उपनिषद् · Gaṇapati 14.2
॥
देवनागरी
सूर्यग्रहे महानद्यां प्रतिमासन्निधौ वा जप्त्वा । सिद्धमन्त्रो भवति । महाविघ्नात् प्रमुच्यते । महादोषात् प्रमुच्यते । महापापात् प्रमुच्यते
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
sūryagrahe mahānadyāṃ pratimāsannidhau vā japtvā | siddhamantro bhavati | mahāvighnāt pramucyate | mahādoṣāt pramucyate | mahāpāpāt pramucyate
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
सूर्य-ग्रहे महा-नद्यांsūrya-grahe mahā-nadyāṃat a solar eclipse, by a great river
प्रतिमा-सन्निधौ वा जप्त्वाpratimā-sannidhau vā japtvāor having repeated near an image
सिद्ध-मन्त्रः भवतिsiddha-mantraḥ bhavatibecomes one whose mantra has become potent
महा-विघ्नात् प्रमुच्यतेmahā-vighnāt pramucyateis freed from great obstruction
महा-पापात् प्रमुच्यतेmahā-pāpāt pramucyateis freed from great sin
अनुवाद
At a solar eclipse, by a great river, or having repeated near an image, he becomes one whose mantra has become potent; he is freed from great obstruction, from great wrongdoing, from great sin.
संस्करण
9f37453307eb · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Three places are named where repetition is more powerful: an eclipse, the bank of a great river, proximity to an image. The first two are the "knots" of time and place already discussed. The third — pratimā-sannidhau, "near an image" — deserves a word of its own.
Sannidhi means "proximity, co-presence"; and it is said that one should repeat in His presence. Here is revealed the very reason an image exists at all. It is not a reminder of someone absent, but a place where He is accessible to presence; and one who prays before an image prays not to something imagined, but to the one who is here.
The Vaiṣṇava side stands on this and has worked it out more thoroughly than others: arcā-avatāra, "descent into the image," is counted among the Lord's manifestations on a par with the rest; and to see in the image stone or wood is called nāraki-buddhi, "hellish understanding." It turns out, then, that even this teaching, for all its abstraction in the earlier parts, in practice rests on the co-presence of a person. Between "you are beyond the three times" and "repeat near the image" lies its whole inner tension, and the second half, to my mind, expresses more truly what it lives by.
The word siddha-mantra, "one whose mantra has become potent," denotes, in Indian terms, a definite state: the mantra is repeated until it "comes alive." This notion is common in books of this kind, and there is a true observation in it: a word repeated long enough truly ceases to be external and becomes part of a person. But there is a danger in it too, worth stating: as soon as attention shifts to the state of the one repeating, the one to whom the word is addressed recedes into the background.