नारदो ब्रह्माणमुपसमेत्योवाचाधीहि भगवन् ब्रह्मविद्यां वरिष्ठां यया चिरात्सर्वपापं व्यपोह्य ब्रह्मविद्यां लब्ध्वैश्वर्यवान्भवति । ब्रह्मोवाच हयग्रीवदैवत्यान्मन्त्रान्यो वेद स श्रुतिस्मृतीतिहासपुराणानि वेद । स सर्वैश्वर्यवान्भवति । त एते मन्त्राः
nārado brahmāṇamupasametyovācādhīhi bhagavan brahmavidyāṃ variṣṭhāṃ yayā cirātsarvapāpaṃ vyapohya brahmavidyāṃ labdhvaiśvaryavānbhavati | brahmovāca hayagrīvadaivatyānmantrānyo veda sa śrutismṛtītihāsapurāṇāni veda | sa sarvaiśvaryavānbhavati | ta ete mantrāḥ
«Nārada, having approached Brahmā, said: "Teach, lord, the best knowledge of brahman, by which, having at last cast off all sin and obtained knowledge of brahman, one becomes possessed of lordship." Brahmā said: "Whoever knows the mantras whose deity is Hayagrīva knows śruti, smṛti, the itihāsas, and the purāṇas; he becomes possessed of all lordship. Here are these mantras».
5959d865ba22 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The Hayagrīva Upaniṣad begins, and it is worth first saying who Hayagrīva is, for he has not appeared in the earlier books. Hayagrīva means “horse-necked,” from haya, “horse,” and grīva, “neck”: this is the form of Viṣṇu with a horse’s head. The story of him is this. Two daityas, Madhu and Kaiṭabha, stole the Vedas from Brahmā at the beginning of creation and hid them in the waters; the Lord took this form, found them, killed the thieves, and returned the Vedas.
Hence Hayagrīva is, in this literature, the god of learning: he is invoked before beginning study, and this custom is alive to this day — especially among the Śrī-Vaiṣṇavas, where Vedānta Deśika wrote him a famous hymn. It is worth noting who asks and of whom: Nārada asks Brahmā. The pattern is usual; but note that the question concerns brahma-vidyā, “knowledge of brahman,” while the answer given is mantras.
This detail matters and determines the whole cast of this book: knowledge here is taught not through reasoning, but through a word that is repeated. Add, too, the promise with which Brahmā begins: whoever knows these mantras knows śruti, smṛti, the itihāsas, and the purāṇas. This is a strong promise, and it should not be read literally: one who repeats the mantra does not thereby memorize the purāṇas.
It should be read as the Vaiṣṇava side reads all such passages: whoever knows the source knows also what flows from it; and that watering the root nourishes the branches too (Bhāgavatam 4.31.14) was discussed reading Śāṭyāyanīya (12).