Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 2.1
॥
Devanāgarī
अथ हैनं भारद्वाजः पप्रच्छ याज्ञवल्क्यं किं तारकं किं तारयतीति
Transliteration (IAST)
atha hainaṃ bhāradvājaḥ papraccha yājñavalkyaṃ kiṃ tārakaṃ kiṃ tārayatīti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथ ह एनम् भारद्वाजः पप्रच्छatha ha enam bhāradvājaḥ papracchathen Bhāradvāja asked him; next Bhāradvāja questioned him
याज्ञवल्क्यम्yājñavalkyamYājñavalkya; Yājñavalkya
किम् तारकम्kim tārakamwhat is the ferrying one; what is the tāraka
किम् तारयति इतिkim tārayati itiand what does it ferry across; and what does it carry over
Translation
Then Bhāradvāja asked Yājñavalkya: “What is the ferrying one? And what does it ferry across?”
Version
40b28cb1a9c8 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
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A new questioner — Bhāradvāja, one of the seven great ṛṣis — and his question is doubly exact.
He asks not one thing but two: kiṁ tārakam — “what is the ferrying one?” — and kiṁ tārayati — “what does it ferry across?”
The second question matters more than the first and is usually not asked. It is not enough to say by what one crosses: one must know across what, and whom.
The previous chapter left the word tāraka unexplained: it was said that Rudra expounds it to the dying — and no more. Now it will be explained.
This whole chapter — eighteen paragraphs — is the answer. First the mantra itself will be named, then its six parts examined, then it will be listed across what it carries, then — unexpectedly — the doctrine of the four feet of the Ātman from the Māṇḍūkya will be brought in, and at the end a short word will be spoken for whose sake, it seems, the whole book was written.
Let us remember how the question is put: they ask about a crossing. Not about knowledge and not about merging — about that by which one goes over.