Upanishads · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 51
॥
Devanāgarī
गोपाल एव परं सत्यमबाधितं
Transliteration (IAST)
gopāla eva paraṁ satyamabādhitaṁ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गोपालः एवgopālaḥ evaGopāla alone; only the Cowherd
परम् सत्यम्param satyamis the supreme truth; the highest reality
अबाधितम्abādhitamunbadged; irrefutable
Translation
Gopāla alone is the supreme truth, unbadged.
Version
4ffcae532cdf · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:30:24 PM UTC
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A short mantra — and in it two words, each weighty.
Paraṁ satyam — "the supreme truth". The word satya in the Upaniṣads means not "truth" as against falsehood but what truly exists as against what merely seems to.
Abādhita — "unbadged, irrefutable": that which is not subject to cancellation by further knowledge. The concept is precise and technical: in Vedānta what merely seems is recognised by the fact that it is cancelled, as silver is cancelled at the sight of a seashell. It is said, then, that Gopāla will not be cancelled by any subsequent knowledge.
This is a direct answer to anyone who would take His form as a stage beyond which something formless and higher will open. Here the opposite is declared: there is nowhere further to go, nothing to cancel.
And note the name: not "Brahman", not "Ātman", but Gopāla — the very cowherd's name. It is precisely this that is set where an abstraction would be expected.