स होवाच प्रजापतिर्माया वा एषा नारसिंही सर्वमिदं सृजति सर्वमिदं रक्षति सर्वमिदं संहरति । तस्मान्मायामेतां शक्तिं विद्याद्य एतां मायां शक्तिं वेद स पाप्मानं तरति स मृत्युं तरति स संसारं तरति सोऽमृतत्वं च गच्छति महतीं श्रियमश्नुते
sa hovāca prajāpatirmāyā vā eṣā nārasiṃhī sarvamidaṃ sṛjati sarvamidaṃ rakṣati sarvamidaṃ saṃharati | tasmānmāyāmetāṃ śaktiṃ vidyādya etāṃ māyāṃ śaktiṃ veda sa pāpmānaṃ tarati sa mṛtyuṃ tarati sa saṃsāraṃ tarati so'mṛtatvaṃ ca gacchati mahatīṃ śriyamaśnute
Prajāpati said: “This māyā of Nṛsiṃha creates all this, guards all this and withdraws all this. Therefore let him know this māyā as the power; and who knows this māyā-power crosses over sin, crosses over death, crosses over the round, attains immortality and obtains great prosperity.”
3203705392c3 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 4:39:50 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The answer to the first question: the mantra's power is māyā, and moreover nārasiṁhī — “Nṛsiṃha's”, belonging to Him.
This word must be read here not as the modern reader is used to.
Māyā in later Vedānta often means “illusion, glamour”, and then its task is to vanish. Here it does three works: creates, guards and withdraws.
These three works are the very ones by which the Brahma-sūtra defines Brahman. So māyā here is no hindrance to being but its arrangement; not what veils, but that by which things are made.
We read the same in the Śvetāśvatara: “māyā is prakṛti, and the wielder of māyā is Maheśvara”. And in the fifth verse of the Māntrikā: the cow is beginningless — but vibhoḥ, “the Lord's”.
The possessive decides everything here. Māyā nārasiṁhī — His māyā; the power is not on its own and not against Him.
Note the fruits: the crossing over sin, death and the round — and at once mahatīṁ śriyam, “great prosperity”.
Again the book sets liberation and welfare side by side, as it did in the sixth paragraph of the first Upaniṣad. It does not think it needful to pretend the second is shameful.