From the Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1

The Kena Upanishad — also called the Talavakāra Upanishad, after the Talavakāra Brāhmaṇa of the Sāma Veda to which it belongs — is one of the shortest and most concentrated of all the principal Upanishads. Its name comes from the opening word: kena, "by whom?" The entire text unfolds from that single question: by whose will does the mind go forth? By whose command does breath move? Who directs the eye, the ear, the speech?

The first two sections are verse — spare, paradoxical, and oracular. The teacher's answer is itself a riddle: Brahman is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the eye of the eye. It cannot be known by those who think they know it; it is known by those who know they do not know. The second section deepens the paradox until it turns: knowledge of Brahman is not knowledge at all, but a kind of awakening.

The third and fourth sections shift to prose narrative — the parable of the gods and the straw. Brahman wins a great victory for the gods, but the gods take the credit. Brahman appears before them as an unknown spirit, a yaksha. Agni cannot burn a single straw it places before him. Vāyu cannot move it. Only Indra, approaching last, encounters not the yaksha but Umā, daughter of the Himalayas, who reveals its identity. The parable is a teaching on humility: the powers we claim as our own were never ours.

This translation is by Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900), published in 1879 as part of the Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 — The Upanishads, Part 1. The text is presented here from the sacred-texts.com digitisation of the Oxford University Press edition.

First Khanda

The Pupil asks: "At whose wish does the mind sent forth proceed on its errand? At whose command does the first breath go forth? At whose wish do we utter this speech? What god directs the eye, or the ear?"

The Teacher replies: "It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, the breath of breath, and the eye of the eye. When freed from the senses the wise, on departing from this world, become immortal.

"The eye does not go thither, nor speech, nor mind. We do not know, we do not understand, how any one can teach it.

"It is different from the known, it is also above the unknown, thus we have heard from those of old, who taught us this.

"That which is not expressed by speech and by which speech is expressed, that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore.

"That which does not think by mind, and by which, they say, mind is thought, that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore.

"That which does not see by the eye, and by which one sees the work of the eyes, that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore.

"That which does not hear by the ear, and by which the ear is heard, that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore.

"That which does not breathe by breath, and by which breath is drawn, that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore."

Second Khanda

The Teacher says: "If thou thinkest I know it well, then thou knowest surely but little, what is that form of Brahman known, it may be, to thee?"

The Pupil says: "I do not think I know it well, nor do I know that I do not know it. He among us who knows this, he knows it, nor does he know that he does not know it.

"He by whom it is not thought, by him it is thought; he by whom it is thought, knows it not. It is not understood by those who understand it, it is understood by those who do not understand it.

"It is thought to be known as if by awakening, and then we obtain immortality indeed. By the Self we obtain strength, by knowledge we obtain immortality.

"If a man know this here, that is the true end of life; if he does not know this here, then there is great destruction. The wise who have thought on all things and recognised the Self in them become immortal, when they have departed from this world."

Third Khanda

Brahman obtained the victory for the Devas. The Devas became elated by the victory of Brahman, and they thought, this victory is ours only, this greatness is ours only.

Brahman perceived this and appeared to them. But they did not know it, and said: "What sprite is this?"

They said to Agni: "O Gâtavedas, find out what sprite this is." "Yes," he said.

He ran toward it, and Brahman said to him: "Who are you?" He replied: "I am Agni, I am Gâtavedas."

Brahman said: "What power is in you?" Agni replied: "I could burn all whatever there is on earth."

Brahman put a straw before him, saying: "Burn this." He went towards it with all his might, but he could not burn it. Then he returned thence and said: "I could not find out what sprite this is."

Then they said to Vâyu: "O Vâyu, find out what sprite this is." "Yes," he said.

He ran toward it, and Brahman said to him: "Who are you?" He replied: "I am Vâyu, I am Mâtarisvan."

Brahman said: "What power is in you?" Vâyu replied: "I could take up all whatever there is on earth."

Brahman put a straw before him, saying: "Take it up." He went towards it with all his might, but he could not take it up. Then he returned thence and said: "I could not find out what sprite this is."

Then they said to Indra: "O Maghavan, find out what sprite this is." He went towards it, but it disappeared from before him.

Then in the same space he came towards a woman, highly adorned: it was Umâ, the daughter of Himavat. He said to her: "Who is that sprite?"

Fourth Khanda

She replied: "It is Brahman. It is through the victory of Brahman that you have thus become great." After that he knew that it was Brahman.

Therefore these Devas, viz. Agni, Vâyu, and Indra, are, as it were, above the other gods, for they touched it nearest.

And therefore Indra is, as it were, above the other gods, for he touched it nearest, he first knew it.

This is the teaching of Brahman, with regard to the gods: It is that which now flashes forth in the lightning, and now vanishes again.

And this is the teaching of Brahman, with regard to the body: It is that which seems to move as mind, and by it imagination remembers again and again.

That Brahman is called Tadvana, by the name of Tadvana it is to be meditated on. All beings have a desire for him who knows this.

The Teacher: "As you have asked me to tell you the Upanishad, the Upanishad has now been told you. We have told you the Brâhmî Upanishad.

"The feet on which that Upanishad stands are penance, restraint, sacrifice; the Vedas are all its limbs, the True is its abode.

"He who knows this Upanishad, and has shaken off all evil, stands in the endless, unconquerable world of heaven, yea, in the world of heaven."

Translator's Notes

The following notes are by Friedrich Max Müller, from the Oxford University Press edition (1879). They preserve his commentary on difficult passages and variant readings.

The verse in the First Khanda — "It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind" — admits of various translations, and still more various explanations. What is meant by the ear of the ear is very fully explained by the commentator, but the simplest acceptation would seem to take it as an answer to the preceding questions, so that the ear of the ear should be taken for him who directs the ear, i.e. the Self, or Brahman.

The verse "It is different from the known, it is also above the unknown" — cf. Īśa Upanishad, II; 13.

The varia lectio "manaso matam" in the First Khanda (supported also by the commentary) is metrically and grammatically easier, but it may be, for that very reason, an emendation.

In the Second Khanda, the words "tvam yad asya deveshv atha nu mîmâmsyam eva" were probably inserted as an excuse for the Third Khanda treating of the relation of Brahman to the Devas. There is considerable variety in the text, as handed down in the Sāma Veda and in the Atharva Veda, which shows that it has been tampered with.

The train of thought in the Second Khanda is this: We cannot know Brahman as we know other objects, by referring them to a class and pointing out their differences. But, on the other hand, we do not know that we know him not, i.e. no one can assert that we know him not, for we want Brahman in order to know anything. He, therefore, who knows this double peculiarity of the knowledge of Brahman, he knows Brahman, as much as it can be known; and he does not know, nor can anybody prove it to him, that he does not know Brahman.

The Third Khanda is generally represented as a later addition, but its prose style has more of a Brāhmaṇa character than the verses in the preceding Khandas, although their metrical structure is irregular, and may be taken as a sign of antiquity.

Umā may here be taken as the wife of Śiva, daughter of Himavat, better known by her earlier name, Pārvatī, the daughter of the mountains. Originally she was not the daughter of the mountains or of the Himālaya, but the daughter of the cloud, just as Rudra was originally not the lord of the mountains, girīśa, but the lord of the clouds. We are, however, moving here in a secondary period of Indian thought, in which we see, as among Semitic nations, the manifested powers, and particularly the knowledge and wisdom of the gods, represented by their wives. Umā means originally flax, from vā, to weave, and the same word may have been an old name of wife, she who weaves.

In the Fourth Khanda, the first teaching of Brahman, by means of a comparison with the gods or heavenly things in general, seems to be that Brahman is what shines forth suddenly like lightning. Sometimes the relation between the phenomenal world and Brahman is illustrated by the relation between bubbles and the sea, or lightning and the unseen heavenly light. The next illustration is purely psychological. Brahman is proved to exist, because our mind moves towards things, because there is something in us which moves and perceives, and because there is something in us which holds our perceptions together and revives them again by memory.

Tadvana, as a name of Brahman, is explained by "the desire of it," and derived from van, to desire, the same as vāñkh.

Colophon

The Kena Upanishad, translated by Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900), was first published in 1879 as part of The Upanishads, Part 1, Volume 1 of the Sacred Books of the East series, Oxford University Press. It was the very first volume of the Sacred Books of the East — the series that opened the scriptures of Asia to the English-speaking world.

The Kena is one of the nine principal Upanishads recognised by Śaṅkara, and its teachings — that Brahman is the power behind every sense yet cannot itself be sensed, that those who claim to know it do not know it, and that even the gods owe their powers to something beyond themselves — form a cornerstone of Advaita Vedānta.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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