उपनिषद् · Gaṇapati 7.1
॥
देवनागरी
गणादिं पूर्वमुच्चार्य वर्णादिंस्तदनन्तरम् । अनुस्वारः परतरः । अर्धेन्दुलसितम् । तारेण ऋद्धम् । एतत्तव मनुस्वरूपम्
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
gaṇādiṃ pūrvamuccārya varṇādiṃstadanantaram | anusvāraḥ parataraḥ | ardhendulasitam | tāreṇa ṛddham | etattava manusvarūpam
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
गण-आदिं पूर्वम् उच्चार्यgaṇa-ādiṃ pūrvam uccāryahaving first uttered the initial 'ga'
वर्ण-आदीन् तत्-अनन्तरम्varṇa-ādīn tat-anantaramthe initial sound, right after that
अनुस्वारः परतरःanusvāraḥ parataraḥthe anusvāra, further
अर्ध-इन्दु-लसितम्ardha-indu-lasitamadorned with the half-moon
एतत् तव मनु-स्वरूपम्etat tava manu-svarūpamthis is the form of your mantra
अनुवाद
Having first uttered the initial 'ga,' the initial sound right after that; the anusvāra further; adorned with the half-moon, crowned with the praṇava. This is the form of your mantra.
संस्करण
563c7e2fca73 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The analysis of the mantra begins, and the analysis is deliberately cryptic: the syllable is not named directly but described piece by piece, as in a riddle. Let us assemble it from the clues. "The beginning of the word gaṇa" — that is ga. "The beginning of the sounds" — that is a, the first letter of the alphabet. Anusvāra — the nasal echo m. The half-moon and dot — superscript marks depicting the same nasal echo. Tāreṇa ṛddham, "crowned with the praṇava" — oṃ is placed in front.
The result is oṃ gaṃ; and at the end of the seventh part this will be stated openly: oṃ gaṃ gaṇapataye namaḥ. Why say in riddles what will be named plainly five lines later is a fair question, and the answer is not single. The outward reason is that this is how such things were written. A riddling description of the syllable is a respected device in Sanskrit literature, and we met it in the Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī, where the mantra too was given as a riddle.
The substantial reason lies in the structure of transmission. As long as the syllable is not named directly, the reader cannot piece it together on his own; he needs someone to tell him. The riddle is thus a device forcing living transmission.
The Vaiṣṇava side says the same about the necessity of transmission, and paramparā was already discussed when reading the Rudrākṣa-jābāla. But the device of riddling, it must be noted, is almost absent in it: its main mantra — hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa — is written openly everywhere, and the Bhāgavatam directly commands its dissemination. This difference is not accidental and deserves a name. A teaching that considers itself the property of the initiated hides its word; a teaching that considers itself a message prints its word. And which way is chosen says more about the teaching than any of its arguments about itself.