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Upanishads · Dattātreya 2.6
॥
Devanāgarī
परमन्त्रपरयन्त्रपरतन्त्रांश्छिन्धिच्छिन्धि
Transliteration (IAST)
paramantraparayantraparatantrāṃśchindhicchindhi
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पर-मन्त्र-पर-यन्त्र-para-mantra-para-yantra-other mantras, other yantras
पर-तन्त्रान् छिन्धि छिन्धिpara-tantrān chindhi chindhiother tantras — sever, sever
Translation
«Other mantras, other yantras, other tantras — sever, sever».
Version
7e2fa2c36d2e · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The passage is brief and asks for protection from others' sorcery: to sever others' mantras, others' diagrams, others' techniques. Note that this is already a different category from the previous two, and the difference must be stated. There, one asked to do something to another; here, one asks to ward off what another has done.
The second is defense, and defense, morally, is not the same as attack. Let us add, however, what lies embedded even in defense, and deserves saying. This request presupposes that others' sorcery works; that is, a person uttering it lives in a world where forces are aimed at him from every side, and every misfortune is interpreted as sent by another.
This worldview, to my mind, is itself a misfortune, regardless of whether sorcery exists or not: it fills life with suspicion and makes every neighbor a possible enemy. The Vaiṣṇava side holds its own view against this, and it deserves citing. Its position is this: one who has taken refuge has no enemies but his own deeds; and whatever comes has come by His allowance, and is therefore not a misfortune.
The Bhāgavatam (10.14.8) speaks of such a person: tat te'nukampāṃ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṃ vipākam — “beholding Your compassion, eating the fruit of his own deeds, [he endures]”; and in this verse, at a stroke, every search for a culprit is dismissed. Let us add, too, what it offers instead of severing: not defense, but śaraṇāgati, “self-surrender”; and that fearlessness is attained either by removing the other or by trusting him was discussed reading the Varāha (4.17).