Upanishads · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 66
॥
Devanāgarī
अजोऽहमस्म्यक्षरोऽहमोंकारोऽहमस्मि
Transliteration (IAST)
ajo'hamasmyakṣaro'hamoṁkāro'hamasmi
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अजः अहम् अस्मिajaḥ aham asmiI am unborn; I am beginningless
अक्षरः अहम्akṣaraḥ ahamI am imperishable; I am undecaying
ओंकारः अहम् अस्मिoṁkāraḥ aham asmiI am the oṁkāra; I am the syllable oṁ
Translation
"I am unborn, I am imperishable, I am the oṁkāra."
Version
f3d63878575b · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:34:47 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Three assertions in the first person, and the third moves the conversation into the realm of sound: "I am the oṁkāra".
This is a direct answer to the second half of Brahmā's question — how the single syllable came to be many-syllabled. If He Himself is OṀ, the mantra does not denote Him from outside: it is His manifestation in sound.
The Pūrva-tāpanī said the same, calling the mantra "His own form", svarūpam, handed to the creator for the work of creation; and saying that the one Kṛṣṇa "shines forth in sound as five words".
The first two descriptions — aja and akṣara, "unborn" and "imperishable" — bind this sound to the eternal: OṀ is not a sound produced by us that begins and falls silent.
Hence the later rule that the name and the Named are undivided, and the whole practice of repetition of which the book's first part spoke.