Upanishads · Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī Uttara 4.3
॥
Devanāgarī
संस्तभ्य सिंह स्वसुतान्गुणार्थान्संयोज्य शृङ्गैरृषभस्य हत्वा
Transliteration (IAST)
saṃstabhya siṃha svasutānguṇārthānsaṃyojya śṛṅgairṛṣabhasya hatvā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
संस्तभ्य सिंहsaṃstabhya siṃhahaving arrested, O lion; having stayed, lion
स्वसुतान् गुणार्थान्svasutān guṇārthānthine own sons, the objects of the qualities; thy children, who exist for the guṇas
संयोज्य शृङ्गैःsaṃyojya śṛṅgaiḥhaving yoked them with the horns; having joined them by the horns
ऋषभस्य हत्वाṛṣabhasya hatvāhaving slain the bull; having killed the bull
Translation
“Having arrested, O lion, thine own sons, the objects of the qualities, and having yoked them with the horns, having slain the bull…”
Version
eecb99c0bd9a · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The first of the dark verses, and I will not pretend to read it with confidence.
The words are these: “having arrested, O lion, thine own sons, the objects of the qualities, and having yoked them with the horns, having slain the bull”.
What can be made out.
Saṁstabhya — “having arrested, stayed”; the same root as in stambhana, the “stopping” which the fourteenth paragraph of the fifth Upaniṣad named among the mantra's fruits.
Sva-sutān guṇārthān — “thine own sons, the objects of the qualities”: apparently the senses and their objects, begotten of the three guṇas.
Śṛṅga is “horn”, and this word will repeat in the three further verses. In the science of mantras the extreme sounds of a syllable are called horns.
So the general sense, it seems, is this: having stopped the senses and bound them with the sounds of the mantra, the lion kills what is to be killed.
The bull, ṛṣabha, here is probably an image of selfhood — of what is stubborn and will not be led.
I say “it seems” and “apparently”, and say so on purpose. The place is corrupted in transmission, and the interpreters diverge; better to mark the darkness than to pass a guess off as the meaning.