Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.6: SIXTH VALLĪ

The Thirteen Principal Upanishads 1.6

Language: English

SIXTH VALLĪ

1. Its root is above, its branches below— This eternal fig-tree! That (root) indeed is the Pure. That is Brahma. That indeed is called the Immortal. On it all the worlds do rest, And no one soever goes beyond it. This, verily, is That!

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The great fear

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2. This whole world, whatever there is,
Was created from and moves in Life (prāṇa).
The great fear, the upraised thunderbolt—
They who know That, become immortal.
3. From fear of Him fire (Agni) doth burn.
From fear the sun (Sūrya) gives forth heat.
From fear both Indra and Wind (Vāyu),
And Death (Mṛityu) as fifth, do speed along.

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Degrees of perception of the Soul (Ātman).

1.6.p6

4. If one has been able to perceive [Him] here on earth
Before the dissolution of the body,
According to that [knowledge] he becomes fitted
For embodiment in the world-creations.
5. As in a mirror, so is it seen in the body (ātman);
As in a dream, so in the world of the fathers;
As if in water, so in the world of the Gandharvas (genii);
As if in light and shade, so in the world of Brahma.

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The gradation up to the supersensible Person

1.6.p8

6. The separate nature of the senses,
And that their arising and setting
Is of things that come into being apart [from himself],
The wise man recognizes, and sorrows not.
7. Higher than the senses (indriya) is the mind (manas);
Above the mind is the true being (sattva).
Over the true being is the Great Self [i. e. buddhi, intellect];
Above the Great is the Unmanifest (avyakta).
8. Higher than the Unmanifest, however, is the Person
(Purusha),
All-pervading and without any mark (a-liṅga) whatever.
Knowing which, a man is liberated
And goes to immortality.
9. His form is not to be beheld.
No one soever sees Him with the eye.
He is framed by the heart, by the thought, by the mind.
They who know That become immortal.

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The method of Yoga, suppressive of the lower activity

1.6.p10

10. When cease the five
[Sense-]knowledges, together with the mind (manas),

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And the intellect (_buddhi_) stirs not— That, they say, is the highest course. 11. This they consider as Yoga— The firm holding back of the senses. Then one becomes undistracted. Yoga, truly, is the origin and the end.

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The Soul incomprehensible except as existent

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12. Not by speech, not by mind, Not by sight can He be apprehended. How can He be comprehended Otherwise than by one’s saying ‘He is’? 13. He can indeed be comprehended by the thought ‘He is’ (_asti_) And by [admitting] the real nature of both [his comprehensibility and his incomprehensibility]. When he has been comprehended by the thought ‘He is,’ His real nature manifests itself.

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A renunciation of all desires and attachments the condition of immortality

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14. When are liberated all The desires that lodge in one’s heart, Then a mortal becomes immortal! Therein he reaches Brahma! 15. When are cut all The knots of the heart here on earth,

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Then a mortal becomes immortal! —Thus far is the instruction.

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The passage of the soul from the body to immortality—or elsewhere

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16. There are a hundred and one arteries of the heart.
One of these passes up to the crown of the head.
Going up by it, one goes to immortality.
The others are for departing in various directions.

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17. A Person of the measure of a thumb is the inner soul (antarātman),
Ever seated in the heart of creatures.
Him one should draw out from one’s own body
Like an arrow-shaft out from a reed, with firmness.
Him one should know as the Pure, the Immortal—
Yea, Him one should know as the Pure, the Immortal.

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This teaching, the means of attaining Brahma and immortality

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18. Then Naciketas, having received this knowledge
Declared by Death, and the entire rule of Yoga,
Attained Brahma and became free from passion, free from death;
And so may any other who knows this in regard to the Soul (Ātman).

Linked texts (1)

Kaṭhopaniṣad — Sanskrit