Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 5.18
॥
Devanāgarī
गत्वापि मातरं मोहात् अगम्याश्चैव योषितः । उपास्यानेन मन्त्रेण रामस्तदपि नाशयेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
gatvāpi mātaraṃ mohāt agamyāścaiva yoṣitaḥ | upāsyānena mantreṇa rāmastadapi nāśayet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गत्वा अपि मातरम् मोहात्gatvā api mātaram mohāthaving gone even to his mother out of delusion; even having lain with his mother in blindness
अगम्याः च एव योषितःagamyāḥ ca eva yoṣitaḥand to women who are forbidden; and with unlawful women
उपास्य अनेन मन्त्रेणupāsya anena mantreṇahaving worshipped with this mantra; doing honour by means of this mantra
रामः तत् अपि नाशयेत्rāmaḥ tat api nāśayetRāma will destroy that too; Rāma will annihilate even this
Translation
“If out of delusion one has gone even to his mother, and to women who are forbidden — having worshipped Rāma with this mantra, he will find that too destroyed.”
Version
e711ef9c9253 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The heaviest verse of the list, and it cannot be passed by.
Incest is named — that which in all the codes of antiquity stands at the limit of what may be uttered.
Let me say at once what is not here. There is no permission here and no connivance. The verse does not say “do it and be cleansed”; it speaks of him who has already done it.
And here is why such verses are written in the śāstras. A man who has committed the irreparable finds himself utterly outside the law: no expiation is appointed for him, society has cast him out, and there remains to him either death or a life without any hope.
All lists of this kind are addressed to him alone. The righteous man does not need them.
Note too that here, the single time in the list, a condition is named: upāsya anena mantreṇa — “having worshipped with this mantra”. Not merely uttered: worshipped.
And the subject is not the mantra but Rāma: rāmas tad api nāśayet — “Rāma will destroy that too”. In all the other verses the mantra destroys; here He Himself is named.
As if at the gravest place the book did not dare entrust this to the word.