Upaniṣads · Rudrākṣajābāla 3p12
॥
Devanāgarī
तथा रक्षोघ्नं मृत्युतारकं गुरुणा लब्धं कण्ठे बाहौ शिखायां वा बध्नीत
Transliteración (IAST)
tathā rakṣoghnaṃ mṛtyutārakaṃ guruṇā labdhaṃ kaṇṭhe bāhau śikhāyāṃ vā badhnīta
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
तथा रक्षः-घ्नं मृत्यु-तारकंtathā rakṣaḥ-ghnaṃ mṛtyu-tārakaṃlikewise the demon-slaying, death-crossing [mantra]
गुरुणा लब्धंguruṇā labdhaṃreceived from a teacher
कण्ठे बाहौ शिखायां वा बध्नीतkaṇṭhe bāhau śikhāyāṃ vā badhnītaon the neck, the arm, or the lock of hair, let him bind
Traducción
Likewise, [the mantra] that slays demons and crosses over death, received from a teacher, let him bind on the neck, the arm, or the lock of hair.
Versión
93fd018180b1 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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Two words settle the matter here: guruṇā labdham, "received from a teacher." It is worth setting this beside the previous line, for together they form a completed thought. There it was said that the teacher is made by the one who knows, without distinction of birth; here, that the mantra is taken from a teacher, not from a book.
Together this yields a rule worth stating in full. Transmission is obligatory, but the one who transmits is determined not by origin but by knowledge; that is, there is a chain, but no lock of estate upon it. The Vaiṣṇava side stands on this and calls the chain paramparā, "succession." The Gītā says: "this teaching, received by succession, the sage-kings knew; with the passage of time it has here been lost" (4.2); and the phrase paramparā-prāptam, "received by succession," stands there in first place.
Why transmission is needed, when everyone has the book, is a fair question, and the answer to it should not be evasive. The book gives words; the one who transmits gives their use: he shows what in these words is essential and what incidental, and corrects where the reader is ready to deceive himself. Anyone who learned a craft from a book and then came to a master knows what this means. One can read everything; but a person who read alone will inevitably learn also what was not in the book — his own mistakes — and cannot notice them from within.
There is, however, a danger the other way too, already discussed when reading the fourteenth line of the first part. A teacher must be tested, as a seed is tested on the touchstone; and the book, having itself prescribed testing the object, has thereby given a measure for the person as well.