The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Taittiriya · The Bliss of Brahman

Where Speech Turns Back

Taittiriya Upanishad 2.9.1

यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते अप्राप्य मनसा सह । आनन्दं ब्रह्मणो विद्वान् । न बिभेत कुतश्चनेति । एतँ ह वाव न तपति । किमहँ साधु नाकरवम् । किमहं पापमकरवमिति । स य एवं विद्वानेते आत्मानँ स्पृणुते । उभे ह्येवैष एते आत्मानँ स्पृणुते । य एवं वेद । इत्युपनिषत्

Meaning · English

Words and mind turn back without reaching it. One who knows Brahman's joy fears nothing, and no longer burns over the good left undone or the wrong done.

Brahman, the reality this teaching has been circling, cannot be caught in speech or thought. Both set out toward it and come back empty-handed. Its joy, though, can be known. Two things follow for the one who knows it. Fear goes, from every direction. And regret stops burning: the old ache over good left undone and wrong once done no longer heats the mind. The knower takes both of those thoughts into the self, and they lose their hold. The text closes by calling all this an upanishad, a hidden teaching.

Picture a fishing net pulled up through a lake. It comes up dripping, but it holds none of the water; the mesh cannot carry it. A swimmer beside the boat, though, is wholly in that same water. Speech and thought are the net and cannot haul Brahman back. Knowing its joy is being in the water.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Measuring Happiness Hundredfold · Taittiriya Upanishad 2.8.1
• All of Upanishads · Ask Krishna about it

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