उपनिषद् · Tārasāra 3.12
॥
देवनागरी
श्रीमन्नारायणाष्टाक्षरानुस्मरणेन गायत्र्याः शतसहस्रं जप्तं भवति । प्रणवानामयुतं जप्तं भवति । दशपूर्वान्दशोत्तरान्पुनाति । नारायणपदमवाप्नोति य एवं वेद
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
śrīmannārāyaṇāṣṭākṣarānusmaraṇena gāyatryāḥ śatasahasraṃ japtaṃ bhavati | praṇavānāmayutaṃ japtaṃ bhavati | daśapūrvāndaśottarānpunāti | nārāyaṇapadamavāpnoti ya evaṃ veda
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
श्रीमत्-नारायण-अष्ट-अक्षर-अनुस्मरणेनśrīmat-nārāyaṇa-aṣṭa-akṣara-anusmaraṇenaby remembrance of Nārāyaṇa's eight-syllabled [mantra]
गायत्र्याः शत-सहस्रं जप्तं भवतिgāyatryāḥ śata-sahasraṃ japtaṃ bhavatia hundred thousand repetitions of the gāyatrī are [thereby] accomplished
दश-पूर्वान् दश-उत्तरान् पुनातिdaśa-pūrvān daśa-uttarān punātihe purifies ten generations before and ten after
नारायण-पदम् अवाप्नोतिnārāyaṇa-padam avāpnotiattains the state of Nārāyaṇa
अनुवाद
«By remembrance of Nārāyaṇa's eight-syllabled [mantra], a hundred thousand repetitions of the gāyatrī are accomplished; ten thousand repetitions of the praṇava are accomplished. He purifies ten generations before and ten after, and attains the state of Nārāyaṇa — whoever knows thus».
संस्करण
7d08073396f9 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
Here is the promise for whose sake it was worth reading to the end: daśa-pūrvān daśottarān punāti, "purifies ten generations before and ten after." That is, a person who takes this up purifies his lineage in both directions: ten generations of ancestors and ten of descendants. It is worth examining what is asserted here, for the assertion is strong.
It asserts that a person is not alone: he is bound to his own, and what happens to him happens to them too. We met the reverse phrasing in the Bhasma-jābāla (2.69), where one who defiled a shrine thereby "sprinkled his ancestors" with filth; and it was said there that both phrasings rest on one and the same conviction — a person draws his own after him — only one says he draws them down, and the other, up. Here it is said upward, and this matters, for no threat is used here.
The Vaiṣṇava side holds this position and states it in a verse it cites more often than most: "one whose voice breaks, whose heart melts, who weeps often — purifies his lineage" (Bhāgavatam 11.14.24). It is worth noting that there the purification of the lineage is made a consequence not of ritual and not of knowledge, but of marks of feeling: a breaking voice and tears. Let us add what follows from this in ordinary life, and what makes the promise not empty. A person genuinely changed also changes his own: the household lives alongside him, and what occupies him reaches them without any preaching at all.
Hence ten generations forward is not an exaggeration in the sense that a hundred million cows would be an exaggeration. Here something that truly happens is spoken of — only spoken of in a number.