Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 4.63
॥
Devanāgarī
नारायणात्मकः कालः प्राणाम्भो विद्यया युतः । पीतारातिस्तथा लान्तो योन्या युक्तस्ततो नतिः
Transliteration (IAST)
nārāyaṇātmakaḥ kālaḥ prāṇāmbho vidyayā yutaḥ | pītārātistathā lānto yonyā yuktastato natiḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नारायणात्मकः कालःnārāyaṇātmakaḥ kālaḥtime, consisting of Nārāyaṇa; kāla, being Nārāyaṇa
प्राणाम्भः विद्यया युतःprāṇāmbhaḥ vidyayā yutaḥbreath and water, joined with knowledge; prāṇa and ambhas with vidyā
पीतारातिः तथा लान्तःpītārātiḥ tathā lāntaḥ“pītārāti” and the one ending in “la”; pītārāti and the one closing on la
योन्या युक्तः ततः नतिःyonyā yuktaḥ tataḥ natiḥjoined with “yoni”, then the bow; with yoni, then namaḥ
Translation
Time, consisting of Nārāyaṇa; breath and water, joined with knowledge; “pītārāti” and the one ending in “la”, joined with “yoni”, and then the bow.
Version
81019693bb77 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The next-to-last verse of the code, and it ends with the word nati — “the bow”, that is, “namaḥ”.
This is the end of the mālā-mantra: every mantra ends with a bow, as it began with the Oṁkāra in the fifty-seventh verse.
In the middle stands a turn worth pausing over: nārāyaṇātmakaḥ kālaḥ — “time, consisting of Nārāyaṇa”.
It is taken as a letter-marker. But what it says is what the third khaṇḍa of the Subāla says, and the eleventh chapter of the Gītā: time is not faceless. It is a form of the Highest, and therefore no enemy.
Set among the letters, this expression shows out of what theology the maker of the code came. He did not pick words by sound — he took them from his confession.
Beside it — prāṇa and ambhas, breath and water, joined with vidyā, knowledge. The same row.
Note yoni too — “the womb”. In the eighth verse of this Upaniṣad Sītā was named jagad-yoni, “the womb of the world”. And now the last letter of the mantra is joined with “yoni”, and then follows the bow.
The mantra, then, ends with the womb and the bow — the feminine principle and the bowed head.