Upaniṣads · Rudrākṣajābāla 1.5
॥
Devanāgarī
तस्य कोटिशतं पुण्यं लभते धारणान्नरः । लक्षकोटिसहस्राणि लक्षकोटिशतानि च
Transliteración (IAST)
tasya koṭiśataṃ puṇyaṃ labhate dhāraṇānnaraḥ | lakṣakoṭisahasrāṇi lakṣakoṭiśatāni ca
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
तस्य कोटि-शतं पुण्यंtasya koṭi-śataṃ puṇyaṃof that, a hundred koṭi of merit
लभते धारणात् नरःlabhate dhāraṇāt naraḥa man obtains from wearing
लक्ष-कोटि-सहस्राणिlakṣa-koṭi-sahasrāṇithousands of hundred-thousand koṭi
लक्ष-कोटि-शतानि चlakṣa-koṭi-śatāni caand hundreds of hundred-thousand koṭi
Traducción
A man obtains a hundred koṭi of that merit from wearing; thousands of hundred-thousand koṭi, and hundreds of hundred-thousand koṭi —
Versión
f0da5c06f8aa · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The numbers have passed every measure and begun to pile up: "hundreds of hundred-thousand koṭi" is no longer a number but a sound. It is worth taking this as a verbal device, not as arithmetic. Such heaping is done for the impression of overflow: the listener is made to feel that measure has ended and there is nothing left to say.
The device works, and in antiquity it worked more strongly than now. We are used to large numbers — billions and trillions turn up in the newspaper; but for one whose whole herd was counted in tens, "a hundred koṭi" sounded like a landslide. The Vaiṣṇava side, at this very point, makes a qualification worth mentioning, and makes it sharply. The Bhāgavatam speaks through Prahlāda's mouth: "I need neither blessings nor heaven; I have seen that even Brahmā comes to an end" (7.9.24–25); and the whole sense of his speech is that the size of the reward changes nothing, if it is finite.
This argument, to my mind, settles the dispute over numbers once and for all. Between a hundred and a hundred koṭi the difference is enormous; between any number and infinity, none at all; and so one who seeks the unreturning does not look at quantity at all.