Upaniṣads · Tripurātāpinī 90
॥
Devanāgarī
विष्णोः सर्वतोमुखस्य स्नेहो यथा पललपिण्डमोतप्रोतमनुव्याप्तं व्यतिरिक्तं व्याप्नुत इति व्याप्नुवतो विष्णोस्तत्परमं पदं परं व्योमेति परमं पदं पश्यन्ति वीक्षन्ते
Transliteración (IAST)
viṣṇoḥ sarvatomukhasya sneho yathā palalapiṇḍamotaprotamanuvyāptaṃ vyatiriktaṃ vyāpnuta iti vyāpnuvato viṣṇostatparamaṃ padaṃ paraṃ vyometi paramaṃ padaṃ paśyanti vīkṣante
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
विष्णोः सर्वतः-मुखस्यviṣṇoḥ sarvataḥ-mukhasyaof Viṣṇu, whose face is turned everywhere
स्नेहः यथा पलल-पिण्डम्snehaḥ yathā palala-piṇḍamlike oil in a sesame cake
ओत-प्रोतम् अनुव्याप्तम्ota-protam anuvyāptampervaded throughout, lengthwise and crosswise
व्यतिरिक्तं व्याप्नुतेvyatiriktaṃ vyāpnuteand, surpassing, pervades
तत् परमं पदं परं व्योमtat paramaṃ padaṃ paraṃ vyomathat is the highest step, the highest sky
Traducción
«Of Viṣṇu, whose face is turned everywhere — like oil in a sesame cake: pervaded throughout, lengthwise and crosswise, and, surpassing, pervades — thus the pervading Viṣṇu, that highest place is the highest sky; the highest place they see, they behold».
Versión
10fece79ad61 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Here is the interpretation for whose sake it was worth reading all one hundred fifteen lines of this book. It was asked how to understand «the highest step of Viṣṇu», and the answer given is a likeness: sneho yathā palala-piṇḍam, «like oil in a sesame cake». Oil is spread through the cake entirely, ota-protam, «lengthwise and crosswise» (literally «in the warp and in the weft», like threads in a fabric) — and yet it is not the cake: it can be pressed out, and it will remain oil, while the cake remains cake.
This likeness is chosen with a precision one would not expect in such books. This is not milk in milk and not water in water — not those blending likenesses usually used to explain merging, discussed when reading Parabrahma and Ātmā. Here are two different things, of which one pervades the other entirely, without ceasing by a hair's breadth to be itself.
And it is completed still more precisely: vyatiriktam vyāpnute, «and, surpassing, pervades». Vyatirikta means «distinct, separate, remaining over». That is, He both pervades everything and remains beyond everything; and both assertions are placed in one line, without any embarrassment.
This is exactly the Vaishnava position in its purest form: He is in everything, and He is not everything. The Gītā says precisely the same: «by Me, in an unmanifest form, this whole world is pervaded; all beings dwell in Me, but I do not dwell in them» (9.4). Let us note, finally, by whom all this is said. Not by Rāmānuja, not by Madhva, not by a Vaishnava polemicist — but by a tantric composition of the Śākta direction, which until now has been occupied with triangles and seals. Reaching the question of the highest, it took up oil and a sesame cake — and answered as Vaishnavas answer.