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Subject Area: Religion

KALISANṬĀRAṆA UPANISHAḌ 1 OF KṚSHA-YAJURVEḌA - Misc (Upanishads), Thirty Minor Upanishads [1914]

Edition used:

Thirty Minor Upanishads, trans. K. Narayanasvami Aiyar (Madras: Printed by Annie Besant at the Vasanta Press, 1914).

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KALISANṬĀRAṆA UPANISHAḌ1 OF KṚSHA-YAJURVEḌA

At the end of Ḍvāpara yuga, Nāraḍa2 went to Brahmā and addressed him thus: “O Lord, how shall I, roaming3 over the earth, be able to cross Kali?” To which Brahmā thus replied: “Well asked. Hearken to that which all Śruṭis (the Veḍas) keep secret and hidden, through which one may cross the samsāra (mundane existence) of Kali. He shakes off (the evil effects of) Kali through the mere uttering of the name of the Lord Nārāyaṇa, who is the primeval Purusha.” Again Nāraḍa asked Brahmā: “What is the name?” To which Hiraṇyagarbha (Brahmā) replied thus: (the words are:) “1. Harē, 2. Rāma, 3. Harē, 4. Ramā, 5. Rāma, 6. Rāma, 7. Harē, 8. Harē; 9. Harē 10. Kṛshṇa, 11. Harē, 12. Kṛshṇa, 13. Kṛshṇa, 14. Kṛshṇa 15. Harē, 16. Harē. These sixteen names (words) are destructive of the evil effects of Kali. No better means than this is to be seen in all the Veḍas. These (sixteen names) destroy the āvaraṇa (or the centripetal force which produces the sense of individuality) of jīva surrounded by the sixteen kalās (rays). Then like the sphere of the sun which shines fully after the clouds (screening it) disperse, Parabrahman (alone) shines.”

Nāraḍa asked: “O Lord, what are the rules to be observed with reference to it?” To which Brahmā replied that there were no rules for it. Whoever in a pure or an impure state, utters these always, attains the same world of, or proximity with, or the same form of, or absorption into Brahmā.

Whoever utters three and a half kotis1 (or thirty-five millions) times this manṭra composed of sixteen names (or words) crosses the sin of the murder of a Brāhmaṇa. He becomes purified from the sin of the theft of gold. He becomes purified from the sin of cohabitation with a woman of low caste. He is purified from the sins of wrong done to piṭṛs, ḍevas, and men. Having given up all ḍharmas, he becomes freed at once from all sins. He is at once released from all bondage. That he is at once released from all bondage is the Upanishaḍ.

IV

SANNYASA-UPANISHADS

[1 ]This Upanishad treats of the means of crossing Kali completely: Nāraḍa having asked the question in Ḍvāpara yuga—the third of the four yugas.

[2 ]Nārada is called Kali-Kāraka or the generator of kali or strife and discord. If Nārada is himself the strife-maker, why should he go to Brahmā for the means of crossing Kali? Nārada being himself an adjuster of the laws of karma, this Upanishad gives the means of getting over strife, etc., in this Kaliage when the whole of nature is thrown off its balance by the depraved tendencies of men. The jīva has sixteen kalās, corresponding to which sixteen manṭras or words are given.

[3 ]The story is that he was cursed by Ḍaksha to roam over the worlds with a lute in his hand (viz., to adjust the laws of harmony).

[1 ]This number can be reached by uttering the mantra completely within one year if uttered at the rate of a lakh per day: and within ten years if uttered at the rate of 10,000 per day; and within 100 years if uttered at the rate of 1,000 per diem.