Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath

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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.

Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.

Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.

॥ 1.3.6 ॥

Thought is struck with evil

अथ ह मन ऊचुस्त्वं न उद्गायेति । तथेति तेभ्यो मन उदगायत् । यो मनसि भोगस्तं देवेभ्य आगायत् । यत्कल्याणं संकल्पयति तदात्मने । तेऽविदुरनेन वै न उद्गात्रात्येष्यन्तीति । तमभिद्रुत्य पाप्मनाविध्यन् । स यः स पाप्मा यदेवेदमप्रतिरूपं संकल्पयति । स एव स पाप्मा ॥

In transliteration

atha ha mana ūcustvaṃ na udgāyeti | tatheti tebhyo mana udagāyat | yo manasi bhogastaṃ devebhya āgāyat | yatkalyāṇaṃ saṃkalpayati tadātmane | te'viduranena vai na udgātrātyeṣyantīti | tamabhidrutya pāpmanāvidhyan | sa yaḥ sa pāpmā yadevedamapratirūpaṃ saṃkalpayati | sa eva sa pāpmā ||

In English

Then they said to the mind: Chant the Udgitha for us. So be it, said the mind, and chanted for them. The enjoyment that is in the mind it secured for the gods by chanting; whatever fine thing it conceived, that it kept for itself. The demons knew: through this chanter they mean to surpass us. They rushed at it and struck it with evil. That evil is just this: the conceiving of what is unfitting. That, then, is that evil.

In plain words

Then the gods asked the mind (manas) to chant. It agreed and chanted, winning the good of thought for the gods, but keeping its pleasant imaginings for itself. The demons pierced the mind with evil too. Its evil is this: the conceiving and intending of what is improper. That flaw entered the mind.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara: even the mind is overcome, marred by willing and imagining what is improper; with this the inner organ too is shown defectible, so none of the named instruments is the deathless chanter the gods need.

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 1.3.6 (via Madhavananda)

All mantras