Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 2.20
॥
Devanāgarī
तथा तत्परमं विद्धि तदादिरपि पञ्चमी । इन्दोश्च बहुभिन्ने च कूटोऽयं परिकीर्तितः
Transliteration (IAST)
tathā tatparamaṃ viddhi tadādirapi pañcamī | indośca bahubhinne ca kūṭo'yaṃ parikīrtitaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तथा तत् परमं विद्धिtathā tat paramaṃ viddhiso know that supreme
तत्-आदिः अपि पञ्चमीtat-ādiḥ api pañcamīand its beginning, the fifth
इन्दोः च बहु-भिन्ने चindoḥ ca bahu-bhinne caand of the moon, and at multiple division
कूटः अयम् परिकीर्तितःkūṭaḥ ayam parikīrtitaḥthis summit is proclaimed
Translation
"So know that supreme; and its beginning is the fifth; and of the moon, and at multiple division, this summit is proclaimed".
Version
9b2e7b29d6d9 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The riddle closes with the word kuta, "summit," discussed when reading Tripuratapini (14): so are named parts of a mantra. Let us look back on this whole method, for it ends here and will not recur in the book. Three lines are spent not naming several syllables. It is said: the ninth portion of soma, in reverse order, threefold, the eighth sound, the fifth, at multiple division. A reader without the key will extract nothing from this.
This situation, on reflection, is strange for a book. A book exists in order to transmit; here it is used in order not to transmit. There is one explanation for this, already given: the text is meant not for reading, but for reading with a teacher present. It is not a composition, but a memory-note — what is called, in Vaishnava books, a sutra: a string of knots by which what was said aloud is recalled.
The Vaishnava side has compositions of this kind too — for instance, the Vedanta-sutras themselves, wholly unintelligible without a commentary. But for her they are the summit of scholarship, not a means of salvation; and no one is told he will perish without them. It is worth adding that the riddle here too ends with the summit being "proclaimed," parikirtita. The word is of the same root as kirtana, "singing": even of the cipher it is said that it is proclaimed aloud.