Upaniṣads · Devī 12
॥
Devanāgarī
एवमेकाक्षरं मन्त्रं यतयः शुद्धचेतसः । ध्यायन्ति परमानन्दमया ज्ञानाम्बुराशयः
Transliteración (IAST)
evamekākṣaraṃ mantraṃ yatayaḥ śuddhacetasaḥ | dhyāyanti paramānandamayā jñānāmburāśayaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
एवम् एक-अक्षरं मन्त्रंevam eka-akṣaraṃ mantraṃthus the one-syllable mantra
यतयः शुद्ध-चेतसःyatayaḥ śuddha-cetasaḥascetics of pure consciousness
ध्यायन्ति परम-आनन्द-मयाःdhyāyanti parama-ānanda-mayāḥcontemplate, full of the highest bliss
ज्ञान-अम्बु-राशयःjñāna-ambu-rāśayaḥoceans of knowledge
Traducción
«Thus ascetics of pure consciousness, full of the highest bliss — oceans of knowledge — contemplate the one-syllable mantra».
Versión
5a5a732190a6 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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A condition is named under which the mantra works: śuddha-cetasaḥ, “with pure consciousness.”
This qualification appears constantly in books about mantras and usually slips past unnoticed, and yet it cancels half the promises such books make. It does not say “whoever repeats,” but “whoever repeats with a pure consciousness”; and the whole difference lies in these two words.
Note that this condition is not ritual. Purity here is not bathing and not fasting, but a state of consciousness: one who repeats while thinking of gain, or of harm to another, repeats with an impure one — and will not receive what is promised, however much he counts.
The Vaiṣṇava side says the same thing, and in sharper words. Repeating the name while counting on sin — “I will repeat and be purified, and then sin again” — is named by it the gravest of the ten offenses against the name; and it is said of this one that it is the single case in which the name does not act. This must be discussed again at line twenty-two, where the book promises exactly this.
A separate word deserves the phrase jñānāmburāśayaḥ, “oceans of knowledge.” Ambu-rāśi means “a mass of water,” that is, a sea. The knowers are called not “full of knowledge,” but seas themselves; and this image is fine because a sea is not filled — it gathers itself from everything that flows into it.