Upanishads · Tripurātāpinī 115
॥
Devanāgarī
इति पञ्चमोपनिषत् ॥ 5
Transliteration (IAST)
iti pañcamopaniṣat || 5
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
इति पञ्चमा उपनिषत्iti pañcamā upaniṣatsuch is the fifth upaniṣad
Translation
«Such is the fifth upaniṣad».
Version
937507a78722 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The book is finished, and it is worth looking back at it as a whole. Five parts: an analysis of the gāyatrī as a mantra of the Goddess; eight vidyās from the durgā-sūkta; the construction of the śrī-cakra and a listing of its nine circles; seals, rites, and mantras of four directions; and, finally, verses on the highest. A Śākta, tantric composition, dark in places, and in places — where the talk turns to casting spells on people (73, 74, 78) and to the left path (35, 79) — outright bad, and this was said in its place without softening.
But it was worth reading, and here is why. In a book devoted to the Goddess and her diagram, everything decisive turned out to be said in words one would not expect from it. It named yoga, «union» of two, and not oneness, as the foundation of the world (5, 17, 18). Worship was explained through sevā, «service» (83). The highest, which it was asked to describe as «devoid of distinctions», was described by eight agentive names, including adeṣṭā, «commander» (100). «The highest step of Viṣṇu» was interpreted by oil in a sesame cake — an image where the two remain two (90). The twelve-syllable name of Vāsudeva was counted out by syllables (92). And, arriving at the very end, after Gauḍapāda and after «there is neither the bound nor the liberated», the author said of himself: śaraṇam ahaṃ prapadye, «I come for refuge» (112).
Here is the whole lesson of this book, and it is greater than its doctrine. One can build whatever edifice one likes out of syllables and triangles; but when it comes to the last word, a person says not «I am that», but «I have come to You» — and says this even if, a hundred lines earlier, he was proving that there is no one to come, and no one to come to.