What is here, that is there; what is there, that is here. From death to death goes one who sees difference here.

This verse expresses the principle of non-duality that is the heart of Upanishadic teaching. There is no real separation between what we perceive as “here” and “there.”

Yadeveha tadamutra — what is here (iha) is also there (amutra). The Brahman that permeates this visible world is identical to that which constitutes the invisible realms. There is no place where Brahman is not.

Yadamutra tadanviha — what is there is also here. This reciprocity eliminates all spatial hierarchy between the mundane and the transcendent. Heaven is not elsewhere; liberation does not require going anywhere.

Mṛtyoḥ sa mṛtyum āpnoti — from death to death goes. One who perceives multiplicity where there is only unity is condemned to the cycle of birth and death. Ignorance of unity is the root of saṃsāra.

Ya iha nāneva paśyati — one who sees here as if there were difference. The key word is iva — “as if.” The difference is not real but apparent. It is māyā, the illusion that projects multiplicity onto what is one.

The teaching has profound practical implications: seeking the sacred “out there” — in holy places, in special states, after death — is to perpetuate the illusion. The Ātman is here and now, in this very body, in this very breath. Yoga is not a journey to another place but the recognition of what was always present.

Śaṅkara comments: “One who, deluded by ignorance, sees variety in the Brahman which is one, thinking ‘I am different from the supreme Brahman’ — that one goes from death to death.”