Uttishthata jagrata: arise, awake
Uttishthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata ("arise, awake, go to the great teachers and learn") is from the Katha Upanishad 1.3.14. Yama, the god of death, says it while teaching the boy Nachiketa. The verse warns that the path is as sharp as a razor’s edge. Swami Vivekananda made it a call to India.
Katha Upanishad 1.3.14
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत ।क्षुरस्य धारा निशिता दुरत्यया दुर्गं पथस्तत्कवयो वदन्ति ॥
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata |kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṃ pathas tat kavayo vadanti ||
Arise. Awake. Go to the great teachers and learn. The wise say the path is as sharp as a razor’s edge, hard to cross and hard to walk.
Who said it, and to whom
Yama to Nachiketa, and to everyone listening
Nachiketa has turned down every gift Death offered and asked only what happens after death. Yama has just described the body as a chariot and the senses as horses, and the ladder from the senses up to the Self. Then he turns, in the plural, to everyone listening.
How the acharyas read it
Shankara
Shankara hears it addressed to all who sleep in not knowing the Self: get up and turn toward that knowledge, wake from the sleep of ignorance, go to the best teachers and understand. The razor’s edge is how hard the Self is to know, fine and easy to miss.
Where others read it differently
"Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached" is Vivekananda’s English. The last words are his; the Upanishad asks you to go and learn, then warns about the edge.
Writing it out
- उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रतuttiṣṭhata jāgrataArise, awake
- उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधतuttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhataThe full first half
Both verbs are plural: Yama is speaking to everyone, so उत्तिष्ठत (with त at the end) is correct. उत्तिष्ठ, without it, is the singular.
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Copy or share the line
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata
Arise. Awake. Go to the great teachers and learn.
Yama to Nachiketa · Katha Upanishad 1.3.14
The same thought in the Gita
Read next to Bhagavad Gita 4.34: Krishna: learn it by bowing, asking and serving; those who have seen the truth will teach you.
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Questions people ask
- Where is "uttishthata jagrata" from?
- The Katha Upanishad, 1.3.14. Yama, the god of death, says it to Nachiketa.
- Did Vivekananda write "arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached"?
- That English is his, based on this verse. The Upanishad says arise, awake, go to the great teachers and learn, and adds that the path is as sharp as a razor’s edge.
Sources and method
Katha Upanishad 1.3.14, Krishna Yajur Veda. Sanskrit from the Wisdom corpus, read against the sanskritdocuments.org edition (KB up_kath.1.3.14).
The English is Wisdom's own, drafted from the Sanskrit with Shankara's commentary (S. Sitarama Sastri's public-domain English) and checked against Swami Paramananda (1919) for tone. Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, under human review.