यथा प्रथममन्त्रोक्तावाद्यन्तौ तथा सर्वमन्त्रेषु द्रष्टव्यम् । उकारवाच्य उपेन्द्रस्वरूपो हरिनायकः 2 मकारवाच्यः शिवस्वरूपो हनुमान् 3 बिन्दुस्वरूपः शत्रुघ्नः 4 नादस्वरूपो भरतः 5 कलास्वरूपो लक्ष्मणः 6 कलातीता भगवती सीता चित्स्वरूपा 7
yathā prathamamantroktāvādyantau tathā sarvamantreṣu draṣṭavyam | ukāravācya upendrasvarūpo harināyakaḥ 2 makāravācyaḥ śivasvarūpo hanumān 3 bindusvarūpaḥ śatrughnaḥ 4 nādasvarūpo bharataḥ 5 kalāsvarūpo lakṣmaṇaḥ 6 kalātītā bhagavatī sītā citsvarūpā 7
«As the beginning and end are said in the first mantra, so it should be understood in all the mantras: 'called by the sound "u," having the form of Upendra, the chief of the monkeys' — the second; 'called by the sound "m," having the form of Śiva, Hanumān' — the third; 'having the form of the dot, Śatrughna' — the fourth; 'having the form of the resonance, Bharata' — the fifth; 'having the form of the fraction, Lakṣmaṇa' — the sixth; 'beyond the fraction, the sovereign lady Sītā, whose essence is consciousness' — the seventh».
230384db9ab9 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The line is curious in that it is not teaching but an instruction to the copyist and reciter: repeat the beginning and end on the pattern of the first mantra, and change only the middle. Such a detail is rare in the upaniṣads and deserves attention. It shows that we have before us a text that was in use: this is not how one writes for argument, but for someone who will read aloud and needs to know what to repeat.
Traces of this kind are not many in ancient books, and every one of them is valuable. It testifies not to content, but to the fact that the content was applied. The Vaiṣṇava side speaks of such marks and gives them weight. Its rule holds that a teaching is verified not by text alone, but by ācāra, "practice": by how those who transmitted it lived and what they did.
The reasoning given is simple. One can write anything; but practice is formed slowly and does not yield to forgery. Hence, on encountering in a book a trace of living use, it is trusted more than a book consisting of assertions alone.
Let us add the practical consequence for anyone reading ancient books. Lines that seem dull and merely functional — lists, repetitions, instructions like "and so on" — are in fact the most reliable part of the text: no one had reason or need to invent them.