Upaniṣads · Tripurā 11
॥
Devanāgarī
यद्वा मण्डलाद्वा स्तनबिंबमेकं मुखं चाधस्त्रीणि गुहा सदनानि । कामी कलां काम्यरूपां विदित्वा नरो जायते कामरूपश्च काम्यः
Transliteración (IAST)
yadvā maṇḍalādvā stanabiṃbamekaṃ mukhaṃ cādhastrīṇi guhā sadanāni | kāmī kalāṃ kāmyarūpāṃ viditvā naro jāyate kāmarūpaśca kāmyaḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
यत् वा मण्डलात् वाyat vā maṇḍalāt vāwhether from the circle
स्तन-बिम्बम् एकं मुखं चstana-bimbam ekaṃ mukhaṃ caone roundness of the breast and the face
अधः त्रीणि गुहा सदनानिadhaḥ trīṇi guhā sadanānibelow, three cave-abodes
कामी कलां काम्य-रूपां विदित्वाkāmī kalāṃ kāmya-rūpāṃ viditvāthe desiring one, having known the portion of the desired form
नरः जायते काम-रूपः च काम्यःnaraḥ jāyate kāma-rūpaḥ ca kāmyaḥa person becomes of desired form and desirable
Traducción
«Whether from the circle: one roundness of the breast and the face, below, three cave-abodes. The one who desires, having known the portion of the desired form, a person becomes of desired form and desirable».
Versión
88201502f025 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The kāma-kalā, the “portion of desire,” is described — a diagram of three points, read as a woman’s face and body: a point above — the face, two below — the breasts and the womb. This design was mentioned reading Tripurātāpinī (15), where it was also said that this subject belongs to initiation.
No shame is called for in reading it, and no evasiveness either. This book is ancient and speaks of the bodily directly, because it sees nothing shameful in it; and our predecessors were freer in this than we are.
What is worth speaking of is something else — what is promised: naraḥ jāyate kāma-rūpaḥ ca kāmyaḥ, “a person becomes of desired form and desirable.”
This promise, on reflection, is not about power. It does not say that the knower will seize, subdue, or obtain; it says that he becomes desirable. That is, the change happens to him, not to others.
This distinction is worth holding onto, for it separates such passages from the love-charms examined reading Tripurātāpinī (74). There a mantra changed another’s will; here — one’s own form. The first is a kind of coercion, the second is not; and the rule is simple: whatever one does to oneself may be discussed, and whatever is done to another without their knowledge is wrong.
Worth adding that the word kalā, “portion, part,” here means not the whole but precisely a part: what is known is not desire entire, but its portion. The ancient verses are more cautious in their promises than the later ones.