Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 5.2
॥
Devanāgarī
स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः । स्वप्रकाशः परंज्योतिः स्वानुभूत्यैकचिन्मयः । तदेव रामचन्द्रस्य मनोराद्यक्षरः स्मृतः
Transliteration (IAST)
sa hovāca yājñavalkyaḥ | svaprakāśaḥ paraṃjyotiḥ svānubhūtyaikacinmayaḥ | tadeva rāmacandrasya manorādyakṣaraḥ smṛtaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सः ह उवाच याज्ञवल्क्यःsaḥ ha uvāca yājñavalkyaḥhe said, Yājñavalkya; and Yājñavalkya spoke
स्वप्रकाशः परंज्योतिःsvaprakāśaḥ paraṃjyotiḥself-luminous, the highest light; shining of itself, the supreme radiance
स्वानुभूत्यैकचिन्मयःsvānubhūtyaikacinmayaḥmade of the one consciousness of self-experience; woven of the single cit of one's own realising
तत् एव रामचन्द्रस्यtat eva rāmacandrasyathat very thing, of Rāmacandra's; precisely this, of Rāmacandra
मनोः आद्यक्षरः स्मृतःmanoḥ ādyakṣaraḥ smṛtaḥis held the first syllable of the mantra; is reckoned the first letter of the manu
Translation
Yājñavalkya said: “Self-luminous, the highest light, made of the one consciousness of its own experience — that, as is remembered, is the first syllable of the mantra of Rāmacandra.”
Version
6cf1e05958a6 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The parsing of the mantra by parts, and the first part is the opening syllable.
Of it three things are said: svaprakāśa — “shining of itself”; paraṁjyotis — “the highest light”; svānubhūty-aika-cinmaya — “made of the one consciousness of its own experience”.
The last word deserves unpacking. Anubhūti is “experience, immediate realising”; sva-anubhūti — “one's own experience”, what is known to oneself without a witness.
That is, the first syllable means that which shines without a source and knows itself without mediation.
This is a definition of consciousness, and an exact one. Everything else we know by something; knowing itself is known by nothing other.
Recall the first paragraph of the second Upaniṣad of the pūrva: “self-existent, made of light, of endless forms, He shines by himself.” The same words — only there of Brahman, and here of a sound.
But then the book makes no difference: the third verse of the second Upaniṣad said that in the seed of the name lies the whole world.
The next two paragraphs will parse the second and third parts.