lessons for the Student

Guarding What Was Learned

Taittiriya Upanishad 1.4.1

यश्छन्दसामृषभो विश्वरूपः । छन्दोभ्योऽध्यमृतात्संबभूव । स मेन्द्रो मेधया स्पृणोतु । अमृतस्य देव धारणो भूयासम् । शरीरं मे विचर्षणम् । जिह्वा मे मधुमत्तमा । कर्णाभ्यां भूरि विश्रुवम् । ब्रह्मणः कोशोऽसि मेधया पिहितः । श्रुतं मे गोपाय

Meaning · English

Indra, foremost of the hymns, born of the deathless: fill me with understanding. Keep my body able, my words sweet, my hearing wide. Guard what I have learned.

The prayer calls on Indra, the god named as the foremost of the sacred hymns and born from what does not die. It asks him for a mind that grasps a lesson and keeps it. It asks to hold that deathless thing within. Then it asks for the plain tools of study: a body fit for the work, a tongue that speaks gently, and ears that take in a great deal. It ends by asking that everything heard from the teacher stay protected.

Think of a jar of rice in a kitchen with its lid screwed tight. The rice feeds the family only because the lid keeps out damp and insects. The lessons a student hears are the rice. Understanding is the lid that keeps them whole until they are needed. The last line asks for exactly that seal.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Jaws, Tongue, and Speech · Taittiriya Upanishad 1.3.4
• Next: Plenty, and Students Who Come · Taittiriya Upanishad 1.4.2
• All of Upanishads · Ask Krishna about it

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