Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 5.11
॥
Devanāgarī
कोटिकोटिसहस्राणि उपपातकजान्यपि । सर्वाण्यपि प्रणश्यन्ति राममन्त्रानुकीर्तनात्
Transliteration (IAST)
koṭikoṭisahasrāṇi upapātakajānyapi | sarvāṇyapi praṇaśyanti rāmamantrānukīrtanāt
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कोटिकोटिसहस्राणिkoṭikoṭisahasrāṇithousands of crores of crores; myriads upon myriads
उपपातकजानि अपिupapātakajāni apiborn also of the minor sins; sprung also of the upapātakas
सर्वाणि अपि प्रणश्यन्तिsarvāṇi api praṇaśyantiall of them perish; all of them are destroyed
राममन्त्रानुकीर्तनात्rāmamantrānukīrtanātfrom the proclaiming of the Rāma-mantra; from the repetition of the rāma-mantra
Translation
“…and thousands of crores of crores of minor sins — all of them perish from the proclaiming of the mantra of Rāma.”
Version
3d09b4ba388d · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
To the great sins are added the upapātakas — “the minor”, or more exactly “the secondary”.
Their list in the dharma-śāstras is long: false oath, sale of the forbidden, abandonment of parents, slaughter of cattle, an ill trade. All that does not cut one off from society, but stains.
And now they are named together with the great and perish likewise.
Note the verb: anukīrtana — “proclaiming after, uttering by the pattern”. The root kīrt means “to name, to praise aloud”; from it comes the word kīrtana, by which the Vaiṣṇava tradition names the singing of the names.
This matters. It does not say “from meditation” nor “from knowledge”: from utterance.
The whole tradition knows the same measure, and in this it differs from paths that require one first to purify oneself and then begin. Here it is the reverse: one begins unclean, because clean one will not otherwise become.
The next verse will leave the sins and name something else — spirits and hauntings.