Kena Upanishad - Part 2 - Devanagari

The second section of केनोपनिषत् moves from the first section's inquiry into a subtler correction: Brahman cannot be held as an object of complete conceptual mastery. The student must outgrow both spiritual arrogance and blank uncertainty.

These verses are famous for paradox. That paradox is not confusion; it is pedagogy. It breaks rigid mental habits and prepares the seeker for a mode of knowing that is immediate, lived, and non-objectifying.

यदि मन्यसे सुवेदेति दहरमेवापि
नूनं त्वं वेत्थ ब्रह्मणो रूपम् ।
यदस्य त्वं यदस्य देवेष्वथ नु
मीमाम्स्यमेव ते मन्ये विदितम् ॥ 1॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
If you think, "I know Brahman well," you know only a small aspect of it. What you take to be Brahman in yourself and in cosmic powers is still to be examined more deeply.

नाहं मन्ये सुवेदेति नो न वेदेति वेद च ।
यो नस्तद्वेद तद्वेद नो न वेदेति वेद च ॥ 2॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
I do not think "I know Brahman fully," nor do I think "I do not know it at all." I know it in a different way. Whoever understands this manner of knowing truly knows.

यस्यामतं तस्य मतं मतं यस्य न वेद सः ।
अविज्ञातं विजानतां विज्ञातमविजानताम् ॥ 3॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
For the one who does not objectify Brahman as fully grasped, it is truly understood. For the one who thinks it is fully objectified, it is not understood. It is not knowable as an object to the wise, but appears objectified only to those without true insight.

प्रतिबोधविदितं मतममृतत्वं हि विन्दते ।
आत्मना विन्दते वीर्यं विद्यया विन्दतेऽमृतम् ॥ 4॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
Brahman is rightly understood as that which is known in every act of awareness; through this one attains immortality. Through the Self one gains inner strength, and through true knowledge one realizes the deathless state.

इह चेदवेदीदथ सत्यमस्ति
न चेदिहावेदीन्महती विनष्टिः ।
भूतेषु भूतेषु विचित्य धीराः
प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता भवन्ति ॥ 5॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
If this is realized here in this very life, one's life is fulfilled in truth. If not realized here, the loss is great. The wise, seeing the Self in all beings, transcend limited worldly identity and attain immortality.

॥ इति केनोपनिषदि द्वितीयः खण्डः ॥

Translation (भावार्थ):
Thus ends the second section of the Kena Upanishad.

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