सावित्रीं प्रणवं यजुर्लक्ष्मीं स्त्रीशूद्राय नेच्छन्ति । द्वात्रिंशदक्षरं साम जानीयाद्यो जानीते सोऽमृतत्वं च गच्छति । सावित्रीं लक्ष्मीं यजुः प्रणवं यदि जानीयात् स्त्री शूद्रः स मृतोऽधो गच्छति तस्मात्सर्वदा नाचष्टे यद्याचष्टे स आचार्यस्तेनैव स मृतोऽधो गच्छति
sāvitrīṃ praṇavaṃ yajurlakṣmīṃ strīśūdrāya necchanti | dvātriṃśadakṣaraṃ sāma jānīyādyo jānīte so'mṛtatvaṃ ca gacchati | sāvitrīṃ lakṣmīṃ yajuḥ praṇavaṃ yadi jānīyāt strī śūdraḥ sa mṛto'dho gacchati tasmātsarvadā nācaṣṭe yadyācaṣṭe sa ācāryastenaiva sa mṛto'dho gacchati
The Sāvitrī, the praṇava and the Lakṣmī yajus they do not wish for a woman or a śūdra. The thirty-two-syllable chant let him know; who knows attains immortality. But if a woman or a śūdra should learn the Sāvitrī, the Lakṣmī, the yajus and the praṇava, then, having died, they would go downward; therefore this is never expounded, and if a teacher expounds it, he too by that same, having died, goes downward.
cdde6bb8f61b · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
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The heaviest place in the book, and I will not soften it: it is said that three of the four limbs of the mantra are not transmitted to a woman or a śūdra, and that the teacher who transmits them will share the lot of the recipient.
Let me first say what is actually said here, and then — what to do with it.
This is not said of the Nṛsiṃha mantra itself. The prohibition is laid on the Sāvitrī, the praṇava and the yajus — that is, on the Vedic mantras, the right to which is given by initiation, the upanayana. This rule is general in the dharma-śāstras and was not instituted by this book: one who has not passed the upanayana has no access to the Vedic rite, and the upanayana was appointed for men of the three upper estates.
This is an enactment of ritual law, and it is estate-bound. To call it anything else would be to deceive the reader.
Now — what to do with it, and here the book helps of itself.
First, the thirty-two-syllable chant, that is, the mantra-rāja itself, is exempted from the prohibition: in this same paragraph it is said of it simply “let him know”. What is forbidden is the Vedic limbs, not the mantra of Nṛsiṃha.
Second, the eleventh paragraph of this same Upaniṣad will say: “whoever learns it from the mouth of any teacher whatever is freed in this very body”; and it will add that it is “the chief door in the Kali-yuga, and there is no other”.
These two places stand in one book, and the Vaiṣṇava tradition has always read them together: the Vedic rite has its estate thresholds, and the name has none. On this the whole path of bhakti stands, and this is why the Kalisantaraṇa, the Gopāla-tāpanī, the Rāma-tāpanī and this book have come to stand in one row.
I cite the prohibition because it is in the text, and I cite beside it what stands next to it in the same text. It is the reader's to decide; but let the decision be made knowing both.