धनुर्बाणधारिणीं वाग्विजृम्भिणीं चन्द्रमण्डलमध्यवर्तिनीं चन्द्रकलां सप्तदशीं महानित्योपस्थितां पाशाङ्कुशमनोज्ञ पाणिपल्लवां समुद्यदर्कनिभां त्रिनेत्रां विचिन्त्य देवीं महालक्ष्मीं सर्वलक्ष्मीमयीं सर्वलक्षणसंपन्नां हृदये चैतन्यरूपिणीं निरञ्जनां त्रिकूटाख्यां स्मितमुखीं सुन्दरीं महामायां सर्वसुभगां महाकुण्डलिनीं त्रिपीठमध्यवर्तिनीमकथादिश्रीपीठे परां भैरवीं चित्कलां महात्रिपुरां देवीं ध्यायेन्महाध्यान योगेनेयमेवं वेदेति महोपनिषत् ॥ इति प्रथमोपनिषत् ॥ 1
dhanurbāṇadhāriṇīṃ vāgvijṛmbhiṇīṃ candramaṇḍalamadhyavartinīṃ candrakalāṃ saptadaśīṃ mahānityopasthitāṃ pāśāṅkuśamanojña pāṇipallavāṃ samudyadarkanibhāṃ trinetrāṃ vicintya devīṃ mahālakṣmīṃ sarvalakṣmīmayīṃ sarvalakṣaṇasaṃpannāṃ hṛdaye caitanyarūpiṇīṃ nirañjanāṃ trikūṭākhyāṃ smitamukhīṃ sundarīṃ mahāmāyāṃ sarvasubhagāṃ mahākuṇḍalinīṃ tripīṭhamadhyavartinīmakathādiśrīpīṭhe parāṃ bhairavīṃ citkalāṃ mahātripurāṃ devīṃ dhyāyenmahādhyāna yogeneyamevaṃ vedeti mahopaniṣat || iti prathamopaniṣat || 1
«Holding bow and arrows, unfolding speech, dwelling in the middle of the lunar disc, the seventeenth digit of the moon… with noose and goad in lovely hand-shoots, resembling the rising sun, three-eyed… smiling, beautiful, the great māyā, …let one contemplate Citkalā, the great Tripurā-Goddess — so the great upaniṣad explains. Such is the first upaniṣad».
ce8f0912bc09 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The first part ends with a description of the form, and this description refutes all the abstraction of the preceding lines. Named are bow and arrows; the lunar disc; noose and goad in her hands; hands called pāṇi-pallava, «hand-shoots», that is, tender as young leaves; the color of the rising sun; three eyes; a smile. This last is the chief thing. Smita-mukhī, «with a smiling face», and beside it sundarī, «beautiful»: nothing abstract — a form is described that has an expression on its face.
This is worth returning to every time a book of this kind speaks of what is beyond the Fourth. Having said everything that can be said by negations, it at once bids one contemplate — and contemplate not emptiness, but a face with a smile. The argument here is not brought in from outside, but is the book's own: one can only contemplate something that has a form, and so in every book that bids one contemplate, the negations sooner or later end and description begins.
The four objects in her hands — bow, arrows, noose, goad — are the implements of a catcher: the arrow strikes, the noose catches, the goad guides an elephant. Strange as it may seem, this is consoling: they are held by the one who catches us, not by one from whom we must flee.