Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata: arise, awake
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत ।
क्षुरस्य धारा निशिता दुरत्यया दुर्गं पथस्तत्कवयो वदन्ति ॥
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varānnibodhata |
kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṃ pathastatkavayo vadanti ||
Translation
Arise! Awake! Go to the excellent teachers and understand. Like the sharpened edge of a razor, hard to cross: so the sages call that difficult stretch of the path.
Meaning
In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad the boy Naciketas has gone to the house of Death (Yama) and asked what happens to a person after dying. Death's teaching about the self ends this section with a call to the listener: wake up, find a real teacher, and learn.
The second line explains the urgency. The way to that knowledge is narrow and sharp, like walking a razor's edge; you need guidance to cross it.
The verse has had a long life outside the Upaniṣad. Swami Vivekananda made the first line his rallying cry, and W. Somerset Maugham took the title of his novel The Razor's Edge from the second.
Word by word · 14 words
| Devanagari | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| उत्तिष्ठत | uttiṣṭhata | arise, stand up (2nd pl. imperative of ud + √sthā) |
| जाग्रत | jāgrata | awake (2nd pl. imperative of √jāgṛ) |
| प्राप्य | prāpya | having reached, having gone to (absolutive of pra + √āp) |
| वरान् | varān | the excellent ones, i.e. good teachers (acc. pl. m.) |
| निबोधत | nibodhata | learn, understand (2nd pl. imperative of ni + √budh) |
| क्षुरस्य | kṣurasya | of a razor (gen. sg. m.) |
| धारा | dhārā | edge, blade (nom. sg. f.) |
| निशिता | niśitā | sharpened (nom. sg. f.) |
| दुरत्यया | duratyayā | hard to cross (nom. sg. f.) |
| दुर्गम् | durgam | a hard passage, difficult to go (acc. sg. n.) |
| पथः | pathaḥ | of the path (gen. sg. of pathin) |
| तत् | tat | that |
| कवयः | kavayaḥ | the poet-sages (nom. pl. m.) |
| वदन्ति | vadanti | say, call (3rd pl. present) |
Pronunciation
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varānnibodhata |
kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṃ pathastatkavayo vadanti ||
- uttiṣṭhata: double t, then retroflex ṣṭh: ut-tiṣ-ṭha-ta.
- jāgrata: long first ā, then a light "gra": jā-gra-ta.
- ṃ (anusvāra) is a nasal: it sounds like m before p/b/m, n before t/d, ṅ before k/g, and a nasalised vowel before s/ś/h.
- kṣ is k followed by the retroflex ṣ, roughly "ksh".