Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 5, Brahmana 10. The path of the one who departs

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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.

॥ 5.10.1 ॥

The path beyond grief and cold

यदा वै पुरुषोऽस्माल्लोकात्प्रैति स वायुमागच्छति । तस्मै स तत्र विजिहीते यथा रथचक्रस्य खम् । तेन स ऊर्ध्व आक्रमते । स आदित्यमागच्छति । तस्मै स तत्र विजिहीते यथा लम्बरस्य खम् । तेन स ऊर्ध्व आक्रमते । स चन्द्रमसमागच्छति । तस्मै स तत्र विजिहीते यथा दुन्दुभेः खम् । तेन स ऊर्ध्व आक्रमते । स लोकमागच्छत्यशोकमहिमम् । तस्मिन् वसति शाश्वतीः समाः ॥

In transliteration

yadā vai puruṣo'smāllokātpraiti sa vāyumāgacchati | tasmai sa tatra vijihīte yathā rathacakrasya kham | tena sa ūrdhva ākramate | sa ādityamāgacchati | tasmai sa tatra vijihīte yathā lambarasya kham | tena sa ūrdhva ākramate | sa candramasamāgacchati | tasmai sa tatra vijihīte yathā dundubheḥ kham | tena sa ūrdhva ākramate | sa lokamāgacchatyaśokamahimam | tasmin vasati śāśvatīḥ samāḥ ||

In English

When a man departs from this world, he comes to the air. The air opens a way for him there, wide as the hole of a chariot-wheel, and through it he mounts upward. He comes to the sun. The sun opens a way for him there, wide as the hole of a tabor, and through it he mounts upward. He comes to the moon. The moon opens a way for him there, wide as the hole of a drum, and through it he mounts upward. He comes to a world free from grief, free from cold. There he dwells for everlasting years.

In plain words

After death the knower rises through the air, then the sun, then the moon, each making an opening for his passage, until he reaches a world without sorrow or cold, where he lives for ages without end.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara reads this as the upward path (krama-mukti) of one who has meditated: the air, the sun, and the moon each yield an opening proportioned to a familiar instrument (chariot-wheel, tabor, drum), and through them the departed reaches the deathless, sorrowless world of Hiranyagarbha, dwelling there for cosmic ages.

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 5.10.1 (via Madhavananda)

All mantras