Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 4.13
॥
Devanāgarī
नमो वेदादिरूपाय ओङ्काराय नमो नमः । रमाधराय रामाय श्रीरामायात्ममूर्तये
Transliteration (IAST)
namo vedādirūpāya oṅkārāya namo namaḥ | ramādharāya rāmāya śrīrāmāyātmamūrtaye
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नमः वेदादिरूपायnamaḥ vedādirūpāyaa bow to him whose form is the beginning of the Vedas; worship to him who is the source of the Vedas
ओङ्काराय नमः नमःoṅkārāya namaḥ namaḥa bow, a bow to the Oṁkāra; again and again a bow to the syllable Oṁ
रमाधराय रामायramādharāya rāmāyato Rāma, the support of Ramā; to Rāma, upholder of the goddess Ramā
श्रीरामाय आत्ममूर्तयेśrīrāmāya ātmamūrtayeto Śrī-Rāma, whose form is the Ātman; to blessed Rāma, the embodied Ātman
Translation
A bow to him whose form is the beginning of the Vedas, a bow and a bow to the Oṁkāra! To Rāma, the support of Ramā the goddess, to Śrī-Rāma whose form is the Ātman!
Version
88c980ec79a2 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
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The praise continues, and in it are gathered names each of which binds Rāma to something formerly held impersonal.
Vedādi-rūpa — “whose form is the beginning of the Vedas”. The beginning of the Vedas is the syllable Oṁ; and it is at once named by the next name — oṅkāra. That is, He to whom they bow is the first sound of revelation.
Then a play of words that cannot be carried into English: ramādhāra rāma. Ramā is a name of Lakṣmī; ādhāra — “support”. He is the support of Ramā the goddess, and He is Rāma. One and the same name is spoken twice, in masculine and in feminine — and thereby is said of the two what the fourth verse said with the comparison of moon and moonlight.
The last name is ātma-mūrti, “he whose form is the Ātman”, or “the embodied Ātman”. In it the whole book converges. The Ātman in the Upaniṣads is what has no form; here it is said that this very Ātman stands before the gods in a form.
Recall the seventh verse of the first Upaniṣad with its “partless and bodiless”. The gods' praise answers it not with argument but with address: they say “thou” to Him.