Upanishads · Gopāla-tāpanī Pūrva 1
॥
Devanāgarī
ओं नमः ।
सच्चिदानन्द रूपाय कृष्णायाक्लिष्टकारिणे ।
नमो वेदान्त वेद्याय गुरवे बुद्धिसाक्षिणे
Transliteration (IAST)
oṁ namaḥ |
saccidānanda rūpāya kṛṣṇāyākliṣṭakāriṇe |
namo vedānta vedyāya gurave buddhisākṣiṇe
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ओं नमःoṁ namaḥOṁ, obeisance; Oṁ, homage
सच्चिदानन्द रूपायsaccidānanda rūpāyawhose form is being, consciousness and bliss; having the nature of sac-cid-ānanda
कृष्णायkṛṣṇāyato Kṛṣṇa; to Kṛṣṇa, the All-attractive
अक्लिष्टकारिणेakliṣṭakāriṇewho acts without flaw; who takes away all torment
नमःnamaḥobeisance; homage
वेदान्त वेद्यायvedānta vedyāyato be known by the Vedānta; who is to be known from the Vedānta
गुरवेguraveto the teacher; to the preceptor
बुद्धिसाक्षिणेbuddhisākṣiṇeto the witness of the mind; who sees our thought from within
Translation
Oṁ, obeisance! To Kṛṣṇa, whose form is being, consciousness and bliss, who acts without flaw; obeisance to Him who is known through the Vedānta — the Teacher, the witness of the mind.
Version
ab7e4d8219f4 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:22:17 PM UTC
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The Upaniṣad opens neither with a question nor with an assertion but with a bow, and in that bow everything that follows is already contained.
The first description is sac-cid-ānanda-rūpa, "whose form is being, consciousness and bliss". The word rūpa, "form", is set there deliberately: not "who is being-consciousness-bliss" in general, but He whose very shape is woven of it. Later Vedānta will lean on this line in showing that Kṛṣṇa's body is not made of matter and is not a covering upon Him: the form is Himself.
The second is akliṣṭa-kārin. The word is read two ways, and both work. "Acting without effort": the cosmos costs Him no exertion. And "making people free of the kleśas" — of those five root torments (ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, clinging to life) that yoga enumerates. Commentators note that He granted liberation even to His enemies — to Kaṁsa, to Keśī; from this the second reading draws its force.
The third is vedānta-vedya, "knowable by the Vedānta": not by guesswork or imagination but by the conclusion of the Veda. This is a claim that what we have before us is no sectarian hymn but an Upaniṣad.
And the last two words are the warmest. Guru — "teacher": He Himself teaches how He is to be served. Buddhi-sākṣin — "witness of the mind", He who sees our thought from within; in Vedānta this is a name of the Inner Ruler. The teacher without and the Witness within are one and the same.
The Gopāla-tāpanī belongs to the Atharva-veda and falls into two parts: the Pūrva-tāpanī, where Brahmā answers the sages about Kṛṣṇa's nature and His mantra, and the Uttara-tāpanī, where the gopīs, Durvāsā and Nārāyaṇa speak of the same. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa cites it in the Govinda-bhāṣya more often than any other Upaniṣad but the Chāndogya, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Śvetāśvatara.