Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 2.3
॥
Devanāgarī
तथैव रामबीजस्थं जगदेतच्चराचरम् । रेफारूढा मूर्तयः स्युः शक्तयस्तिस्र एव चेति
Transliteration (IAST)
tathaiva rāmabījasthaṃ jagadetaccarācaram | rephārūḍhā mūrtayaḥ syuḥ śaktayastisra eva ceti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तथा एव रामबीजस्थम्tathā eva rāmabījasthamso too in the seed “Rāma”; just so in the bīja-syllable of Rāma
जगत् एतत् चराचरम्jagat etat carācaramthis world, moving and unmoving; this whole world with the living and lifeless
रेफारूढाः मूर्तयः स्युःrephārūḍhāḥ mūrtayaḥ syuḥthe forms ascend upon “ra”; the shapes are mounted on the sound “ra”
शक्तयः तिस्रः एव च इतिśaktayaḥ tisraḥ eva ca itiand the three powers too; and the three śaktis
Translation
So too in the seed “Rāma” abides this world, moving and unmoving; and the forms ascend upon the sound “ra”, and the three powers as well.
Version
550bd422bbc2 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The comparison is completed, and it has proved to be not about a tree but about a syllable.
As the whole tree lies in the banyan seed, so in the rāma-bīja — the seed syllable of the name — lies “this world, moving and unmoving”. The world is rolled up in a sound.
We have met this thought twice already, both times at length. In the Gopāla-tāpanī the creator saw in the syllables of the entrusted mantra the shape of the world to come and unfolded it letter by letter: from “ka” the waters, from “la” the earth. In the Subāla the Vedas were called the out-breath of the Great Being. Here the same position is applied to the name of Rāma.
Then the syllable itself is parsed. Repha is the sound “r”, and it is said that “the forms ascend upon it”: mūrtayaḥ rephārūḍhāḥ. And on it too — “the three powers”, tisraḥ śaktayaḥ.
The three powers in this tradition are usually will, knowledge and action — the very ones the Śvetāśvatara calls natural to Him: “knowledge, might and action”. Others interpret them as the three guṇas of which the previous verse spoke.
More important is the general build of the thought. The first Upaniṣad parsed the name by meaning — the giver, the subduer, the delightful. The second parses it by sound — and finds in one consonant the support of forms and powers. One and the same name is explained twice: from the side of sense and from the side of sounding.
With this the second Upaniṣad ends — three verses, and in them the whole passage from Brahman to the syllable.