अवाच्यं प्रणवस्याग्रं यस्तं वेद स वेदवित् । ऱ्हस्वं बिन्दुगतं दैर्घ्यं ब्रह्मरन्ध्रगतं प्लुतम् । द्वादशान्तगतं मन्त्रं प्रसादं मन्त्रसिद्धये ॥ 70 सर्वविघ्नहरश्चायं प्रणवः सर्वदोषहा । आरंभश्च घटश्चैव पुनः परिचयस्तथा
avācyaṃ praṇavasyāgraṃ yastaṃ veda sa vedavit | ऱ्hasvaṃ bindugataṃ dairghyaṃ brahmarandhragataṃ plutam | dvādaśāntagataṃ mantraṃ prasādaṃ mantrasiddhaye || 70 sarvavighnaharaścāyaṃ praṇavaḥ sarvadoṣahā | āraṃbhaśca ghaṭaścaiva punaḥ paricayastathā
"Inexpressible is the tip of the pranava; who knows it is a knower of the Veda. The short reaches to the point, the long to the aperture of brahman, the extended to the end of the twelve; and this pranava carries away all obstacles and all faults."
501c07d856fd · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Worth noting that this verse, in our numbering, has absorbed the seventieth as well: the printed edition our numbering follows placed the number in the middle of the text, and so this unit is doubled. This is a purely bibliographic detail, but it deserves stating, so the reader does not go looking for a lost verse. Let us add what deserves parsing in the verse itself: avachyam pranavasya agram, "inexpressible is the tip of the pranava."
Agra means "tip, summit, point"; and what is meant here is what comes after m — the ardha-matra, "half-mora," discussed when reading the Tarasara (2.5). That is, what is declared highest is what is no longer sound: the fading after the utterance. This construction is consistent and beautiful: the word leads to what lies beyond the word.
The Vaishnava side accepts the teaching of the half-mora, and its own reading was given when reading the Mahavakya; let us repeat it briefly. It agrees that beyond the uttered lies the unutterable; but it disputes that the unutterable is empty. Its argument is this: the fading of the bell, spoken of in the previous verse, is the fading of something — the bell has not vanished because its ringing has died away.
And hence "the inexpressible tip" is for it not the absence of an object, but an object exceeding the word; of the difference between these two things, discussed when reading the Ganapati (7.2). Let us add that "the twelve" here names the point twelve finger-widths above the crown, to which this count leads.