Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 5.8
॥
Devanāgarī
षडक्षरोऽयं मन्त्रः स्यात् सर्वाघौघनिवारणः । मन्त्रराज इति प्रोक्तः सर्वेषां उत्तमोत्तमः
Transliteration (IAST)
ṣaḍakṣaro'yaṃ mantraḥ syāt sarvāghaughanivāraṇaḥ | mantrarāja iti proktaḥ sarveṣāṃ uttamottamaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
षडक्षरः अयम् मन्त्रः स्यात्ṣaḍakṣaraḥ ayam mantraḥ syātlet this six-syllable mantra be; this six-syllable mantra is
सर्वाघौघनिवारणःsarvāghaughanivāraṇaḥthe warder-off of the floods of all sins; damming the torrent of every taint
मन्त्रराजः इति प्रोक्तःmantrarājaḥ iti proktaḥit is called the king of mantras; it is named the chief of incantations
सर्वेषाम् उत्तमोत्तमःsarveṣām uttamottamaḥthe best of the best among all; the most excellent of all
Translation
“This six-syllable mantra wards off the floods of all sins; it is called the king of mantras, the best of the best among all.”
Version
e1ba6735b2a3 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse gives the mantra its title: mantra-rāja, “the king of mantras”.
So it was named also in the fifty-first verse of the fourth Upaniṣad of the pūrva, where its letters were written on the thirty-two petals of the lotus.
And a definition is added with which the whole further list will open: sarvāgha-ogha-nivāraṇa — “warding off the floods of all sins”.
The word ogha means “flood, inundation”; agha — “evil, taint”. The image, then, is of water: sin comes as a flood, and the mantra sets a dam.
The verb nivāraṇa — “warding off, barring” — is of the same root as the name of the river Varaṇā, which the eighth chapter parsed as “warding off the faults of former births”.
From here to the twenty-seventh verse will go a long list of what it wards off, and the list will be heavy. In it will be named the slaying of a brāhmaṇa, the theft of gold, wine, incest.
It must be read remembering that this is no licence but a measure. So too depth is gauged — by what bottom it reaches.