The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Chandogya · Narada and the Infinite

Fullness and the Small

Chandogya Upanishad 7.24.1

यत्र नान्यत्पश्यति नान्यच्छृणोति नान्यद्विजानाति स भूमाथ यत्रान्यत्पश्यत्यन्यच्छृणोत्यन्यद्विजानाति तदल्पं यो वै भूमा तदमृतमथ यदल्पं तन्मर्त्य्ँ स भगवः कस्मिन्प्रतिष्ठित इति स्वे महिम्नि यदि वा न महिम्नीति

Meaning · English

Where nothing other is seen, heard or known: fullness, deathless. Where an other appears: the small, which dies. It rests on its own greatness, or not even that.

Bhuma means fullness: what has no limit and nothing outside it. Alpa means the small. The test is simple. Wherever there is a seer and something separate being seen, a hearer and a sound, a knower and a thing known, that is the small, and the small dies. Where no second thing stands apart, that is fullness, and it does not die. Asked what fullness rests on, the sage says its own greatness, then takes even that back. Resting on anything would make two.

A glass of water poured into a lake. While it sat in the glass, you could point to it, measure it, knock it over and lose it. Once in the lake, there is no glass of water left to point at. The small is whatever can be pointed at from outside, and so can be lost. Fullness has no outside to point from.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Before: Happiness Has No Edge · Chandogya Upanishad 7.23.1
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