Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad 3.7
The Upanishads, Part I (SBE 1) 3.7
- Language
- English
3.7
For without pragñâ (self-consciousness) speech does not make known (to the self) any word. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that word.' Without pragñâ the nose does not make known any odour. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that odour.' Without pragñâ the eye does not make known any form. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that form.' Without pragñâ the ear does not make known any sound. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that sound.' Without pragñâ the tongue does not make known any taste. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that taste.' Without pragñâ the two hands do not make known any act. 'Our mind was absent,' they say, 'we did not perceive any act.' Without pragñâ the body does not make known pleasure or pain. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that pleasure or pain.' Without pragñâ the organ does not make known happiness, joy, or offspring. 'My mind was absent,' he says, 'I did not perceive that happiness, joy, or offspring.' Without pragñâ, the two feet do not make known any movement. 'Our mind was absent,' they say, 'we did not perceive that movement.' Without pragñâ no thought succeeds, nothing can be known that is to be known.
3.7.n1
Professor Cowell has translated a passage from the commentary which is interesting as showing that its author and the author of the Upanishad too had a clear conception of the correlative nature of knowledge. 'The organ of sense,' he says, 'cannot exist without pragñâ (self-consciousness), nor the objects of sense be obtained without the organ, therefore--on the principle, that when one thing cannot exist without another, that thing is said to be identical with the other--as the cloth, for instance, being never perceived without the threads, is identical with them, or the (false perception of) silver being never found without the mother of pearl is identical with it, so the objects of sense being never found without the organs are identical with them, and the organs being never found without pragñâ (self-consciousness) are identical with it.
Other recensions (1)
- Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇopaniṣad (complete text) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇopaniṣad — Sanskrit