Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 1.4
॥
Devanāgarī
भक्तानां धारणात्पापं दिवारात्रिकृतं हरेत् । लक्षं तु दर्शनात्पुण्यं कोटिस्तद्धारणाद्भवेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
bhaktānāṃ dhāraṇātpāpaṃ divārātrikṛtaṃ haret | lakṣaṃ tu darśanātpuṇyaṃ koṭistaddhāraṇādbhavet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
भक्तानां धारणात् पापंbhaktānāṃ dhāraṇāt pāpaṃfor devotees, from wearing it, sin
दिवा-रात्रि-कृतं हरेत्divā-rātri-kṛtaṃ haretdone by day and night, it takes away
लक्षं तु दर्शनात् पुण्यंlakṣaṃ tu darśanāt puṇyaṃa hundred thousand merit from sight
कोटिः तत्-धारणात् भवेत्koṭiḥ tat-dhāraṇāt bhavetten million comes from wearing
Translation
For devotees, wearing it takes away sin done by day and by night; a hundred thousand merit comes from sight, ten million from wearing.
Version
f7de79cddb3f · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The counting begins, and it will run three lines straight, growing at each. A hundred thousand for a glance, ten million for wearing — and this is still a modest start; the following lines will run to hundreds of millions and thousands of hundred-millions. Let us speak plainly of such counting, for it occurs in decidedly every tradition and always raises the same puzzlement. These numbers are not meant to be counted; they mean "without count."
In Sanskrit literature lakṣa and koṭi long ago stopped being numbers and became a way of saying "innumerably many"; to take them literally is to misunderstand, as a foreigner would misunderstand hearing "I've told you a thousand times." The danger, however, is real, and it lies not in the numbers but in what they do to the reader. A person accustomed to reading such promises imperceptibly begins to count; and the moment he starts counting, he is no longer serving but hoarding.
The Vaiṣṇava side knows this device in itself and uses it too. But it has a counter-rule worth remembering: reckoning on the fruit is anartha, "a vain thing," and the Gītā says directly — "your right is to action alone, never to its fruits" (2.47). It is worth noting, finally, one word that qualifies the whole promise: bhaktānām, "for devotees." Not for every wearer, but for the devoted; and this qualification will be forgotten through the rest of the book.