Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 2.18
॥
Devanāgarī
ग्रहणे विषुवे चैवमयने संक्रमेऽपि च । दर्शेषु पूर्णमासे च पूर्णेषु दिवसेषु च । रुद्राक्षधारणात्सद्यः सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
grahaṇe viṣuve caivamayane saṃkrame'pi ca | darśeṣu pūrṇamāse ca pūrṇeṣu divaseṣu ca | rudrākṣadhāraṇātsadyaḥ sarvapāpaiḥ pramucyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ग्रहणे विषुवे च एवम्grahaṇe viṣuve ca evamat an eclipse, at equinox, so too
अयने संक्रमे अपि चayane saṃkrame api caat solstice, at the transit, also
दर्शेषु पूर्ण-मासे चdarśeṣu pūrṇa-māse caat new moons and at full moon
रुद्राक्ष-धारणात् सद्यःrudrākṣa-dhāraṇāt sadyaḥfrom wearing the rudrākṣa, at once
सर्व-पापैः प्रमुच्यतेsarva-pāpaiḥ pramucyateone is freed from all sins
Translation
At an eclipse, at equinox, at solstice and at the transit, at new moons and at full moon — from wearing the rudrākṣa one is at once freed from all sins.
Version
4ee48c805196 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The same knots of time are listed as in the Bhasma-jābāla, and what was said there about the non-uniformity of time need not be repeated. It is worth looking at another word instead — sadyaḥ, "at once." This word, in such promises, is the strongest and the most dangerous. It means there is no interval between action and consequence: put it on — and you are already pure.
Its danger is that it removes the time of amendment. And amendment is, by its very nature, a matter of time: a person who has stopped lying stops not at the moment he decided, but over a long stretch, and anyone who has tried knows this. The Vaiṣṇava side also uses the word sadyaḥ, and often: "even an outcaste who eats dogs at once becomes fit for sacrifice" (Bhāgavatam 3.33.6). But there it is applied to admission, not to a state of character, and this difference decides everything.
Let us explain the difference, for it is not abstract. A person can be recognized as one's own at once — for this the decision of the one who receives him suffices. A person cannot be changed at once, because he changes himself, and no decision from outside can do this for him.
Hence such promises should be read as promises of admission, not of transformation. One is received at once; but amendment takes a long time, and no one has ever canceled that span. Mistaking one for the other is exactly what turns piety into self-deception: a person who believes he became pure at once stops noticing that he has not changed at all.