उपनिषद् · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 1
॥
देवनागरी
एकदा हि व्रजस्त्रियः सकामाः शर्वरीमुषित्वा
सर्वेश्वरं गोपालं कृष्णम् हि ता ऊचिरे
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
ekadā hi vrajastriyaḥ sakāmāḥ śarvarīmuṣitvā
sarveśvaraṁ gopālaṁ kṛṣṇam hi tā ūcire
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
एकदा हिekadā hionce; on a certain occasion
व्रजस्त्रियःvrajastriyaḥthe women of Vraja; the cowherd women
सकामाःsakāmāḥfull of love; moved by desire
शर्वरीम् उषित्वाśarvarīm uṣitvāhaving spent the night; having passed the night
सर्वेश्वरम्sarveśvaramthe Lord of all; the master of everything
गोपालम् कृष्णम्gopālam kṛṣṇamGopāla Kṛṣṇa; the cowherd Kṛṣṇa
हि ताः ऊचिरेhi tāḥ ūcirethey addressed; they spoke to Him
अनुवाद
Once the women of Vraja, full of love, having spent the night with Him, addressed the Lord of all — the cowherd Kṛṣṇa.
संस्करण
cba6cc05097f · प्रकाशित 28 जुल॰ 2026, 2:30:24 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The book's second half begins quite unlike the first. There were the questions of sages and the answers of the creator; here it is early morning in Vraja and a conversation of the cowherd women with Kṛṣṇa.
Two namings are set side by side at once: sarveśvara, "Lord of all", and gopāla, "cowherd". The neighbourhood is no slip: He who spent the night dancing with village women is called the Lord of the universe. The Uttara-tāpanī will unfold this doubleness to the end — as far as the question, "how then was He, the highest, born on earth?"
The word sakāmāḥ, "full of love", usually means "desiring"; the commentators explain that this desire is directed to Kṛṣṇa alone and is therefore not self-interest. In the first part of the book bhakti was defined as "the setting of the mind on Him with no hope for what is here or hereafter" — here the same thing is shown not by definition but by a scene.
Note too that the questioners are women. In the Upaniṣads this is not the first instance — Gārgī questions Yājñavalkya, Maitreyī receives the highest teaching — but here the questioners are many, and the teaching will be given to them all.
Tradition names the chief among them as Gāndharvī; her name will sound in mantra 12.