Upanishads · Gaṇapati 9.3
॥
Devanāgarī
भक्तानुकम्पिनं देवं जगत्कारणमच्युतम् । आविर्भूतं च सृष्ट्यादौ प्रकृतेः पुरुषात्परम् । एवं ध्यायति यो नित्यं स योगी योगिनां वरः
Transliteration (IAST)
bhaktānukampinaṃ devaṃ jagatkāraṇamacyutam | āvirbhūtaṃ ca sṛṣṭyādau prakṛteḥ puruṣātparam | evaṃ dhyāyati yo nityaṃ sa yogī yogināṃ varaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
भक्त-अनुकम्पिनं देवंbhakta-anukampinaṃ devaṃthe god compassionate to his devotees
जगत्-कारणम् अ-च्युतम्jagat-kāraṇam a-cyutamthe cause of the world, the unfallen
आविर्भूतं च सृष्टि-आदौāvirbhūtaṃ ca sṛṣṭi-ādauand manifest at the beginning of creation
प्रकृतेः पुरुषात् परम्prakṛteḥ puruṣāt parambeyond prakṛti and puruṣa
सः योगी योगिनां वरःsaḥ yogī yogināṃ varaḥhe is a yogi, the best of yogis
Translation
The god compassionate to his devotees, the cause of the world, Acyuta, and manifest at the beginning of creation, who is beyond prakṛti and puruṣa — whoever contemplates thus continually, he is a yogi, the best of yogis.
Version
a3e200415078 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The line is short, yet it holds three words, each deserving separate analysis. First: bhakta-anukampin, "compassionate to his devotees." Anukampā — from anu-kamp, "to tremble along with, to shake together": compassion, literally, is trembling in unison with another's misfortune. This quality is not ascribed to an impersonal principle, for only one who has something to tremble with can tremble along with someone.
Second: acyuta, "unfallen, unfailing," from a-cyu, "not to move, not to fall away." This is one of the chief names of Viṣṇu, among the most frequent in Vaiṣṇava usage. Here it is applied to Gaṇapati, and how such transfers are to be read was discussed when reading the sixth part: this is the language of worship, not of dispute.
Third and chief: prakṛteḥ puruṣāt param, "beyond prakṛti and puruṣa." Here we must pause, for before us stands an almost word-for-word coincidence with the most famous passage of the Gītā. There it is said: "there are two puruṣas in the world — kṣara (perishable) and akṣara (imperishable)... but there is another, the highest puruṣa, called the Supreme Self... and therefore I am celebrated in the world and in the Veda as Puruṣottama" (15.16–18).
The structure of thought here is one and the same, and it deserves to be spelled out. There is matter — prakṛti. There is spirit — puruṣa, the one within matter. And there is a Third, who is beyond both.
This point matters more than it appears, and here is why. A teaching that ends at puruṣa arrives at the conclusion that the highest is one's own self, purified of matter; and then liberation consists in remaining alone. A teaching that sets a Third above puruṣa thereby asserts that even after purification an Other remains.
The Vaiṣṇava side stands on this, and this alone it asserts: not that the soul is small, but that it is not the last. Here the same is said in three words, and said by a book of a different camp. The end of the line — sa yogī yogināṃ varaḥ, "he is a yogi, the best of yogis" — is likewise almost verbatim from the Gītā, where it is said: "of all yogis, he who with faith reveres Me is most fully joined" (6.47). And in both places the highest is named not the one who has gone furthest in practice, but the one who holds a person before himself.